The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota

The hotel is beautiful and in a solid spot. The trolley to St Armands/Beach Club is convenient and the staff on the bus is great. The food is decent but service is very slow, we ate at both Jack Dusty’s and Ridley’s Porch multiple times. Our pack and play took 6 hours to get delivered, we weren’t offered champagne at check in even tho we’re premier elite, small things like that prevented it from being a 10/10. I’d like to highlight one member of the staff who was exceptional and reason enough to go back. Carlos at the beach club was everything you want at a luxury hotel. Funny, accommodating, great with kids, and truly went above and beyond. I hope he knows how much he made the trip for us. He even gave us this little floaty for our son!! Thank you for everything Carlos!

Thank you for a great time. This was our 40/41st anniversary celebrations for us and our friends. We love the resort and the reason we do is because of the staff and service. The hospitality is 5 star and the food and amenities are first class. We notified in advance that we were celebrating the anniversary time for both couples and we were so grateful and impressed with the nice chocolate strawberries and champagne provided to us. Rachel in the club was amazing. Bayan was terrific. Alia’s at the beach club always smiling. Brooke at Jack Dusty provided great service. Laura and Demetrius were awesome. Kavanaugh and Todd were so nice. We love the club and thank you so much for a memorable time. We needed this getaway. Thank you to the entire team at the Ritz Carlton. We will be back. Thank you for everything. M and J.

We stayed at this property in the past. It was clean, the staff was accommodating. But this day was quite different. The property is showing signs of wear and deferred maintenance. The hotel is obviously understaffed. Common areas were unclean and trash was overflowing in trash cans and on table tables in lobby areas. Stephanie, the front desk manager extended our stay by one night due to black mold in the hallway on floor six. Also, our mattress in First room was severely torn and tattered. Pictures are attached to the mold and mattress. We went on a sunset cruise that evening and their house Driver drove us to the marina. He said he would be back at 9 PM when the cruise returned to drive us back. I asked him if we needed his card or contact information and he said no, I will be there. The Driver Sean with Dolphin was not there. We stood out in the heat and waited on her Uber and to go order for pizza sat there for 45 minutes until we were able to get to the restaurant to pick it up and bring it back to the hotel. Upon investigation of the two queen beds in our next room, those mattresses were also torn and tattered, and smelled of mold horribly. This is a health and sanitary issue that must be addressed. The staff here shows a total lack of care and unwillingness to do anything about the problems. They actually laughed at my husband when he was telling the story about the driver not showing up. Bottom line that sums it all up is that the tipped employees hold their job in high regard and provide excellent service. But the salary employees seem to be unemotional and unconcern about anything it’s a total opposite experience that we had here a year ago

The first and most alarming thing was the black mold in the hallway on level 6. I even reported this to the front desk manager, and she seemed completely unaffected and showed a total lack of care. Black mold is a very serious issue. My husband was a contractor in Minnesota and is extremely sensitive when there’s black mold present. This can cause serious health issues for folks and should be taken seriously. He has been coughing since our stay. It blows my mind that no one would take this issue seriously or even address it. It was kind of brushed off to the wayside. There was a piece of wallpaper in the hallway, literally peeling off the wall with tons of black mold, see the picture I told the manager, and when we went back in the hallway it was literally just glued back in place, but wasn’t cleaned behind it. This is NOT UP TO RITZ STANDARDS. The second issue was upon returning to our room, housekeeping had left pillowcases in our bathroom sink. The washcloths were not replaced. Overall our return stay to this property led us, disappointed, and frustrated. Had to spend too much time, dealing with contacting the front desk and trying to manage the issues we had instead of enjoying our time here. Thank you for also as a gold elite member we should be getting 2 PM late check out. We had to go down every day to have our key reprogrammed and on our last day they would not guarantee us the late check out. This is frustrating that they can’t communicate and manage things on their end better. Unprofessional and lack of good training. Also, the food at club level was disappointing. It was like cafeteria food. The bloody Mary we had was not even shaken. Rachel at clubs level, Thomas (valet), Shannon and Dawn at the spa were all absolutely amazing. The rest of the staff can learn from these exceptional individual.

Ritz Carlton never disappoints. Great rooms, great food, great staff. Luciana at Jack Dusty was wonderful! We loved her. Great location. You can walk to a lot of things in the area. Very accommodating for someone with a pet. Our dog Lola was treated like royalty.