The Ritz-Carlton
reviews and complaints

On 16 Jun 2023, at 15:45, Carmel Abraham wrote:



https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g298283-d12445137-r894420749-The_Ritz_Carlton_Langkawi-Langkawi_Langkawi_District_Kedah.html

Dear Ellen,

Thank you for responding to my trip advisor review "Unfair Practice (at best)" posted 10th June.

Despite the fact that you have categorically denied that I made two calls from London to the Ritz Carlton Langkawi on 26th March 2023, I'm glad that I have raised public awareness. I trust that anyone reading my review will read between the lines and tread with caution should they risk making a booking with the Ritz Carlton group.

I am now writing to you directly because your trip advisor response to me is wholly inaccurate.

Assuming the telephone number on your website, as below, is accurate.

JALAN PANTAI KOK, TELUK NIBUNG, PO BOX 199,

LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA, 07000TOLL FREE:+[protected]

Then the two calls I made, as attached, were answered by a member of the Ritz Carlton Langkawi staff.

The first call which you received at 07:19 was answered by a brusque female, it lasted 14 seconds before she disconnected my call. I had time to give my daughters name before she disconnected me.

The second re-call which you received at 07:20 was answered by the same person. This time I managed to explain my daughters London to Singapore flight was delayed. Your staff member took my daughter’s name & actually identified and acknowledged the booking. This was a 60 second call.

I am absolutely amazed that you deny these calls and communications took place when we have the attached logs as evidence.

May I suggest you investigate who may have answered these calls at 07:19 & 07:20 on 26th March 2023. I can assure you I was talking to a member of your team NOT thin air.

On a personal level it is obvious that because we are individual customers, Ritz Carlton simply don’t care about us and are abusing their organisational power to deny all responsibility for

a. your mismanagement.

b. our financial loss & upset.

What you may have failed to appreciate is that this was an Accenture corporate booking made using my daughters Accenture account.

Since this incident, within my daughter’s small sphere of influence, at least 80 corporate bookings that could have gone to Ritz Carlton, have been diverted to your competitors. Our experience has yet to be reported to Accenture’s Global head office.

I am now requesting that the Ritz Carlton Langkawi

Accept that my calls were made.

Accept that I cancelled the booking.

Take responsibility for the fact that a member of your team slipped up.

Accept that my daughter and family were not “no shows”!

Refund all the monies you so swiftly deducted from my daughter’s account.

Regards

Carmel Abraham

Director (Clinical Services)

Enquiries / Appointments Hotline: [protected]

Fax: +[protected]

London Medical 49 Marylebone High Street London W1U 5HJ

Web: www.londonmedical.co.uk

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I took my wife on a trip, our baby is due in October, and have had a horrendous experience staying at this hotel. The service has been what I would expect from a motel with rude and unresponsive staff. I have called the front desk and room service multiple times and no one will even answer the phone. My wife just had to go walk down to the front desk to resolve an issue and still no one is even at the front desk. This is not what I expect when I’m paying ~$1,000 a night.

As a Ritz-Carlton credit card holder, I do get 1 free night a year. Unfortunately, last year's free night expired June 15, 2023. My only excuse for not using my free night is because life sometimes happens. i.e. Covid, college graduations, etc.

I reached out to Marriott but was told that they cannot extend the expiration date for the free night, or even deposit in my account the 50,000 points associated with it. I was really disappointed to say the least as we have been Ritz-Carlton customers for a long time (i.e. we celebrated both of our daughter's 15th year celebrations there!). I expected a lot more from their customer service unit, especially after experiencing firsthand their "legendary" customer service for years!

I then contacted the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay directly. I was told that "rewards programs have very strict guidelines set by our Corporate Office and the individual Hotels cannot override any of the terms."

As you can see, it seems that no one wants to make the right decision here, which is to either allow for an extension or deposit 50,000 points to my account. I never thought it would be this difficult for them to make the right call. Is this how they treat their loyal customers (i.e. not flexible at all)? If so, what is the difference between the Ritz and the next big hotel chain then?

I hope someone remembers what thee Ritz-Carlton stands for. This should not be a difficult decision to make.

My name is Samer AlRayess, a Titanium Elite customer at Marriot.

I visited the Ritz Carlton Central Park branch in New York for breakfast and the experience was not satisfying at all.

1) the quality of food was not one that I was always used to have in any other Marriot branch, especially Ritz Carlton ones: offering with the Continental Breakfast was very scarce, serving toast with nothing to them with (no minimal cheese or ham) along with croissants that didn't taste well at all. I invited 10 friends to this breakfast, assuming that they will love the service and quality of food (as always), but their feedback, including mine, was the complete opposite.

