Ritz-Carlton

The name Ritz-Carlton traces back to Swiss hotelier Cesar Ritz, a man known as the king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings. Born in 1850 as the youngest of thirteen children in a farming family, Ritz redefined European luxury hospitality through his management of The Ritz in Paris and the Carlton Hotel in London. The first American Ritz-Carlton opened in Boston in 1927, hosting guests like Cole Porter and Winston Churchill. But the modern company took shape in August 1983, when businessman William B. Johnson acquired the brand name and the Boston hotel. Within two years, the portfolio tripled to include properties in Buckhead, Atlanta; Laguna Niguel; and Naples. By 1992, the chain counted 23 hotels.

That same year, the company earned its first Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, recognition for a service philosophy built on what the brand calls its Gold Standards. The Credo, the Motto, the Three Steps of Service, and the Service Values form a codified system that every employee follows. More than 85 percent of staff are front-line workers, and the company measures customer engagement by calling 33 individual guests from each hotel every month using the Gallup CE11 survey. Properties performing at the 98th to 99th percentile in Gallup's global database are designated green zone hotels.

Marriott International jointly acquired the company in 1995 and became full owner in 1998, the same year sales reached nearly $1.5 billion. Today the brand operates 108 luxury hotels and resorts across 30 countries, with 29,158 rooms and 46 more properties in development. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Ritz-Carlton has expanded into yachts since 2021 and runs the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, which teaches its service philosophy to outside organizations. [edit]