The Ritz-Carlton is a brand of luxury hotel and resort with 71 properties located in major cities and resorts in 23 countries worldwide^[1]. It also has major service training operations in its Ritz-Carlton Learning Institute and Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, created by Ritz-Carlton executive (emeritus) Leonardo Inghilleri^[2], where nearly 50,000^[3] executives from other companies worldwide have been trained in the Ritz-Carlton principles of service.

The name Ritz-Carlton dates back to the Ritz in Paris and the Carlton in London. In 1912 the Ritz-Carlton Montreal was opened in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The modern-day Ritz-Carlton was created when a four-person development team, headed by hotelier Horst Schulze, assembled in Atlanta Georgia^[4] to create the Ritz-Carlton concept using funder William B. Johnson's newly-acquired rights to the Ritz-Carlton name^[5].

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marriott International. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company currently has 32,000 employees. The Ritz-Carlton headquarters are found in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a community along the border of Washington, D.C..