The Ritz- Carlton Hotel Company

Akanksha Kalra
MBA 513

ABSTRACT
The HR functions of Ritz Carlton hotel are analyzed in this case. The Ritz-Carlton hotel chain is
famous for its excellent service and for providing customers with the experience of a lifetime.
Sucher describes techniques used by the company to train employees with its special service
philosophy. New employees are chosen for their particular qualities including a willingness to
serve others, drive and enthusiasm, and an optimistic attitude. Each employee always carries a
fold-out card, covering the companys Gold Standards an array of service principles. Training
sets about bringing these principles to life and giving them meaning and the 7 day countdown
procedure use to train new employees.
ABOUT RITZ CARLTON
James McBride is the general manager of the new Ritz -Carlton Hotel in Washington Dc .He
is a proven expert of luxury hotel chains across Asia. The Ritz Carlton in Kala Lampur,
won the title of the Best hotel in Asia Pacific and for two consecutive year Best Business
Hotel in Malaysia is his recent achievements.
For the first time Ritz Carlton was opening a hotel that was a part of multiuse facility
owned by Millennium Partners located in Washington DC. RitzCarlton company had also
signed contracts to signed five other hotels for millennium Partners.
Christopher Jeffries came with the idea of luxury Hotel therefore targeting the RitzCarlton
and Four seasons, the two recognized hotel operators serving at the highest end of the
market. . Following is the hierarchical chart of Ritz Carlton and Millennium Partners.
The Ritz Carlton
Horst Schulze
President and COO






Leonardo Inghilleri
Vice President, Human Resources
Jean Cohen, Bill Rhodes, Jim Veil
Regional Vice Presidents
Patrick Mene
Vice President, Quality

James MC Bride
General Manager
Washington, D.C








Millennium Partners
Christopher Jeffries
Philip Aarons, and Philip Lovett
Founding Partners

Brian Collins
Partner, COO
Millennium Hospitality Partners,
President



Quality at the RitzCarlton
Partick Mene the chief quality officer at Ritz Carlton in 1990 has a primary mission to and
gives priority to the values and concepts of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
criteria at Ritz Carlton hotels. So Mene also had to convince Horst Schulze, the COO of Ritz
Carlton since 1984 of the importance of human recourses and (TQM) total quality
management. Moreover the company designed more programmers to meet the customer
needs such as safety protocol to protect the children of guests, and the service Quality
indicators(SQIs).
Service Quality Indicators (SQIs)
Key Production
Process
Service Quality Indicators Measurement
Location
Reporting
Requirements
Individual and
Group
Reservations
Abandoned Calls: those that are
not answered and the customer
hangs up
Reservation
Office
Send daily to
department of Quality
(DOQ) by close of
Nikheel Advani
Executive Assistant Manager
Food and Beverage
Washington, D.C.
Janet Crutchfield
Director of Quality
Washington, D.C.
Marie Minarich
Director of Human Resources
Washington, D.C
Steven Hoffman
Partner
Ed Burns
Owner Representative
Washington, D.C.

reservation Office
Warm Welcome/
Check-In
Unready guest rooms: any guest
room that is not immediately ready
for the guest when they arrive to
register, regardless of the time of
day; includes room re-locations
during guest Check-In
At point of
Check-In
Send daily by end of
second shift to DOQ
Guest Room
Assignment
Room changes: guest requests
repairs of room after Check-In
Front Office Send daily by end of
second shift to DOQ
Guest Room
Condition
Room condition: customer requests
repairs to their guest room
All departments Send daily by end of
second shift to DOQ
Hotel Cleanliness Unacceptable Appearance of Public
Area: identified during the Morning
Process
Public Areas Send immediately after
daily inspections to
DOQ
Problem
Resolution
Missing or Damaged Guest
Property/ Accident: number of
claims/ incidents for the
disappearance or damage of guest
property(i.e., vehicles, vehicle keys,
luggage, clothing, jewelry,
valuables, etc.) or accidents
involving a guest or employee that
require care from a medical
professional.
At the time the
incident is
reported
Send to DOQ
immediately after each
incident
Dilemma
Collins question that whether the seven day time frame limited the hotels ability to open at
higher occupancy rate and to reach 80% occupancy in a shorter amount of time. Since the
seven day countdown was only a small part of the pre-opening budget, the cost might well
be worth the benefits.
He questioned whether extra training would help the employees to further polish their
service skills
It was difficult to train new hires to meet the high expectations of the Ritz Carlton service
standards in only seven days, but that was how the Ritz Carlton worked.
Service can be elusive concept. What is the essence of The Ritz-Carlton experience?
What is The Ritz-Carlton selling?
Ritz Carlton is basically selling the service as Schulze explained the Ritz Carlton philosophy to
the new employees during their first day of orientation: We are not in the hotel business. The
hotel business is about selling rooms, selling food, selling the bar. We do those things
incidentally, but our business is service. We charge for service. Our commitment to our
customers is excellence in service. Service is our profession.

