Sad news folks. I was under the impression that Marriott had a no "shark fin soup" policy. They do not. They have a no "shark fin soup on the menu policy" Today I received this email from Ms. Mari L. Snyder VP Social Responsibility in response to an email that I sent a few weeks ago to the corporate offices via Arne Sorenson Marriott CEO. I verified in a followup email that this is Marriott's policy.

While removing the soup from the menu could be considered a good step forward it is not. When a major corporation like Disney makes a decision not to have it at all some 8 years ago others, including the world wide hotel industry should have taken notice. Seems some have not.


Dear Mr. FlyingUnderTheRadar,

Arne Sorenson forwarded your email and asked me to look into this. We have contacted our hotels in question and reiterated our policy to all hotels in the region.

Our policy is that we do not offer shark’s fin on restaurant and catering menus, we do not promote shark’s fin, and shark’s fin is only served when demanded by a customer after suggesting another soup or dish.

The Kuala Lumpur’s menu found on the website is outdated from 2010; this is an old menu, dated prior to our policy on shark fin. It was an overlooked page on the website; it’s in the process of being removed. In fact, our website team has gotten to some, not all pages that you have referenced since we contacted them last week but I’ve been told that this work will be completed within the next day or two.

We contacted the Singapore Marriott to reinforce our policy on shark fin. They are removing it from the website and reprinting the menus. We have a few hotels that have been slower to change. Singapore is a market that continues to have great consumer demand, whereas we see that China’s austerity measures and awareness campaigns have started to have a positive impact.

Thank you for your feedback and we hope you will continue to stay with us,

Mari L. Snyder

Mari L. Snyder
VP Social Responsibility & Community Engagement
Marriott International, Inc.
10400 Fernwood Road, 52/977.71
Bethesda, MD 20817
301-380-2037 phone
301-380-2843 fax
[email protected]