SPECIAL REPORT
The company ’ s name changed in the months ahead when Johnson purchased the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company of America . Within a year of the first hotel opening in January 1984 , Ritz-Carlton had four hotels open and had grown from 50 employees to 2,000 . Staros was rooms director for the company and simultaneously ran the rooms department at the Buckhead property .
“ The first time I met Ed was when I had my first GM job in Pittsburgh ,” Schulze recalls . “ Ed was my rooms exec . How did he do ? Well , when a few years later I started the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company , I called on Ed Staros to join me . He was a major contributor in the birth of The Ritz-Carlton and what the company became . In fact , I don ’ t know if we could have accomplished the early successes of The Ritz-Carlton without Ed ’ s diligent , well-organized and totally focused support .”
By 1986 , Staros was promoted to general manager of the downtown Atlanta hotel and in January 1988 became regional vice president and GM of the Buckhead property . Five years later he was promoted to vice president of operations and helped open multiple properties around the world .
Perhaps the biggest feather in the caps of the original Ritz-Carlton leadership team came in 1992 and again in 1999 when they won Malcolm S . Baldrige awards , which recognized companies that implemented successful quality management systems .
“ I wasn ’ t going to let Horst down . If he wanted to win the Baldrige Award , we were going to win the goddamn Baldrige award ,” Staros says . “ I wanted him to get his satisfaction and the only way I was going be satisfied was if I accomplish his goal . In my business life , that stands out the most — being a part of the team to make that happen .”
THE KNACK The Ritz-Carlton was sold to Marriott International around 1995 , and despite the
I DON ’ T KNOW IF WE COULD HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THE EARLY SUCCESSES OF THE RITZ-CARLTON WITHOUT ED ’ S DILIGENT , WELL- ORGANIZED AND TOTALLY FOCUSED SUPPORT .
HORST SCHULZE
awards and the excitement of traveling the world to open hotels , Staros missed his family and his wife needed him around more as they were raising a child with special needs . So , in 1999 , he landed the leadership role of The Ritz-Carlton , Naples , where ownership was adding a 50,000-square-foot spa and sister golf resort .
With the opening of the spa , Staros knew he could increase the room rate and charge an annual fee for a limited number of spa memberships . He raised rates by US $ 50 and sold 300 memberships , which today stands at US $ 75,000 per year in revenue and overall in excess of US $ 15 million .
Less than 10 years later and after surviving the impact of 9 / 11 , Staros was faced with his biggest challenge when the 2008 financial crisis hit the U . S . hard . Many of the Naples hotel ’ s Fortune 100 company business were canceling meetings , but Staros persuaded most of these groups to leave their deposits at the hotel .
“ We kept 98 % of the deposits with their consent and sold them on the idea of ‘ maybe you ’ ll need those funds for an upcoming meeting , and because you ’ re going to go through this recession , too , you may not have the funds for meetings ,’” Staros says . “ It really was a great decision .”
In fact , throughout his career Staros showed a level of thoroughness and rigor , as well as a knack for making the right decisions that elevated everyone around him . “ We knew he had a great deal of integrity and that he was intense when he got a hold of an issue ,” Holmes recalls . “ He dug in and solved it .”
38 hotelsmag . com November / December 2019