People you have never heard of will soon be running Pasadena’s iconic Ritz-Carlton Huntington.
RANT ALERT! The news of Pasadena’s Ritz-Carlton Huntington becoming a Langham is sad. What an amazing hotel. So close to downtown Los Angeles, but a world away. And such great atmosphere, too. Rooms were decent. But overall, big shiny gold stars for everyone.
Other bloggers seem more concerned with previous allegations of employee mistreatment, and think that the sale of the property (it was owned by the Los Angeles County employees union – isn’t that interesting?) is a good thing.
I’ll let them worry about that. I want to talk for a moment about the trend of previously well-known hotels being handed over to random brands eager to try their hand at the American market.
Okay, so Taj Hotels & Resorts wants to show the U.S. that it is the new Ganesh, hotel-wise.
But I am not sure how I feel about them starting in on New York’s Pierre and Boston’s Ritz-Carlton (the original item, mind you, this handover, barely covered in the media, was a monster of a tragedy). The Pierre closes late December for nearly a year, and will no doubt be quite a different place afterwards. (Some say that’s a good thing. I liked the old version, worts and all.)
Maybe these properties will be revived by all this money, but at the end of the day, having Taj in America is no less unsatisfying than having Ritz-Carlton pop up all over Asia. All this spreading of seed. It’s homogenizing and boring. I don’t want Asian influences in my American hotel. I want Asian hotels in Asia, and American hotels in America. (That’s one of the reasons I have a problem with Mandarin Oriental. Wherever you go in the world, you are in Asia. Even in Prague. Bizarre.)
Now comes this Langham influx. The name is ancient. The London original is legendary. But that property, bless it, isn’t even on the radar in London anymore, despite their best efforts to bring it back. It’s no Claridge’s, no Dorchester, no Ritz. Sorry. And now a bunch of Hong Kong property developers want to force the Huntington to take on the unwieldy name of “The Langham, Huntington Hotel & Spa.” How about not?
Langham’s only American entry is in Boston, which is sort of England, if you think about it. But why a Langham in Pasadena, of all places? I don’t know. It bugs me. I usually like change. In this case, it makes me grumpy.