2) lack of consistency given that the hotel did not allow me to capture points for the breakfast, claiming that this is not possible in this branch, while I've been doing the same in many others branches, either myself or through other colleagues at work.

The elevators all malfunctioned, causing me to be stuck for 15 minutes riding up and down the floors with water coming in from the ceiling. Not only that, I missed my presentation at the conference I was attending because of this. I have had issues with this Ritz location in past years and this is the final straw. This is by far the worst location of the entire brand. I will never stay here again.

Good afternoon,

I normally don’t write to complain, as I understand things come up, and there are things out of the control of the property, but today I just feel the needs to voice my concerns.

When I called to see if I could book a day pass, I was granted a day pass, but I wasn’t told that some of the amenities were not available. I even said, “I want to enjoy the hot tub and wet sauna…” No one told me that neither one of those were in service at the moment, so I booked a $150 service to be disappointed. The price to enjoy the pool, which was too cold, and the wet sauna, which was broken was just beyond understandable. I just believe this should be mentioned on the website, “hot tub under renovation,” or “wet sauna is currently unavailable,” should be mentioned so no other guests are upset.

Thank you for listening, and I hope you’ll fix this for future guests. I don’t think I’ll ever return at this point, but would like to believe this will be fixed so I can enjoy other services.

Thank you!

April Crigger-Hudson

[protected]

My husband and I stayed at the Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain in AZ from 12/15-12/19/22 in Rm#4706. As we arrived the valet workers were attentive, and we were looking forward to our stay. The bellhop gentleman was also very friendly, everyone else that works there can learn much from those workers. The front desk workers seem to feel as though you are bothering them when you have questions or issues of any sort. We were having problems with the thin walls in our room which we decided not to make mention of being able to hear plumbing pipes at night in the room above us. Unfortunately, it came to head in the early morning of our checkout day. The water stopped working in the bathroom altogether at about 1a. Turning the faucet on, no running water would come out. We were not able to flush the toilet, or it would overflow. When my husband went down to let them know at the front desk, they said they couldn't do anything about it until the manager came in at 9a. Besides needing to prepare to catch a flight, we still had to wait, which I still do not understand. Only the manager is able to fix issues? For a 5-star hotel that boasts Gold Standard Service, what we had was not Gold Standard.

Service was sub-par to poor. The dollars spent did not equal service received.
Anytime my non-white husband asked someone a question they would ask him if he was a guest at the hotel. When I was by myself, I was never asked this question. It's always unsettling to see that in an establishment. Especially when the question has nothing to do with what your room number is.

I was also disappointed with the restaurants having very similar items on all of the menus. There's no reason to go from restaurant to restaurant if the food is practically identical. We still made a reservation at the golf course restaurant, and I understand that it's difficult to find workers since Covid, but if you want to continue to tout 5-star service please train even back up staff accordingly. Our server was a very nice younger girl and said that she was filling in for someone who didn't show up for work, but because of this, her knowledge of the menu was extremely limited. She also did not know how to pronounce Cotes du Rhone. I felt bad for her because she was uncomfortable, and the fault lies with management.

We signed up for massages the day before leaving. The facility was beautiful and the girls that assisted me were helpful. My husband was receiving the Men's massage but his masseuse either forgot what all was entailed or maybe was too tired to finish (it was the end of the day). He mentioned it at the desk to the girls before leaving and they apologized and were kind to take $20 off of his massage. Not the best massages we've ever had. I would say they were just mediocre, but I'm assuming the facility is what attracts people.

In all, the majority of the issues stem from the top down, if management cared more about running this location, the problems would be less. At the LEAST the staff would be friendlier. When you have staff that are at the lobby front desk & concierge, they are the face of what people remember most, and if they are unable to be kind and helpful - they are simply in the wrong business. When I spoke with the manager before leaving, he also seemed un-interested. He said for the trouble with the water not working in our room he would compensate us in points that equaled a free night stay, which I have yet to see.

Sad to say we will not be back at the Arizona Ritz again.

We had a stay at the Amelia Island Ritz September 18-22, 2022, room 564. The location, building maintenance and general staff respectfulness were fine.

Room service was not as stated of being 'serviced daily'. Daily room servicing did not occur until requested and we had to leave our room delaying our getting ready for dinner - it should have been scheduled during our activities when out of the room. Then when serviced soap and coffee capsules were not replenished; dirty glasses not removed, cleaning cloth left behind.

