this article is about the parent company to the ritz carlton hotel brand . for other uses see ritz disambiguation . the ritz carlton hotel company type subsidiary of marriott international industry hospitality tourism founded 1983 1983 headquarters chevy chase maryland united states number of locations 91 hotels worldwide in 30 countries . key people bill marriott chairman arne sorenson chief executive officer herve humler president & chief operating officer kathleen oberg chief financial officer bob kharazmi global officer worldwide operations ed french global officer sales & marketing revenue us 3 billion 2012 owner marriott international number of employees 35 000 2016 parent marriott international website www.ritzcarlton.com footnotes references 1 the ritz carlton hotel company l.l.c. is the parent company to the luxury hotel chain the ritz carlton hotels . ritz carlton operates 91 luxury hotels and resorts in major cities and resorts in 30 countries and territories . the current company was founded in 1983 when the previous owners sold the brand name to create the ritz carlton hotel company l.l.c. based in boston massachusetts which expanded the brand to other locations . the hotel company is today a subsidiary of marriott international . 1 contents 1 predecessor company 1.1 ritz carlton and ritz carlton in europe 1.2 the ritz carlton in north america 1.3 the first ritz carlton chain 1.4 the boston hotel 1.5 decline of the first ritz carlton chain 1.6 the blakeley years 1964 1983 2 current company 2.1 the corporate years 1983 1999 2.2 disposal of the historic boston property 3 the ritz carlton today 3.1 awards 3.2 other accomplishments 3.3 notable current properties 4 former properties 4.1 asia 4.2 europe 4.3 north america 4.4 australia 5 the ritz carlton hotels in popular culture 6 references 7 external links predecessor company edit ritz carlton and ritz carlton in europe edit the story of the ritz carlton begins with swiss hotelier c sar ritz who was well known in the hotel industry as the king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings . ritz redefined luxury accommodation in europe with his management of the ritz in paris and the carlton hotel in london among others . he and the renowned chef from his hotels auguste escoffier opened a la carte restaurants known as ritz carlton on board the hamburg amerika line ocean liners ss amerika in 1905 and ss imperator in 1913 . 2 the restaurants on those ships ceased operating in 1914 with the outbreak of world war i. although ritz died in 1918 his wife marie continued the tradition of opening hotels in his name . 3 the ritz carlton in north america edit the ritz carlton logo at the former hong kong property in 1911 the ritz company announced its intention to expand to north america . 4 the ritz carlton investing company was established by albert keller who bought and franchised the name in the united states . the first ritz carlton hotel in the u.s. opened in new york in 1911 . 5 it was located at 46th street and madison avenue . louis diat ran the kitchens and invented vichyssoise there . 6 the ritz carlton philadelphia followed in 1913 7 at broad & walnut streets 8 designed by horace trumbauer and warren & wetmore . 9 the ritz carlton montreal opened in 1912 not owned by keller as it was located in canada . keller s ritz carlton atlantic city opened in 1921 . 10 the first ritz carlton chain edit entrance to the now demolished ritz carlton hong kong in the early 1920s the ritz carlton chain consisted of the following 15 hotels argentina plaza hotel buenos aires france ritz hotel paris imperial hotel menton royal hotel vian les bains splendide hotel vian les bains italy grand hotel excelsior rome grand hotel rome today the st. regis rome grand hotel and new casino rapallo grand hotel et des iles borromees lake maggiore excelsior hotel naples switzerland grand hotel national lucerne united kingdom carlton hotel london ritz hotel london united states ritz carlton hotel new york city ritz carlton hotel atlantic city the boston hotel edit in october 1926 29 year old edward n. wyner bought a third acre parcel at the corner of arlington and newbury streets and formed a partnership called the ritz arlington trust with his father george and business associate john s. slater . the trust sold 2.1 million of bonds to finance the construction of an apartment building to be called the mayflower . the 18 story 201 foot 61 m brick building designed by strickland blodget & law architects was far taller than anything else along newbury street at the time . construction had started on the second floor when wyner was persuaded by then mayor james michael curly to make the mayflower a world class 300 room ritz carlton hotel which opened may 19 1927 . room rates were 5 to 15 per night ; 40 per night for suites . after a hugely successful opening the stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing depression brought financial difficulties . the wyner family funded the hotel s operating losses during the early 1930s although the interest on the bonds went unpaid . still in 1933 when only 30 guests were registered in the hotel wyner turned on the lights in every guest room to give the appearance the hotel was full . decline of the first ritz carlton chain edit the philadelphia location was converted to an office building after only a few years in operation . the atlantic city hotel was sold to schine hotels in the late 1940s and later sheraton hotels in 1959 . 10 the new york hotel was demolished in 1951 leaving only the boston location . 