It seems like lately there’s a new property (and often more than that) opening every month, and the deluge of luxury hotel openings around the world isn’t abating anytime soon. With all the global hotel chains deploying their top-tier hotel brands in Asia and around the world, one might wonder if the very concept of luxury is being normalised. Well, at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, this isn’t the case. And from a stay here (which couldn’t be described as ‘normal’) guests familiar with The Ritz-Carlton brand would soon realise that the Hong Kong outpost stands out among the rest in Asia.
This begins from the moment guests walk through the door and zip up more than 100 storeys for check-in. They experience a style of hospitality that’s at once personable, attentive and confident enough so as not appearing to be trying too hard. That’s the trick, isn’t it? Training, and retaining, willing staff to learn this artful and often time-consuming to master balance. But since its opening in 2011, The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong has had enough time to fine-tune the process. Case in point: over at the hotel’s Club Lounge, check-in is both seamless and welcoming. “You’ve arrived just in time for afternoon tea,” says Cherrie, the lounge’s manager, who promptly sits me down, offers me a selection of teas, and urges me to wait for the triple-tiered afternoon tea spread composed of warm scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream along with savoury nibbles and bite-sized cakes.
As a key element in The Ritz-Carlton’s offerings, their Club Lounges are best known for their unlimited canapes, cocktails and flutes of champagne during sunset. A further point of difference is the sense of privacy these rarified spaces afford. The composed and calming vibes at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong’s Club Lounge is a refreshing counterpoint to other chains and hotels that might take a ‘the more the merrier’ approach with filled-out lounges and cramped hotel-reward-points queues at the buffet and drinks stations.
Like many other guests, during the course of my 48-hour stay, I would return to the Club Lounge on many occasions, and meet staff whose names I still remember—a testament to the kindness and thoughtfulness they showed. There was Mark at the desk and Swiss-intern Fred, both of whom were hospitable but never in over-the-top ways, and actually fun to chat with. So one could imagine that after a long day, this calm sense of welcome for guests always on-the-go in an unfamiliar city would be most appealing. Open round-the-clock for guests nursing bouts of jetlag, the space would be an extremely private spot to catch the sunrise with a cup of coffee in hand. Other guests—mostly from around Asia—are also given useful and well-considered travel advice (the best way to buy a train ticket to Shenzhen, for example) so the level of conversation went beyond the usual “how was your day?” and “what do you have planned for the day?” spiel.
Rooms, on the other hand, start from a generously sized 50 square metres, and offer views of Victoria Harbour with floating candy cotton clouds wisping by. While interiors are in classic Ritz-Carlton tones of dark woods and golden hues, it’s the thoughtful hospitality touches that would make guests feel an extra dose of welcome. These include nifty leather clip-ons to organise pesky cables for tech devices; extra sachets of tea with a thoughtful note from housekeeping; and, best of all, super glue to seal an annoying loose leather shoe sole. But when the super glue didn’t completely work, the hotel’s maintenance team came to the rescue, returning the repaired shoe in less than 30 minutes. If this isn’t the height of luxury, I’m not sure what is.
