Ritz Carlton Buckhead is overrated
 

I am mystified about why the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead (Atlanta) is considered such a superlative hotel. I stayed there for three nights this past weekend and found it to be average for its price category. The rooms are small and I experienced enough minor problems (room service that took over an hour, broken down elevators, stale muffin at the breakfast cafe, hot tub that had an unpleasant odor, etc.) to make me question the overall experience. Most importantly, there were none of the extra service touches that distinguish truly fine hotels. I was not impressed.

Tom, sorry about your bad experience at the Ritz. If you return to Atlanta, you may want to consider the Occidental Grand on 14th Street in Midtown. It is Atlanta's only other 5-diamond (AAA) hotel (other that the Ritz).

I'm glad that Tom brought up his disappointment with the Ritz Carlton Buckhead. I stayed at both Ritz Carlton hotels in Atlanta and found both to be subpar for their price categories. I believe that the Ritz increasingly is trading on its reputation, rather than living up to it. <BR> <BR>Thanks Brian. Next time I'm in Atlanta I'll try the Occidental.

My wife works for a Canadian co. in NYC with a strong presence in NYC and Atlanta. She recently stayed at the Swissotel in Buckhead. She loved it. Personally, we love Ritz Carlton hotels, having stayed at the one in Palm Beach a number of times. <BR> <BR>First, what do you think of Ritz Carlton generally, and <BR> <BR>Two, is there a good hotel in Buckhead in that area that is just as good or better than the Ritz or Swissotel.

I haven't stayed there, but there is a Grand Hyatt on the corner of Peachtree and Piedmont in Buckhead (formally a Hotel Nikko). I've heard it's pretty nice.

The Occidental Grand is now the Four Seasons. It is located in the midtown area which is very convenient to the Woodruff Arts Center. If you want to be near the Buckhead shopping areas the Swissotel and Grand Hyatt are the other luxury hotels other than the Ritz Carlton.

I've stayed at all of the aforementioned and would offer the following: <BR>Agree strongly with Tom that the RC Buckhead is overrated. Realize, first, that when it was built several years ago now, it was on the leading edge of the Ritz-Carlton's expansion phase and there weren't a lot of NEW high end hotels around. So to some extent, Sebastian's comment about trading on reputation (in this case, RCB's own reputation, not necessarily that of the chain by itself) has a good deal of validity. <BR>The rooms are indeed small. The location is very convenient, if not particularly attractive. It now reminds me more of a well run Hyatt than a Ritz. And I like many of the US's Ritz's a great deal. But Atlanta's (both of them) are not in the same league as the ones in Naples, Laguna Niguel, SF, Chicago (actually a 4 Seasons), St. Louis, even Phoenix. <BR>Stayed in a suite at the Nikko (now Hyatt) for the Olympics. Very good, but certainly not great, property. It's a very nice Hyatt, but it's notches below a good 4 Seasons, for example. <BR>The Swissotel is also very good, but much like the Hyatt, not great. Stark but very clean. Does all the basics well. <BR>The RCB is still Atlanta's best hotel if you can garner a suite. Standard rooms are a bit overpriced for what you get. If the area doesn't bother you, the 4S is next in line, esp for standard rooms.

At last, I get a chance to tell this story: five years ago my husband and I took my mother on her 75th birthday to Atlanta to visit our daughter. We had two nice rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead and were quite pleased with everything until one night about 11:00. The three of us stepped into an elevator and headed up to our floor. As we approached our floor, the elevator suddenly stopped. After a minute or so, we punched the alarm button and picked up the phone which didn't work. After 5 or 10 minutes, a voice came over an intercom to ask us what was wrong, and we told him. He said the engineers had left the building, but was there anything he could do for us. I said get the engineers back here and get us out, or barring that, collect a lot of mattresses and place them under the elevator in the shaft. <BR>After one entire hour of waiting (I was sitting on the floor by this time, but my poor mother decided she couldn't get back up if she sat down), some men (engineers?) opened up the doors of the elevator with a couple of crowbars and helped us climb out. Luckily, we were just a foot or two below the floor. <BR>To add insult to injury, when we complained the next day, we weren't offered any compensation. I didn't expect a free room, but a letter of apology would have been appreciated. My husband wrote a letter after we returned home and didn't hear anything from anyone. Ritz-Carlton certainly left us with a bad taste in our mouths, and we'll never stay at any of their hotels again. <BR>

Sorry to hear of your understandably distressing ordeal, Judy. And while consumers should be encouraged to vote with their wallets, do keep in mind that decisions regarding compensatory reimbursements/apologies and the like are solely at the discretion of the management of the individual property. I, too, have been 'snubbed' a time or two at Ritzs I won't name, but have been treated with unexpected generosity at others. It seems to be a rather whimsical process...though it should be anything but.

