A hotel in Yeoksam, and a service that comes first

In Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam, Seoul, the notes point to a small, pretty hotel that, the writer says, has been counted among the very best, ahead of other luxury houses: the Ritz-Carlton Seoul. The chain is said to have been founded later than many large hotels, yet to have held first place in yield per room, and first place in occupancy as well. No founding year is given in the unique body, and none is supplied here.

The hotel received, the notes say, the Five Star Diamond award for hotel business, for the first time in the country. That prize is not given a year, and no year is invented here. In 2000 and 2001, readers of Business Asia and viewers of Bloomberg TV named it Korea’s best business hotel. Those years stay in 2000 and 2001. It also received, the notes add, a best-service-hotel award chosen by the Korean Standards Association, a record mark on a service-quality index, and a best-service-hotel award from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. Those honors are left as the notes word them, without a year.

Inside, there are no direction signs. Instead, staff come up to the guest and ask what they can do. If someone asks where a facility is, staff at other hotels, the writer says, may finish with a finger and a word; at this house they walk the guest there. Lee Gi-hwang, a team leader at Ritz-Carlton Seoul, put the service spirit this way in an interview: to approach what the guest wants before the guest has to ask a member of staff. In principle there is no saying “no,” even when the request makes little sense. Going to a supervisor and coming back with an answer is also forbidden, because it would give a feeling of higher rank. Even the most junior employee is authorized to judge what is right or wrong and to offer the best service they can.

Coordinators, a recognition program, and a notebook of tastes

The writer does not credit a uniform service for this standing. What won people over, the notes say, was a service fitted to each guest. A survey body the notes cite says about ninety-five percent of those who had visited were left with the impression of “a visit to remember.” That figure is undated and stays as the claim in the notes. The work, they add, is made possible by a customer-information system called a customer-recognition program, and by customer coordinators who work in every hotel in the chain.

When a guest books, the coordinator looks that person up in a history of everyone who has stayed. Staff then plan how to receive the guest and what distinctive service to offer. If the record shows that, on an earlier visit, green tea was placed in the room instead of coffee, tea can be set out again. Every member of staff carries a notebook of guest preferences and writes down anything distinctive at once; the note is passed to the coordinator and entered in the database. The same store of information is shared across the chain, so a guest who arrives at a Ritz-Carlton anywhere in the world can be met with the same kind of fitted service.

Special care is taken with anyone who has already complained. If a guest becomes angry, staff record the course of the incident, the cause of the complaint, and what they themselves did. The next coordinator who sees that name can warn the house to be especially careful.

Facilities, a Gold Standard card, and a fifty-five-item test

The house, the notes say, aims at the top five percent of luxury guests and offers a correspondingly formal service. A guest who makes others frown may be cautioned, and in a serious case even asked to leave. The disposable toiletries are all Bulgari, a top-end brand, and almost every guest, the writer says, takes home what is left. The rooms are among the more expensive in the trade, yet guests are not said to have complained that the price was high. Restaurants and other facilities, with their interiors and food, are described as keeping a steady stream of visitors. The writer wonders whether it is this level of facility, culture, and service that keeps the hotel named as the one Hollywood stars most want to stay in. That is left as the writer’s question, not as a dated official ranking.

Ethics and a service spirit are written on a Gold Standard card that every member of staff is to carry. It sets out a credo for people of the Ritz-Carlton, a motto, three stages of service, basic rules, and a promise to staff, and is meant to keep service consistent in every house. Among the words staff must not use are “no,” “of course,” “OK,” “Hi,” and “Hello.” The guest’s name is always to be used, and dress and appearance are to be neat.

A good deal of money, the notes say, goes into raising skill and productivity, and the hiring process is strict from the start. To join, a person must first pass a fifty-five-item personality test, drawn from the traits of staff who have already done well; only then comes a final interview with the department head. Total quality management, introduced to reach a complete standard of service, is set out in three parts: TQM1 for work on quality, TQM2 for service practiced for the guest’s satisfaction, and TQM3 for a communication system inside the organization, with surveys of guests and of staff besides. The same Korean essay, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. A student essay on Ritz-Carlton Seoul, customer coordinators, and a customer-recognition program.
2. A Five Star Diamond award left without a year, and a naming as Korea’s best business hotel in 2000 and 2001 by readers of Business Asia and viewers of Bloomberg TV, left in those years.
3. A Gold Standard card, a fifty-five-item personality test, total quality management in three parts, and an undated survey figure of about ninety-five percent, left as the notes word them.

Last updated: 14 November 2026