My wife and I stayed at The Ritz-Carlton on Thursday May 13th and departed on Sunday the 16th. The staff seemed to be very well trained and gracious. Everyone went out of their way to be friendly and make sure every aspect of our stay enjoyable.
However, I feel like the front desk and other staff are being put in a difficult situation because of some design flaws, mainly not having proper sound proof windows on the front of the hotel.
Directly across from the hotel is a two story building called the Pavilion at Epicenter http://epicentrenc.com/ there are over three dozen bars and restaurants that encompass over half a million square feet with an open air pavilion.
In order to stimulate more business on Thursday night they host a program call "Alive After Five" where they bring in live bands to perform: http://epicentrenc.com/event/alive-after-five/25. The music starts at 5:00 p.m. and is suppose to end at 9:00 p.m. but does not. Regardless, after the live band stops all the bars turn up their music and go on until 2:00 am or later.
If your room faces the Pavilion and probably half of the 145 rooms in the hotel do. The the noise level from the street and the music is horrible.
We arrived on Thursday and our room was on the front of the hotel. From 5:00 p.m. to 9:50 p.m. the bed literally vibrated from the band and after that the noise from the bars continued.
I called the front desk and the hotel staff offered to move my wife and I that night but we were both exhausted and already in bed. We agreed to be moved to another room the following day. This was handled professionally and I am not faulting the staff for something out of their control I am really just surprised this happened.
Secondly, while I know the Ritz-Carlton prides itself on having the first environmentally-built hotel in Charlotte and that it was awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification, please allow me to vent a little.
When you are paying $350 a night for a room you expect the room to be quiet and peaceful and overly luxurious. The room was spacious, the lounge chair uncomfortable, but I understand built for durability. We had minor problem with the in room safe but that was corrected quickly.
I enjoyed stepping into a beautifully appointed bathroom but was greatly disappointed not be able to have a brisk shower and further having to turn both the sink handles completely in order to get enough water to thoroughly wash my hands.
Having a chiller in your hotel room honestly is useless unless you live in France and enjoy having a warm soft drink versus a real refrigerator to keep something cold, but at least I could go down the hall for ice.
The motion censor on the air conditioner control makes for having to constantly adjust the temperature.
Lastly, I have to comment on the food, I will be the first to admit that having mostly organic culinary choices, while not a total turn off, is not what I would consider simple comfort food. After all, isn't that what most people want?
With all this said, I'm sure my wife and I will stay at another Ritz-Carlton in the future. Their hotels have always been beautiful and the staff attentive but I was just disappointed that this stay wasn't all that I had envisioned.