General question: Is the Buckhead area really as upscale and nice as it's made out to be or is this just more hype?

Buckhead would probably be good if the main purpose of your trip was to shop. Phipps Plaza is a great, but expensive, shopping mall. Otherwise, I think Buckhead is all hype. For one thing, it is extremely congested. I was stuck in traffic for over an hour at 2 am. Also, maybe I missed the good parts, but it seemed like just one big street with a lot of strip malls. In fact, all of Atlanta seemed like one big street with a lot of strip malls.

Alas, the strip malls do take over once you're north of Midtown. I've always said that Atlanta is a nice place to live (intown) but an uninteresting place to visit.

To Brian in Atlanta: Can you please tell me why you think Atlanta is a good place to live. I may be moving there and was extremely discouraged by my short trip there this past week. I did a little house hunting and was shocked by the prices (and I currently live in the D.C. area.) And I didn't see any green parks with wooded trails and nice bicycle paths. And the traffic was appalling. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Thank you.

Tom, Atlanta does have it share of problems, namely government (totally incompetent and racially divided), sprawl and traffic (which can be avoided if you're willing to live intown) and high real estate prices intown (this is a very recent phenomenon, over the last 2-3 years). <BR> <BR>What I like about living in Atlanta is the weather (though it can get hot, everything's airconditioned very well), the ecomomy/business environment (lots of people making lots of money here), the airport (I can fly non-stop - pretty affordably - to most cities in the US and a large number of foreign ones), the geographic location (the mountains are 2-3 hours away and the beach is about 4), the mix of people (multi-racial, multi-national, multi-sexual - is that a word?), the old neighborhoods (again, only intown - the suburbs are much different), good restaurants (not on the level of New York, but we get better with every new opening), and all the other pluses that come with living in a big city. <BR> <BR>If you do it right, the negatives can be somewhat mitigated. I don't deal with the traffic, I take the bus to work - it's about a 15 minute ride. And I was lucky enough to get in on the recent real estate explosion when we bought a condo in Midtown 3 years ago and sold it for 60% more a year ago. We bought a house in a still-gentrifying area of Midtown, and the enormous amount of development that is occuring around us has certainly caused our home's value to appreciate considerably. If you're willing to tough it out in a fringe area for a couple of years, there's still money to be made. <BR> <BR>As for the poor, poor government, things are getting a little better - neighborhood groups have become much more politically active in the last 2 years and we will be rid of our Mayor relatively soon (thankfully, he can't run again). But taxes are still too high, services are poor and the schools are laughable. <BR> <BR>If you had problems with Atlanta proper, consider Decatur. It's a small town just to the east of Atlanta (15-minute drive) with more affordable homes in great neighborhoods and a town square that is exploding with new neighborhood restaurants. It's halfway to Stone Mountain State Park and is much more wooded than most of Atlanta. If I didn't love Midtown so much, this is where I'd likely live. <BR> <BR>Good luck in your decision.

What about the upscale community of Murrietta (or is it Marrietta?)? Is that as nice as "they" say it is? What about the surrounding areas of the above -- also nice or rather downtrodden?

I also am moving to Atlanta. I currently live downtown Chicago and we just recently found a house in Morningside on N. Pehlam Street. Does anyone know where that's at and if we made a good house decision purchase. We love what downtown living has to offer, however Atlanta's downtown seems pretty non-existant. Which was disappointing. Any feedback you can give me would be helpul to set my mind at ease. Thanks!

Linda, I tried to pull up the location on Yahoo maps, but it gave me a location not in Morningside, but in a very undesirable part of town. <BR> <BR>Are you sure it's spelled "N. Pehlam Street"? What's the street number and zip code?

Oops sorry I think it's spelled N. Phelam. It's right by Virginia Highlands area. It's a really cute street. The house we bought is a brick tudor. We are building a master suite upstairs and knocking down the kitchen wall, so we actually won't move in till about August. Can you find that street?

Brian, the address is 1724 and the zip is 30306. Oh god, don't tell me it's a bad area.;.....

I still don't think the spelling's right because I still can't pull up the right map. But rest assured that Morningside and 30306 are very nice areas. If you can get me the correct street name, I can tell you more about your neighborhood.