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The secret activities of The Ritz-Carlton - Poll
This past weekend when I was checking out the Ritz-Carlton's event capabilities, I attended several presentations, including one on the ways the luxury hotel chain is continuing to expand and improve.
Not going into much detail, the Ritz-Carlton representative talked about packages called Give Back Getaways, Meaningful Meetings, A Vow to Help Others and VolunTeaming -- I hadn't heard of any of those before. One catchphrase he also mentioned (which did ring a bell) was Community Footprints, aka the Ritz-Carlton's commitment to doing good things for the local communities they occupy.
With a little Googling, I found the Community Footprints website, which lists some of the above programs as well as their "Human Rights Policy Statement."
I was not the only one who felt that this important stuff was glossed over in the presentation (which talked more about how the RC has expanded from 32 to 74 hotels in the last nine years and that they are developing a new concept called Ritz-Carlton Reserve, which will be a series of smaller, more intimate hotels). In the question and answer section at the end, many of my fellow attendees wanted to know more about all these great things the Ritz-Carlton was doing -- and helping guests to do -- for the environment and their local communities.
Then I learned something. Senior Vice President Ezzat Coutry responded with "We are very careful about bragging about what we do for the communities."
What? Don't they know that if travelers knew how much work they're putting into their communities (we're talking $8.55 million in cash and in-kind donations and 57,000 hours of volunteering in 2008 alone!), it would make them look good?
Yes. They do know that. And they're way ahead of us. "We struggle with that," Coutry continued, "We do something great -- do we say it or not?"
"We don't want it to appear self-serving," added Verona Carter, Area Director of Public Relations for Mexico and the Caribbean.
Here's what I learned -- in my career-long quest to find out what's cool and great and tell everybody, getting information about the good stuff some larger companies like the Ritz-Carlton are doing has often felt like pulling teeth. I never really understood why getting the information was so hard; why there weren't fabulous press releases and huge celebrations ... and it turns out that the answer is simple modesty.
In this age, where we crave more corporate transparency, do we just want to know the bad things that our large chains are doing, or do we want to know the good things? Does the fact that the Ritz-Carlton is so actively working on sustainability and the well-being of their communities make you like them more -- and if they'd advertised it (above and beyond it just being there on the website if you go looking), would you feel differently?
Well, in any case, the word's out now. What do you think?
Filed under: Activism, Hotels and Accommodations
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Melvin Sep 2nd 2009 12:28PM
I guess that this is not typical, but I like it that way. Other companies make big advertising with selling a bottle of water and with each liter you buy, you help to build some springs in africa. That's cool of course, but they don't tell you the amount they donate. It was just made public with a big french company and it was really as good as nothing!
So it's nice to see a company spending more & keep it easy and calm with it.
A donation shouldn't be just for the bad conscience a manager might have...
But it's nice and fun to donate and even better to help others directly.
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Nick Hawkins Sep 2nd 2009 12:40PM
How does this compare to other philanthropic endeavors to other hotel chains?
Brandon Sep 2nd 2009 1:04PM
I think there should be a mix. No one likes a show off, but especially in times like these, people should hear about the great things businesses are still able to accomplish particularly in areas of community involvement.
Zach Sep 2nd 2009 5:38PM
Check out Joseph Michelli's "The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company" for more info on what Ritz-Carlton is doing (but not often telling people loudly about).
Christopher Hill Sep 6th 2009 10:09PM
Good article - the Ritz Carlton are to be praised for their efforts in contributing to their communities; we recently stayed with them in Cancun, and were impressed with what they are doing with impoverished communities in the Cancun most tourists never see...so impressed that we are planning on partnering with them in Cancun.
Christopher Hill
President
Hands Up Holidays