We stayed at this Ritz-Carlton pre-Covid, and loved it. Sadly, service has deteriorated notably. It’s still a physically luxurious hotel and in a good location, extremely convenient for events at Progressive Field or Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, which are connected via internal walkway from Tower City Center. The room itself (Premier Deluxe) was large, comfortable and well-furnished with an actual 6-drawer dresser, so plenty of space to put our clothes. Plus drawers and electrical outlets at each bedside, good lighting, 6 pillows, lots of counter space in the spacious dual-vanity bath, though minimal amenities, no cotton swabs or pads or makeup remover cloths. And some of the staff still try very hard to provide a luxury hotel experience.
There were just too many missteps marring the overall impression. These are mostly minor annoyances, and if we were staying at a mid-market hotel, I would more easily overlook them. But they are charging Four Seasons prices, without delivering Four Seasons service.
1. I extended my reservation, and had to book the additional two days separately to keep existing pricing on the other two. I asked the agent if she could link the two, and mentioned it again in my prearrival questionnaire. But when I checked in, she said it was for 2 nights – then she noted the other reservation and spent some time “linking” them, but said our keys would stop working on the third day and we would need to come to the desk to get them reactivated that morning, she couldn’t do it now. I’ve never seen a hotel so unable to cope with extending a reservation.
2. I had also made a room location request in my prearrival questionnaire, which was not mentioned at check-in. When I remembered after getting to our room and called to ask about it, she said no Premier Deluxe rooms were available on the floor I requested (where our friends were). It would have been nice if she’d at least acknowledged the request and apologized for not being able to fulfill it, and given me an opportunity to make a choice between room type and location.
3. No recognition of us as returning guests, just a rote “thank you for your loyalty” after she asked if we’d been there before.
4. The room was full of warning signs…don’t take the big bottles of shampoo, they will charge you $68 a bottle; don’t touch the minibar items or you’ll be charged, don’t put anything of your own in the fridge or you’ll be charged $50! Also a cryptic warning on the in-room safe referring to state liability laws. No restaurant or room service menus, just a QR code. It gave Holiday Inn vibes.
5. The room had only one bathrobe. I called to request a second robe and half a dozen hangers. When I called a bit later to report that the battery on the safe was dead, he asked if I’d received those items. Nope. He said he’d follow up, and a few minutes later someone delivered the robe and four hangers – I guess six was too much?
6. The next day, we reminded them at midday about the safe battery, they seemed surprised it wasn’t done. We returned that evening, still not fixed. I went down to the desk, he apologized and sent the maintenance guy up. Maintenance guy was given wrong info, came with the wrong tools. Once he returned, it was finally fixed. He apologized for the delay, said it was the first he’d heard of the request, and that he’d been on duty the night before and could have done it then.
7. I ordered gluten-free avocado toast at breakfast. It arrived with an odd bite-size chunk torn out of one slice. I took a bite and got a slight taste of mold, maybe that’s why the piece was removed?? Anyway, our waitress was excellent - she apologized profusely, insisted on getting me a new order (with regular toast) and comping it. The regular was good, twice the size of the GF order, and properly toasted, which the GF wasn’t.
8. The day before departure, we asked staff at the entry lobby about airport transportation (taxi vs Uber) and timing. He offered to book a taxi for us. The next morning, we went downstairs and there was no taxi. The people on duty called the driver they usually call, and he had not been booked for us, but he did send someone. We were only delayed about 10 minutes, but this is not what we needed when we’re anxious about catching our flight. A manager came over and apologized and said she was going to follow up on the lapse, which she was sure was internal, not the limo company. (And it was a limo, not a taxi - $50 vs. $35. Which would be OK if presented as such, but when you offer to book “a taxi,” that’s what I expect.)
And a final note, after we returned from our trip I tried to respond to the survey Ritz Carlton sent, only to get an error message that the link had expired. So much for my feedback being very important to them.
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