Page 29 - The New Gold Standard

The Ritz-Carlton Experience
Leisure magazines. Travel industry expert Jim Strong, CTC,
ACC, president of Strong Travel Services Inc. in Dallas, Texas,
and author of the book Craving for Travel, says, “I think the sig-
nificance of Ritz-Carlton in the overall market is that they have
raised the bar. They continually put the competition on notice
that they are out there and are going to perform the best they
can, above and beyond what the competition is doing and that
they are always going to be a leader in the industry.”
On top of winning accolades for individual hotel properties,
Ritz-Carlton has received countless forms of recognition, in-
cluding being ranked highest in guest satisfaction for luxury ho-
tels in the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 North America Hotel
Guest Satisfaction Study; a Consumer Reports designation as the
No. 1 luxury hotel company in all areas, including service, up-
keep, problem resolution, and value; and the distinction of be-
ing the Luxury Institute’s Most Prestigious Luxury Brand.
Routinely, Ritz-Carlton ranks as one of Fortune magazine’s Best
Service Providers. It has also been ranked highest in customer
satisfaction among luxury hotels in the Market Metrix Hospi-
tality Index (MMHI), and, in publications like Travel Weekly, it
repeatedly wins reader polls as best luxury or upscale hotel. Culi-
nary awards such as the Mobil Five-Star and AAA Five Diamond
recognitions for such restaurants as The Dining Room at The
Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, in Atlanta are far too numerous to
mention.
What started as a simple commitment to share best practices
in developing a “world-class” quality organization (a condition
of winning the Malcolm Baldrige Award) has turned into a full-
service leadership and corporate training arm of Ritz-Carlton,
named the Leadership Center. Approximately 50,000 individ-
uals representing companies throughout the world have partic-
ipated in leadership training since the inception of the program
in 1999. Among notable competition, the Ritz-Carlton Leader-
ship Center was named the best global training company in the
February 2007 issue of Training Magazine.

9