He was an early hotel chain founder known as "King of Hoteliers, and Hotelier to Kings," and it is from his name and that of his hotels that the term ritzy derives. Ritz was born in the Swiss village of Niederwald , the youngest of 13 children in a poor peasant family. It takes a special knack, a special flair, and it's only right that I tell you the truthβyou haven't got it.
The central heating at the hotel broke during a frigid day, and a group of 40 were arriving for lunch. Ritz changed the menu to hot dishes, moved a table into the smaller drawing room, and heated 40 bricks in the oven to be wrapped in flannel cloths placed at the footstool of each guest.
Regular moves then followed, usually twice a year just ahead of the migration of the international tourist set from the hotels of Nice or San Remo in winter to Swiss mountain resorts such as Rigi-Kulm and Lucerne in summer. Ritz meekly commented that "I did what I could to pacify the clients" in the circumstances. If a diner complains about a dish or the wine, immediately remove it and replace it, no questions asked. According to his widow, Ritz also was a pioneer of hygiene and cleanliness in his hotels.
He decorated without heavy draperies and wallpaper and replaced them with washable paint and lighter washable fabrics. In , he opened the Conservations Haus restaurant with Auguste Escoffier as chef in Baden-Baden , and the two were then invited to London by Richard D'Oyly Carte to become the first manager and chef of the Savoy Hotel , positions they held from until The Savoy under Ritz was an immediate success, attracting a distinguished and moneyed clientele headed by the Prince of Wales , including the British and European royal families.
Ritz threatened to sue the hotel company for wrongful dismissal but was evidently dissuaded by Escoffier, who felt that their interests would be better served by keeping the scandal quiet. Ritz would go on to find investors and open a number of his own hotels. In , he formed the Ritz Hotel syndicate with South African millionaire Alfred Beit , reputedly the wealthiest man in the world at the time. Ritz enjoyed a long partnership with Auguste Escoffier , the now-famous French chef and father of modern French cooking.
