This article is about the hotel brand Ritz-Carlton Hotels, for other uses please see Ritz

The Ritz-Carlton is a brand of luxury hotel and resort with 70 properties located in major cities and resorts in 23 countries worldwide.It is also has major service training operations in its Ritz-Carlton Learning Institute and Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, created by Ritz-Carlton executive (emeritus) Leonardo Inghilleri, where nearly 50,000 executives from other companies worldwide have been trained in the Ritz-Carlton principles of service.

While the name Ritz-Carlton dates back to the Ritz in Paris and the Carlton in London, the modern-day Ritz-Carlton was created when a four-person development team, headed by hotelier Horst Schulze, assembled in Atlanta Georgia to create the Ritz-Carlton concept using funder William B. Johnson's newly-acquired rights to the Ritz-Carlton name.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Marriott International. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has currently 32,000 employees. The Ritz-Carlton headquarters are found in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a community along the border of Washington, D.C..

History

The first Ritz-Carlton Hotel was built in Boston in 1927. (The original building was recently sold to Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces.) The New York Ritz-Carlton was located at Forty-sixth and Madison Avenue. From 1910 Louis Diat ran the kitchens and "famously invented vichyssoise".

Developer William B. Johnson acquired the rights to the famous Ritz-Carlton name in the early 1980s and assembled a four person development team in Atlanta, headed by hotelier Horst Schulze, to create the Ritz-Carlton concept.

Schulze instituted a company-wide concentration on both the personal and the data-driven sides of service: He coined the company's well-known customer/employee-centered credo, "We are Ladies and Gentleman Serving Ladies and Gentlemen" and the set of specific service standards on which Ritz-Carlton employees base service through the present day. Under his leadership the hotels earned an unprecedented two Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards and grew from four to forty U.S. locations. In 1996 Schulze's group sold a 49-percent stake in The Ritz-Carlton to Marriott, and in 2000 the hotel company became wholly owned by Marriott International when Schulze left with other executives including Robert A. Warman, Leonardo Inghilleri, Peter Schoch and others to create the West Paces Hotel Group, purveyors of the Capella and Solís hotel imprints. At that time, Canadian Simon Cooper became the newly-appointed President and COO, titles he retains to this day.

Ritz-Carlton offers fractional residences around the United States under the name Ritz-Carlton Club. Properties include Aspen Highlands and Bachelor Gulch in Colorado, St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, San Francisco, CA and Jupiter, FL.

Highest hotel in the world

Ritz-Carlton will occupy the top 15 floors of the International Commerce Centre in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The hotel's lobby is at 425 meters (1,394.9 feet) above the ground, becoming the highest hotel in the world when completed, surpassing the Park Hyatt Hotel in the Shanghai World Financial Center in Shanghai, China.

Awards

The Ritz-Carlton has been featured on Zagat Survey Top Lists for dining, hotels and service. The Dallas, TX and Wolfsburg Germany locations both received top honors from Zagat in 2009, including Top Large Hotel for the Dallas location.

The Ritz-Carlton is the only company to ever win two Malcolm Baldridge Quality Awards (1992 and 1999).

The Ritz-Carlton's President and COO Horst Schulze was recognized for the Ritz-Carlton's contributions during his tenure with Corporate Hotelier of the World Ishikawa Medal for contributions to the Quality movement.

Other Accomplishments

The Ritz-Carlton is notable for attempting to share its knowledge of quality as it applies to service. Initially this was done at the request of the Baldrige committee,but The Ritz-Carlton ultimately took it up as central to its mission, through the creation of The Ritz-Carlton Learning Institute and The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, created by then-Ritz-Carlton executive Leonardo Inghilleri, an architect of the Ritz's unequalled winning of a second Baldrige award, where executives from other companies worldwide in many disciplines come to learn Ritz-Carlton principles of service.

2009 Bombing

On Friday 17 July 2009 at 07:47 a.m Jakarta time, a bomb exploded in the The Ritz-Carlton Mega Kuningan, Jakarta, Indonesia which destroyed the first floor of the hotel. The explosion occurred 2 minutes after the explosion at the nearby J.W. Marriott. The hotel was going to accommodate the Manchester United football club on a visit to Indonesia for their Asia Tour, but the visit canceled due to the bombing. Nine people including two suicide bombers were killed.

Unusual Facts

The Ritz-Carlton hotel at Water Tower Place in Chicago is actually a Four Seasons-managed property, due to the prior sale of the Ritz-Carlton name for this particular location prior to the creation of the Atlanta group, and the engagement of Four Seasons by the property owner.

Notable properties

• The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore
• The Ritz Carlton Pacific Place, Jakarta, Indonesia

References

1. Refer to http://corporate.ritzcarlton.com/en/Press/FactSheet.htm
2. http://www.masterconnection.com/thelearninginstitute.asp
3. The New Gold Standard, Joseph A. Michelli, McGraw Hill
4. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n4_v31/ai_19086510/?tag=content;col1
5. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_2000/ai_n19122972
6. Kamp, David The United States of Arugula, New York: Broadway Books, 2006.
7. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_2000/ai_n19122972/
8. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n4_v31/ai_19086510/?tag=content;col1
9. http://www.americanwaymag.com/horst-schulze-capella-sol%C3%ADs-hotels-resorts-west-paces-hotel-group
10. http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/bald99/ritz.htm
11. The New Gold Standard, Joseph A. Michelli, McGraw Hill p. 6, 2008
12. The New Gold Standard, Joseph A. Michelli, McGraw Hill p. 6, 2008
13. The New Gold Standard, Joseph A. Michelli, McGraw Hill p. 6, 2008
14. http://www.americanwaymag.com/horst-schulze-capella-sol%C3%ADs-hotels-resorts-west-paces-hotel-group
15. http://www.capellahotels.com/
16. http://www.solishotels.com/
17. http://www.westpaceshotels.com/home.htm
18. https://m360.gampi.org/ViewEvent.aspx?id=1089&instance=0
19. http://www.masterconnection.com/thelearninginstitute.asp
20. http://www.masterconnection.com/thelearninginstitute.asp

External links

• Ritz-Carlton Hotel Official Website