I really really wanted to like this hotel. I booked in on a whim and balked at the $300+ per night rate, but figured, "hey, this is a Ritz-Carlton so it'll be a real nice place". Well, driving up to the place it seemed like it was gonna go really well. A nice building right on the lovely marina, check. Valet parking, check. Beautiful lobby (that happened to be decorated to the nines with Christmas stuff galore at the time), check. Efficient and friendly desk staff, check. Helpful luggage guys, check. Hey, things are going well!

For the record, I travel a fair bit and I'd previously stayed at Ritz-Carltons in Boston and Istanbul, so those locations set my expectations for this stay. That said, when the elevator door opened at my floor, you can imagine my surprise when I was greeted by what looked more like a Sheraton from 1985 than a Ritz-Carlton from 2005. I made my way to my assigned room and well, jeez, I was so disappointed upon opening the door. Before me was a small room more suited to a chain like Doubletree or Radisson, complete with stained carpet and not particularly clean bathroom. Come on, this is what I paid $329 + tax per night (+ valet parking) for? Nearly $400 total for one night in a room that was not even as nice as one at the Schiphol Hilton or the Allentown, PA Four Points by Sheraton? It really was a kick in the gut given the price.

To be fair, the bed was extremely comfortable, the sheets were very nice as well. One pleasant shocker was not feeling completely and utterly ripped off by room service (which is an all-too-common feeling). I got a special "bento box" which turned out to be an American twist on the Japanese term. The stylish and unique tray contained a sandwich, salad, soup, and dessert which was just enough and tasted pretty good to boot. Adding a Sprite to the order brought the total to something right around $25 which is obviously a total joke, but for hotel room service I actually didn't feel that guilty about the cost. (Yeah you know what I mean. It's that guilt you feel when you're thirstily staring into the mini-bar at its $4 Cokes which mock you, all while knowing full well that there's a 7-Eleven on the next block, but you're already in your complementary robe...so you just give in and buy one and then sit there for a while making sure every last bit comes out because each drop is worth 10 cents? Yeah that guilt. You know it. Where else would you actually pay $3.75 for a Snickers bar? Nowhere! But you'll do it at a hotel. Funny, huh.)

Ok back to the Ritz. As I mentioned a ways up (fair dues to you for reading this far) I travel frequently for business and pleasure and tend to stay at lots of hotels. They're typically your run-of-the-mill higher-class business hotels when I'm travelling for work and I try to find smaller, cool, and more intimate boutique-y hotels when travelling for pleasure. I like completing guest questionnaires and surveys because since I enjoy travelling, I think it's worth putting in a few minutes giving companies feedback that might improve their businesses, which in turn might make travelling more pleasurable for everyone. Anyway, after my stay at the Ritz-Carlton I provided them some feedback through their website. The points in the note were along the lines of what I wrote above (minus all my tangential ramblings). An automated message emailed back to me says that someone will be calling me back in 24 hours to talk discuss the comments. Well, you've probably guessed that I haven't heard a thing back from anyone -- it's going on three months, I'm still holding out for that elusive call but I may just have to let it go.

Do I expect a courtesy call from the Crowne Plaza when I respond on their in-room guest survey that the scrambled eggs in the complimentary buffet breakfast were a bit cold? Nah, of course not. However, I might have expected a response from Ritz-Carlton -- a company that prides itself on its claimed exceptional attention to customer needs and satisfaction. Ok, ok I know I'm whining now, but the message did say they would call and they never did, dangit.

Boy I really should wrap this up huh? I need to wrap this up with a pithy comment. Ok got it. To summarise the whole experience: Ritz-Carlton set my expectations pretty high and I was expecting more, but I ended up being real disappointed.

Thank you, drive through.