Dining: At Coastal restaurant: meat was under cooked and when returned to table all other table guests had finished their meals;

At Salt meat was overcooked - it was replaced, however, while being replaced our server returned to table with photo of original piece in the kitchen showing it was properly cooked but showing overcooked at table. So the problem was the window lighting at the table and belabored the point becoming intrusive at the table. If this is a known problem of relative lighting then Ritz should fix problem and not becoming a distraction at table side for 3-4 minutes with photos. Also table service was too frequent and intrusive - water glasses refilled when 3/4 full, wine glasses topped off too frequently as well. Personal opinion fine dining service should be almost invisible and not intrusive;

Lobby Lounge, service again intrusive and fluttering about frequently disruptive to guest conversations. Also on last evening before departure server knocked red wine glass spilling appreciable quantity of red wine on guest shirt and trousers causing guest to leave area to change clothes walking through lobbies. Guest returned bag of clothes to server who gave to a manger for cleaning. Next morning before departure manager returned clothes unable to rid shirt of wine stain. Manager said she would replace shirt but we have not received status update from manager.

We are loyal members of Marriott Bonvoy. We looked forward to a Ritz Carleton experience with relatives from Houston joining us at Amelia Island. Our expectations were to experiences at least similar experiences as we have had at L'Auberge St. Antoine Quebec among others. It was not achieved.

Guest The Quigley's Boston area

Good evening,

My name is Dianne Ramos and I recently took over the complaints department of an insurance company. As I look to rehaul the customer complaint unit and model it behind a company who stands behind their customer care and provides top of the line service, I am reaching out in an attempt to make a personal connection with someone from Ritz-Carlton's complaint department. I'd like to learn more about their process, standards and best practices, so that I may also consider implementing things that may work for my industry and company.

I would be most appreciative if this request be passed on to Ritz-Carlton. I would invite them to a virtual meeting to connect and request the chance to learn more about how they handle complaints.

Many many thanks in advance for the consideration,

Dianne Ramos

[protected]@glic.com

It is with regret that I am writing this email in regard to what should have been a luxurious, worry-free stay at the Ritz-Carlton Langkawi resort (7/08/22-11/08/22).

Unfortunately, our stay was not the 5-star experience we expected and I am deeply disappointed. Our stay at the Langkawi resort was the final destination for my family after 3 weeks travelling around Asia.

The first telling experience was the repeated insect bites received by my son and myself - the only location on the whole of our 3 weeks that we were bitten at all. Whilst the resort staff were helpful in checking the room and changing the sheets as requested as well as providing repellant and ointment, unfortunately this was no help as my son was bitten again and then so was I on the very same evening in the room (see pictures attached). Upon returning from breakfast after the first night there was also a cockroach on the floor that we had to point out that was then kindly removed by a staff member who was just finishing room service.

The next day my arm swelled up. I had an allergic reaction (pic attached) where the only thing that would stop the burning on my arm was constant ice.

On our final night, we decided to treat ourselves to a relaxing and delicious meal at the Langkawi Kitchen, reaching the restaurant at around 8:15-8:30pm. It was extremely disappointing and underwhelming that it took the staff on duty to see our table after extended periods even though the restaurant was quiet. It took around 40 minutes for us to receive our drinks (apple juice) and we still hadn't even received our food though it was coming to 10pm now. When we finally received our meals, the chicken in two dishes was undercooked and by this point we had lost our appetites. We pointed this out to the staff member who immediately cleared it away and asked if we'd like anything else instead. We then just had some dessert as we hadn't had any real dinner but was put off any main meal. As our last night in Langkawi and of the entire trip, it ended on a very disappointing note and did not leave us with the 5* feeling we were hoping for.

Let me preface this review by revealing I received a BOA discounted rate. Having said this, this shouldn't excuse the utter filth we encountered. We stayed 3 nights at the Ritz (Charlotte), staff was very friendly (that's one of the few positive takeaways my wife and I had). We had to change rooms after 2 nights; one of the queen mattresses we slept in was the most uncomfortable mattress I have ever slept on at any hotel, let alone the Ritz. The mattress felt as if I was sleeping in a crater! Dealt with it for 2 nights but decided to voice my displeasure with the front desk. They somewhat apologized and agreed to move us into another room, but to our horror, the room hadn't looked like it had been swept in days. Peanuts on the floor along with other treats. Mirrors in the bathroom were disgusting, hand prints all over the undusted wall furniture, toilet bowl cover on a swivel, a burned out light bulb and a loud 40th birthday party that was directly next door. You cannot make this up. Again, I didn't have to shell out $699/night, but I have stayed at cleaner Aloft's, Hampton Inn's and Courtyards. Had some time, just thought I would share our disappointing stay at the Ritz (Charlotte).

