Takin' Off the Ritz - a Tad.

By Peter Sanders
Monday, 17th July 2006

Chain relaxes service "rules" to rely on workers' judgment; no more escorts to restroom

For more than two decades - every "lady and gentleman" patrolling a Ritz-Carlton hotel -- whether on the Bosphorus or the Kapalua beaches -- was secure in the knowledge that they carried in their breast pockets the exact instructions to pamper any guest.

There, laminated between two pieces of plastic, were the 20 rules dubbed the "Ritz-Carlton Basics": Never say "Hello" to a guest; always opt for a more formal greeting like "Good Morning." Never give directions to the restroom; always escort the guest right to the door. And, never, under any circumstances, let a guest carry his own luggage.

This week, all that changes. The name that has defined luxury as a cross between formal elegance and unwavering service bordering on the robotic is scaling back the 20 rules to 12 "service values" and asking employees to think for themselves.

"It's all about staying relevant in a space that has changed dramatically in the last 20 years," says Simon Cooper, Ritz's president and chief operating officer. "Ritz-Carlton has the best and most recognized luxury brand names in the world, and we need to focus on 'relevant luxury.' "

Ritz is struggling with an idea that is confronting many high-end hoteliers: how to define luxury in a crowded and evolving market. No longer is the typical luxury-hotel guest a middle-age male business traveler, or a wealthy jet-setter of a certain age. These days, the 30-year-old in a T-shirt and jeans fiddling with his BlackBerry in the lobby could be worth millions.

So while Ritz's motto has long been "Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen," it is coming to grips with the idea that some luxury travelers don't necessarily want to be addressed that way.

"The notion of what our parents wanted in terms of luxury and formality is different from what today's generation wants," says Cathy Enz, professor of strategy at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. "As times change, so does the expectation for the luxury guest who has more choices than ever."

With change, though, comes the risk of alienating loyal guests like Debbie Baumgart, who recently spent time at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Fla. The 51-year-old travel agent from Cleveland thinks "more is always better than less," when it comes to service. "You're paying a lot of money when you're there," she says, "so I am always happy to be catered to and expect a higher caliber of service from the employees than if you were staying somewhere either cheaper or more hip."

For Ritz-Carlton, the key to pleasing travelers is delivering top-drawer service without being so dogmatic about what that means. "In the past we would help a guest with their luggage 100% of the time," says Rainer Burkle, general manager at the Ritz in Berlin and a 15-year employee. "These days, most business travelers don't want us to touch their bags, but our current rules tell our employees they have to."

Though folksy language by employees is still forbidden, the oft-heard catchphrase "Certainly, my pleasure" will be discouraged -- replaced instead by more natural responses depending on the particular situation.

The shift is crucial for Ritz, a wholly owned subsidiary of lodging giant Marriott International Inc. Company officials acknowledge that it needs to reposition itself vis-à-vis archrival Four Seasons Hotel Co., which seems to be edging out the Ritz in the hipster zeitgeist of late, even though formal surveys still place Ritz-Carlton at or near the top of the sector.

Ritz-Carlton officials dispute any suggestion that the brand has lost its luster. "We don't agree with that perception and don't think that's what our customers believe or that the survey results and data bear that out," says Bruce Himelstein, senior vice president of sales and marketing.

While the luxury segment represents only a small fraction of the world's hotel rooms, the sector helped drive the booming hotel engine last year. Luxury hotels reported a 3.5% increase in occupancy over 2004. More surprising: PKF Consulting estimates the average nightly rate at a luxury hotel in the U.S. in 2005 was $283.35 -- a nearly 7% increase from 2000, which was a record year in the travel industry. Revenue per available room at luxury hotels -- a key industry indicator -- was up 11.4% from 2004 to $201.98.

For Ritz-Carlton, which began its modern incarnation by carving its niche in the highest end of the hotel industry with one hotel in Atlanta in 1983, the change goes to the very core of what the company is. Every weekday at 9:05 a.m., roughly 75 corporate "ladies and gentlemen" gather in the eighth-floor lobby of a suburban office building here for the company's daily "Lineup." Inspirational quotations are read aloud ("It's beauty that captures your attention; personality which captures your heart." -- Anonymous); visitors and guests in the room are introduced; and an employee recites one of the new 12 service values (until this week, it had been one of the 20 basic rules). The same ritual is played out at the beginning of each shift in every department for all 32,000 employees at the company's 61 hotels.

The changes were received with some grumbles when presented to the company's general managers at a meeting in Barcelona earlier this year. There were worries expressed about ruining the company's high standards and reputation, according to people who were there.

"Our reputation for service is our Holy Grail, and we didn't want to mess with that," says Ed Staros, who oversees two Ritz resorts in Naples, Fla., and is one of the founding partners of the company. "I was also concerned we would implement these changes in a way that one hotel would be following different rules than another and that would send mixed messages to our guests."

His concerns, however, were allayed when it was decided that the policies would be phased in over the course of no longer than 10 days.

The change comes as Ritz-Carlton has developed a large portion of its business catering to corporate meetings and group events. "The broader spectrum of traveler they're now accommodating may not have the appreciation of that highest level of service," says Mark Woodworth, of PKF Hospitality Research in Atlanta.

Keith Hanks, who often stays at Ritz-Carltons when attending work-related functions, sums up the problem facing the push for a more-relaxed luxury. The 54-year-old manager of a Toyota dealership in Metairie, La., stayed at one of the company's urban hotels in Chicago this spring and then spent the following week at one of its resorts in St. Thomas. "In St. Thomas you really felt like when they said 'my pleasure,' the staff really meant it," he says. "Everywhere else, it felt like they were reading from a cheat sheet in their pocket."

He wouldn't mind seeing the "laid-back attitude" he encountered in the islands translated to other Ritz-Carlton hotels -- as long as the quality of service doesn't suffer.

This article found at:
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=1468