The Ritz-Carlton, Fort Lauderdale

Spent ~$8k over 2 nights at Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale for my wife's 50th birthday, including $1,700 spa day. Spa staff aggressively confronted group poolside for return of robes (cold weather), roughly handled belongings (dropped phone in hot tub), refused ID, no apology—Carlos dismissed rudely. Zero follow-up despite elite status/survey/emails to GM; manager call said issue was "somewhere in the middle" and offered insulting $500 credit.

Where do I start. I am not even sure this really is a Ritz Carlton. Maybe a dupe and I didn't notice it was the "Ritzz Karlton." Terrible stay. Small stuff first - wasn't offered a glass of sparkling at check in. Was told I had club level/lounge access and was given an hours & info sheet. Thought maybe this was an upgrade or something. Tried to use the key to get in and nope. Called down oops. Too bad so sad. Entered room and a melted bucket of ice greeted us with a warm bottle of sparkling. Went to bed and the next morning all hell broke loose. Requested a high floor for reasons like we experienced during this stay - Got a room overlooking the AC units and the Marriott parking garage next door. If that was all it would be fine but they were doing construction and literally looking into our room. Could not use balcony. Hammering and using a high-pitched sander. And again, if that was all I would be extremely annoyed but not devastated. However, it was the total lack of response and professionalism as a hospitality company, not just a hotel, that set me off. There was no Gold nor Standards from the front desk, or management. I was offered a chance to move to a smaller room (we had three people) or same room a few floors above the noise that you could still hear from that room, or an owner room and....pay more! Not once did anyone come to the room to see what we were dealing with for themselves. I just got told hey, we don't have control over it. Well....last I check you are a Marriott in nice clothes. The work was at the Marriott next door. Don't BS me. Even if you didn't have control over it, you had control over what you could do to make up for it. No one cared. I even offered a solution. Since we could not get peace in the room and had to be out of it, let me access the club lounge for respite. The answer was sorry, that will cost you, we charge for that. I finally had to go in person to the front desk, show video and pictures of the debacle outside our room and I was to be told to be quiet and then they tried to intimidate me with two security goons. Didn't work. I asked for the General Manager and maybe this explains a lot.....He was missing. On a sold-out weekend during season and a national championship game down the road, the GEN MGR WAS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND OR REACHED. The response from management was pathetic and unprofessional. I have been to over half if not more of the RC properties. From Ed Staros' Naples flagship and the rest of the U.S., to a half dozen out of the country. I will say the one thing RC FTL did well was disappoint. BTW - the pool was a letdown. Small. Sun only until 2pm because the building blocks it. Then a mad dash to the chairs by the rail for the last 30 min of sun. Doors says open dawn to dusk. Where I am from that means sunrise to sunset. Not 9am to 6pm or how ever long you could last in the shade. Oh and it's already small but 1/3 is reserved for unit owners? We had breakfast included with our package. Went to the restaurant the first morning and was greeted by three hostesses standing around and had to wait because the servers were overwhelmed and understaffed. But they had three hostesses...Took forever to get a server and order. Food was meh. We didn't eat there again. Lastly robes in the room are like rough tiny used Kleenex, and these were NOT RC beds or linens. Lastly the valet should put a water bottle in the car or at least ask when you depart. All of these things are failures of attention to detail that you expect at the RC and we have received at every other RC for the most part. Instead, we got a heaping helping of attitude from EVERYONE at and behind that front desk and the little office they hide in behind it. Our experience will not have us back and I will go out of my way to make sure everyone knows RC FTL means Failure To Lead by the management.

Hotel is completely inflexible on changing dates. “We stick to our policy with no exceptions.” This despite my wanting to change to a longer stay later and needing to change because of the massive storm we’re expecting and airline advisories not to travel on Sunday. In many decades of luxury hotel travel, this is the first time a hotel won’t let me change dates when there’s an extenuating circumstance. What’s wild is that hotels where I have no status are reasonable, but this Ritz, where I have lifetime Plat status, tells me to pound sand. So they got me for a night and lost my business forever.

This location is not Ritz Carlton caliber. Main Lobby had no paper towels in men’s and ladies room. One morning at 9:45 they said the kitchen was backed up and that we had to wait 20 minutes. They wouldn’t offer us coffee or a drink at the bar while we wait so we left and went to another hotel. The hotel felt more like a glorified Marriot. We felt like they put the name on a hotel that was previously there. Very dissapointing. We were shocked. On a good note the staff was great!

Front Desk managers Glenny and Dalton helped to provide an amazing week at the beach. My Oceanfront suite was spacious, clean, well-appointed and comfortable. To the man who commented on the resort fee, that’s pretty standard and the property does not permit non-guests entry on the beach. I saw people that were not guests being turned away regularly. This is a solid property and the team is outstanding. The rooms have spacious living, bedrooms and bathrooms with Dyptique amenities. If you can get a higher floor with an ocean view, that’s a great start. The service level here was outstanding and it is one of the only properties that has a bridge from the pool deck to the beach so you can avoid crossing a1a at the street level. If you need a sound relax on the beach, this is it! I was truly impressed by how well this property worked together to create a welcoming, upscale, fun and relaxing environment. I will be back.