We had a business meeting schedule Apirl 20/20 during COVID although the hotel was closed. We had schedule approximately 12 members to participate in our meeting for three days. The south beach location offered to refund our deposit and contract but we communicated that we still wanted to meet at the south beach location when it was safe. We schedule for a time in 2021 spring when Miami had another surge and we canceled the event and still told them to keep our $12,000 deposit. When we tried to reschedule in May of 2022 the manager told our group we would have to pay another $19,000. and create a new contract with none of the deposit or $31,000 would pay for the 2022 event. A few weeks later we were contact by a lawyer threatening that if we did not pay the $19,000 he would take us to court. Many of our members frequent Ritz Carlton as a favorite Hotel. Not only is this bad service when we have many of our meeting s at Ritz hotels it is just bad business. The future lost revenues will be significantly greater than the money they are securing because of the fear of our members from COVID. Our group has been meeting together for over thirty years and have never been treated this poorly by any hotel.

First and foremost, I want to begin this email by saying that I have been staying at your properties for the last 20 plus years. In fact, when booking travel, The Ritz is always my hotel of choice and I have come to expect the certain level of service and professionalism the Ritz Carlton has always provided me.

This is why I am so disappointed with my latest stay at your St. Thomas property.

I am currently staying on the residence side of your property, we booked two 2 bedroom villas, as we are a party of 8.

We have consistently had to wait 2 plus hours every time we order room service. Had it been once I would not be raising this point, but 2 hours over and over again when I have small children is very inconvenient. At one point, we ordered just cookies and milk and it took an hour and 27 minutes.

My 8 year old son also fell ill with a virus while here, and while waiting the 2 hours for the food for him to arrive, housekeeping arrived to tend to the room for the evening. I specifically asked them not to throw away the food that was on the stove. When I returned from taking my sons temperature and bring him the food, they had thrown it away. It hadn't even been touched! I once again called and explained that I needed the food replaced, and it took 4 hours and yet another phone call in order to get the food. 4 hours! Food that I instructed them not to throw away, as it was literally just delivered.

Days earlier, I went down to the pool with my kids to get a snow cone, as advertised in your kids program itinerary. They were the 11th kids on line and they had run out of syrup, and they handed my children ice in a cup. Ice in a cup?

In addition, we were trying to turn the TV on in the master bedroom and an engineer had to be called, upon arrival, his response was a simple "Most of the TVs blew out" I couldn't believe this was him trouble shooting my issue. I demanded that he bring me a television that worked, I had a very sick 8 year old who needed the distraction of a TV.

Furthermore, the phones haven't worked since we have arrived. Engineer in this instance told me, sorry the lines are crossed...and walked out.

There has been yellow water in our other villa, making it impossible to take a bath, no idea why the water is yellow but that is troubling.

There are no lights on the patios, preventing any one from sitting out there at night. We also had an issue with ants.

There also has been terrible service, and a very long wait time once we were seated at the restaurants. This whole experience for me does not feel like the Ritz Carlton I have come to know and look forward to. The thing is, I don't mind paying the price for service, I mind when I am paying RC prices and getting horrible service. I have paid over $15,000 for the stay here and I am not even a little bit satisfied.

This is going to make me think twice next time I go to book a Ritz Carlton property. The entire experience has left a lot to be desired.

On March 12, 2022, I returned to the Ritz Carlton London at 1:30 am after the BAFTA gala. The hotel lobby was empty and we respectfully requested to order room service and sit in the empty lobby area. The concierge contacted the night manager, Michael Arzoglov, and he said we could not eat our food in the empty lobby but we could have a drink. He said we must order and deliver our food to our room.

This was a simple request with a simple solution.

We booked a room with for a 2 day wedding party In ritz Carlton al Bustan palace muscat. Th bride and groom had the presidential suite and we had the lagoon room. Upon arrival, it took them about 45 minutes for check in and the bride was standing in reception waiting to be taken to the room.

As we reached the room. The presidential suite’s toilet was leaking and the whole floor had no AC working. The bride was panicking because of her make up and the she was sweating through her wedding dress. The whole photoshoot got delayed and after maybe more than 2 hours they gave us a small conference hall for the photo shoot. This cause a lot of inconvenience for the bride , groom and her bridesmaids.