We are Ladies and Gentleman serving Ladies and Gentleman
This is the motto of Ritz Carlton Company. Having a conversation with anyone who works there,
and you will hear this phrase. Their challenge is to remember constantly to lift themselves up to
the level at which they have placed their customers! We serve Ladies and Gentleman; let us act
like Ladies and Gentleman. By visiting any of the Ritz Carlton locations around the world and
you will sense this treatment. Every day at the Ritz Carlton begins with the line up. This
process is the beginning of the shift for every employee of the organization, from the CEO on
down. The concept is very simple: About ten minutes at the beginning of the day is spent
discussing what is going to happen that day as well as discussing one of the basics of the Ritz
Carlton model of service. These basics are found on the card described above that each
employee considers being a part of his or her uniform and that deals with everything from
greeting guests to using their names. This is why you ask any employee within the Ritz Carlton
organization how often they talk about customers service; the answer is going to be the same:
Every Day.
The credo of the company consists of three statements:
1. The Ritz Carlton hotel is a place where genuine care and comfort of our guests is our
highest mission.
2. We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests, who will
always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience.
3. The Ritz Carlton experience enlivens the senses, in still well-being and fulfills even the
unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.
The three steps of service are described as:
1. Give a warm and sincere greeting. Use the guests name if and when possible.
2. Anticipate and comply with guests needs.
3. Bid a fond farewell. Give guests a warm Good-bye and use their names, if and when
possible.
The Ritz Carlton Basics comprise a definitive list of guidelines that provide clear instructions
for employees in dealing with their guests. For example, one of these reads, Be an
ambassador of your hotel in and outside of the workplace.
The respect to the employees is the key factor of success as the Ritz Carlton show to their
employees and it is also reflected in their policies, their diversity, and their understanding of
the needs of the families that make up their companies. They are indeed extensions of a family
with a corporate name.
The selection committee of Malcolm Award in 1987, comprised of 300 experts in quality and
business, named the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company as a recipient twice in 1992 and 1999. No
other entrant in the service division has been successful more than once. More recently, J.D.
Power and Associates, a global marketing information services firm basing its awards upon
survey responses from millions of customers internationally named the Ritz-Carlton Hotel

Highest in Guest Satisfaction Among Luxury Hotel Chains for 2003. The Ritz-Carlton led in
each measure of guest satisfaction. For the two preceding years, the Ritz-Carlton had ranked
second, competing for the top spot with Four Seasons, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, and Inter-
Continental Hotels. Additionally, the Ritz-Carlton merits fourth place ranking among the
strongest brands in the world, according to Gerard van Grinsven, Vice President/Area General
Manager, and Ritz-Carlton of Dearborn, Michigan. He has contributed significantly to the
strength of the brand, leading the Ritz-Carlton Dearborn to become the most improved hotel in
the system for 2002, according to monthly customer satisfaction ratings conducted by Gallup.
Today fifty-six hotels, scattered from San Francisco to Seoul, Korea, from Boston to Bali, display
the Ritz-Carlton logo. As every guest knows, you move from one Ritz-Carlton hotel to another
without noticing a transition. You encounter no surprises, and certainly no disappointments.
The hotel replicates its perfection, regardless of locale, climate, or language.
HOW DOES THE RITZ CARLTON CREATE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IN ONLY
7 DAYS?
Every successful organization have some plans and procedure to train new employees so in that
very way they become well aware of their duties and responsibilities that what the Ritz Carlton
do. They actually train there employees in 7 days so effectively, so then they are able to produce
effective results. They use 7 day countdown to train new employees, the seven day countdown
was a result of the revolution and refinement of the hotel-opening process, with standardization
brought greater efficiency and relieved some of the burden placed on new managers and the
leaders responsible for ultimately running the hotel. Individuals first encounter themselves as
employees occurred over a month after they have been hired, when they showed up for the
beginning of the seven day countdown. The first two days were devoted entirely to orienting
employees to the Ritz-Carlton environment and the remaining five days involved more specific
skills training and trial run of service delivery.
James McBride response to Brian Collinss request:
In the training and development process, employee orientation plays a very important role which
helps introduce employees to the jobs, colleagues and organization culture. Orientation can
achieve significant cost saving(Exhibit 1) and can also reduce the nervousness of new
employees. It can help improve the relationship between the management and the new
employees.
Through the 7 day orientation process Ritz Carlton was able to provide a standard training to
every employee so as to be established in what they do best- Personalized Service.
The 7 day countdown orientation should be lengthened due to the following reasons:

As it is evident from the case My week as a room service waiter at Ritz the seven day
orientation was fast paced and there was still a lot of ambiguity about how to deliver the service.
By increasing the number of days in the training program it would help the employees
understand the process a little more. The 5% dissatisfied customers can be turned into satisfied
customers by a simple lengthening of the training. It would also increase the occupancy from
80% to 88% due to increase in satisfaction level translating to $300 million.


It would project a positive attitude about the company towards the employees. The annual
turnover would also decrease this way. More number of days in training will add value to their
learning curve. In addition, Millenium Partners will be much more satisfied with the service


An assessment of 7-days VS 14-days training program
For First Three Months


occupancy
@50%
occupancy @
80%

Seven Day Cost
Average Daily Rate
$
305.00
$
305.00


Room Nights
Available 27900 27900

presentation
cost 5000
Nights sold 13950 22320

trainers 40000
Revenue
(ADR*Nights sold)
$
4,254,750.00
$
6,807,600.00

pep really 5000

chefs table 2500

Forteen Days
cost= 2* seven
day cost
$
149,000.00

Employee
Cafateria 15000

Food shows 7000

Total
$
74,500.00

Conclusion:
Its evident from the exhibit that the cost of training is much lower than the increase in revenues
that we can generate after increasing the occupancy rate from 50 to 80.In this industry the
employees will play a vital role in increasing the output of the company since they are serving
the customers. Hence the customers would be much more satisfied staying at such a hotel. The
additional profit would be 6,807,600 - 4,254,750=$ 2,552,850 which is a lot by just spending
extra $ 74,500. Thus additional training of seven more days would be very beneficial. This
would also give time to employees to adjust in a new environment and they will be more
prepared to new challenges when they come.
Ritz-Carlton management should take the following steps to ensure best quality:
1. Rigorous employee selection process,
2. Employee orientation,
3. employee training certification, and
4. Continuous coaching.