11 edward wyner died of a heart attack on december 5 1961 . his six sons tried to continue operation of the boston hotel but were unable to overcome difficulties and decided to sell . the blakeley years 1964 1983 edit the ritz carlton washington d.c. the unpaid interest on the bonds dissuaded many from trying to buy the hotel . but cabot cabot & forbes principal gerald f. blakeley jr. was interested . after more than a year of legal work hale and dorr succeeded at clearing the bond obligations and in october 1964 blakeley and associates paul hellmuth and charles spaulding acquired the ritz carlton boston for 3.8 million . out of the 20 years i owned it it made money three years . the other years it broke even but from a public relations standpoint for cc & f it was a tremendous asset said blakeley who completed a 19 story ritz carlton luxury condominium complex on land adjacent to the hotel in 1981 . citation needed in the late 1960s blakeley obtained the rights to the ritz carlton name in north america with the exception of montreal and new york . in june 1978 blakeley was awarded the rights and privileges of the ritz carlton trademark in the united states and was given a us service mark registration . in the 1970s the ritz carlton name was licensed to the builders of a new hotel in chicago . the ritz carlton chicago opened in 1975 in a tower atop water tower place . it joined the four seasons hotels & resorts chain in 1977 as there was no ritz carlton chain at the time . confusingly it remained part of four seasons for decades marketed as the ritz carlton chicago a four seasons hotel . it had no association with the modern ritz carlton chain though it used the name and the iconic logo . the property was sold in 2013 and left four seasons joining the modern ritz carlton chain as a franchise on august 1 2015 . 12 in 1982 blakely licensed the name to hotelier john b. coleman for two hotels he was renovating the fairfax in washington d.c. and the navarro in new york city . coleman renamed them the ritz carlton washington d.c. and the ritz carlton new york in april 1982 . coleman paid blakely a fee of 1.5 percent of each hotel s annual gross revenue for use of the name . 13 the two hotels eventually joined the modern chain that would be founded a few years later . current company edit in august 1983 blakeley sold the ritz carlton boston and the us trademark for 75.5 million to developer william b. johnson 14 who assembled a four person development team in atlanta headed by hotelier horst schulze 15 to create the ritz carlton concept and established the ritz carlton hotel co. in 1988 johnson subsequently obtained the exclusive rights to the ritz carlton name throughout the world except for the 210 room hotel ritz paris the ritz carlton at water tower place in chicago and the ritz carlton in montreal . the corporate years 1983 1999 edit the ritz carlton at the autostadt in wolfsburg germany completed in 2000 it was the first hotel of the company to open in europe . from 1951 to 1975 the ritz carlton boston had been one of only two ritz carlton hotels in the us . the other was the independently owned ritz carlton atlantic city which had since been converted to condominiums . johnson s company paid the atlantic city establishment to abandon its name and rename itself the ritz condominiums . 10 johnson would later enlarge the company from just the boston property to 30 hotels worldwide in just 10 years . he obtained financing to do so from manufacturers hanover trust of new york in 1983 in the amount of 85 million secured by the ritz carlton boston . this loan was refinanced in 1989 by manhattan tops usa of new york for 136.5 million and again in 1994 by sumitomo bank of japan . by 1996 this mortgage was in default and the interest and penalties brought the total debt to 214.8 million . citation needed by splitting this mortgage note into three parts sumitomo bank was able to unbundle the ritz carlton boston from the trademark rights to the ritz carlton brand worldwide . blackstone real estate acquisitions of new york bought the ritz carlton boston at auction for 75 million in february 1998 . a month later marriott international of bethesda maryland acquired the hotel from blackstone for 100 million . marriott which franchises and manages marriott s 325 000 rooms bought the ritz carlton hotel co. and rights to the ritz carlton name worldwide from w.b. johnson for 290 million in a two part transaction completed in 1998 . disposal of the historic boston property edit in 1998 christopher jeffries founding partner of millennium partners obtained the ritz carlton franchises from marriott for four hotel properties under construction two in washington one in new york city and one in atlanta georgia . in addition jeffries was searching for a brand affiliation for the new 155 room hotel and 270 luxury condominiums he was constructing as part of boston s 1 800 000 square foot 170 000 m2 millennium place a mixed use complex on lower washington street . due to noncompetition clauses the only way he could obtain a second ritz carlton flag in boston was to own the existing ritz carlton . millennium partners acquired the original ritz carlton boston for 122 million though it had sold for just 75 million less than two years prior and spent 50 million for renovations . marriott agreed to allow the ritz carlton affiliation for the condominium complex known as the residences at the ritz carlton sharing all of the services of the hotel . from 2001 to 2007 boston was home to two ritz carlton hotels that faced each other across boston common . the ritz carlton boston common opened in 2001 . in november 2006 taj hotels a subsidiary of the india based tata group purchased the ritz carlton boston from its owners millennium partners