Wealthy Americans rate Ritz-Carlton the Most Prestigious Luxury Services Brand in 2005

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. October 14, 2008

NEW YORK, NY, November 21, 2005. The Luxury Institute announced today that Ritz-Carlton earned the highest ratings as the most prestigious brand in the Overall Luxury Services segment for 2005, based exclusively on the ratings of wealthy and ultra-wealthy American consumers. Wealthy consumers who know the brand rated Ritz-Carlton above 110 other luxury services brands in seven major luxury services categories: Luxury Hotels and Resorts, Luxury Tour Operators, Luxury Cruise Lines, Private Jet Services Firms, Luxury Retailers, Wealth Management Firms and Full Service Brokerage Firms.

"The Ritz-Carlton brand stands out for its consistently superior quality as well as the best reputation among the wealthy for making customers feel special across the entire customer experience," said Milton Pedraza, CEO of The Luxury Institute (www.luxuryinstitute.com). "In the Luxury Hotels and Resorts category, which is one of the most demanding of luxury services categories, a skilled competitor with the resources can match or outperform its competitors on physical environment. Even though they deliver wonderful aesthetics, the true brand differentiators for Ritz-Carlton are its leadership, its people and its culture. Ritz-Carlton is meticulous about recruiting the best people, training them, and nurturing a service culture throughout the organization, and wealthy Americans acknowledged that in our Luxury Brand Status Index survey series in 2005."

"We are deeply gratified to be the overall winner of the Luxury Institute's 2005 Luxury Brand Status Index surveys for Luxury Services," said Simon F. Cooper, president and chief operating officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. "Our premiere ranking from this group of elite consumers is a wonderful recognition. The ladies and gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton understand that as the luxury world continues to expand and grow more competitive, our future success is based on the ability to deliver a superior lifestyle experience that is exclusive and unique. On behalf of The Ritz-Carlton, I am deeply honored to be named the Luxury Institute's most prestigious Luxury Services brand for 2005."

The proprietary Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) is the only independent and objective measure available of the value and equity of leading luxury brands to wealthy Americans. The survey is based on statistically meaningful data collected from wealthy consumers themselves. The LBSI incorporates four main "pillars" of value: consistently superior quality, exclusivity, a measure of enhanced social status, and a measure of the ability of a brand to make a customer "feel special". Seven point scale ratings are converted to a 0-100 scale.

In addition to individual and composite metrics by age, gender, income and net worth segments among the wealthy, the survey also measures a brand's ability to merit a significant premium price and measures the correlation of price premium with the composite index of the four critical factors above.

Another highly critical metric feature of the research is a rating by wealthy consumers as to the brand's erosion or enhancement as a luxury brand over the past 12 months.