Furthermore, as my husband did our check in the room. It had really cold water and we complained about it. Next day, we complain again. They knew the boilers were not working and they said it Was off and it will take 2 hours for the water to get hot. We waited 2 hours and still the water was cold. Then when I called again they said there was an issue with the boiler on our floor. I had to be ready by 7 pm, and by 5 pm the water was still cold. I kept calling customer service and they were not helpful at all. They recommended that I got to the spa which is far and I had to be taken with the golf cart and take a shower there. I got very angry because it is very inconvenient and I had no time. After waiting for another 20 minutes. I decided to go reception and express my inconvenience. They had to take me to another room on the 6th floor for a shower and I had to come back all the way to reception with my wet hair and towel on my head to go to my room due to the design of the hotel as you can’t go from the 1st floor to the 6th floor directly. You had to change lifts to reach to the room. It was very inconvenient and embarrassing for me. I was late to get to the reception party and it was an inconvenience to the bride, myself and her family.

I complained as I was checking out. The staff did not even offer a discount or anything complementary to ease our experience. He just said I will speak to the my manager.

Unfortunately this was one of the worst experiences I ever had. I’ve been to 3 star hotels and I did not go through something like that.

I am staying at your Naples resort for a conference. A conference I booked over 6 months ago. At the time of booking nowhere on your website did it state they were undergoing construction at all. Nowhere in my confirmation email did it state construction was going on. Nowhere in my group email for conference did it state construction was going on. I arrived and checked it and found out from other guests they were offered champagne or water upon check in. I was not. I was taken to my room and to my surprise was shocked to see my room literally 1 door Away from an active construction site and endless banging and drilling right above me. Nobody at check in advised or apologized in advance for any construction going on.

They just thought it was perfectly okay to book and charge me $2000 a night for 2 rooms for 4 nights beneath and next to active construction sites.

I wake up day 1 to the noise of banging and drilling in my ear 7am! I called front desk frustrated and all they offered me were a bunch of lame excuses, excusing them from being at fault at all. Improper hospitality customer service. Then offered me $50 credit per night of my stay on a $2000/night room. I laughed so hard and replied are you joking? Is my sanity worth $50 on an overpriced room? Definitely not!

Have you no moral ground or compassion for your paying guests? You have the balls to book rooms over live and active construction sites and charge them full price to say I’m sorry were not at fault? A top tier hotel?! Insanity!

I’ve stayed in dumps with active construction and even THEY don’t book guests near active construction sites!

I’m appalled a top tier hotel would even have the decency to do that! Shame on you!

I was even more surprised when they said well construction begins 7am everyday 7 days a week! And you wanted to give me $50?!?!?! HahahahHahahahahahahahahahahHhahH

It wasn’t until I said I would contact corporate and hop online on every existing portal to write a beyond negative review. It’s not fair people are shelling out this kind of money for this type of service. They should be properly informed!

That’s when they offered To put me in a new room and $100 credit per room per night. Only problem is I had 2 rooms. When manager acknowledged I had 2 rooms asked if both rooms wanted to be moved I said yes.

Calls back 20 minutes later to inform me they had a room available. I said fine. How about the 2nd and acted like I threw her a curveball. She literally had asked 20 minutes prior if I wanted both rooms yes and acted like we never discussed the matter. Then offers the fact that there was nothing available.

I’m so ashamed and disappointed at the level of service in every aspect. As i mentioned earlier low budget hotels even have this level of service and respect for their guests. Ritz clearly does not have any compassion for their guests and their overpriced stays. None.

Why wouldn’t you block out rooms in a construction zone? Is the desperation to make money that intense that you’re willing to sacrifice your reputation and status? Sickening. Maddening.

I will write a negative review about my experience everywhere because the general public should be privy to the type of service they will encounter altogether. Since the hotel lacked in this department it is my civil duty to warn the public. Save your money. Cancel your reservation. Get out. Go someplace else.

I had a very bad experience with Ritz Carlton Pune, I was out for dinner with my friends and around 11 Pm at night someone from hotel have called me and asked me to come back to hotel ASAP. When I reached hotel they send 4 people with me to my room moreover I saw that they have checked my luggage and all my belongings in my absence. This is totally a case of harrasment. Please be aware before booking this property

Today 29th dec 2021 myself wife daughter and brother in law asked at around 5pm if the bar was open to non residents. Instead of being told I'm sorry no the doorman also commented on my shoes suggesting I wouldn't get in even if they did. I have no problem with the bar not being open to non residents but the antiquated snobbery shown is surely not how the ritz would like to be seen. I will not now be booking our annual afternoon tea or indeed recommending the Ritz