The Ritz Carlton Marina Del Rey Resort

I love the RC chain, so it pains me to write about how awful the one is in my neighborhood. I have been "giving it another try" for about 10 years now and I am always disappointed.

I live within walking distance so my neighbors and I (tried) to frequent the bar, restaurant, gym/spa and some industry events that are often held there.

So my comments come from a variety of experiences from myself and my local community spanning a decade.

- Jerne restaurant: mediocre food, lousy service

- Calling to book a reservation or confirm times for various poolside special events: well when you are fortunate enough to get someone to answer the phone, you are often speaking to someone new on the job who transfers you someplace else - gift shop, spa, and then nobody there answers the phone.

- Tried to spend the night there just last night- upgraded to a room on the club level facing the pool (very nice) but checked out at 11:00pm due to extremely louse music coming from an event being held directly below my room on the first level. Called the operator THREE TIMES to request a quieter room if the event would be running through the night - and no one answered the phone. Checked out and was told I would not be charged for the room and that the manager would contact me today. I have my doubts! It is obvious that the facility is poorly run and the staff is poorly trained. I am amazed that corporate would allow this site to fester and bruise its hard earned, amazing brand integrity.

My husband and I had our wedding reception at the Ritz in Marina Del Rey in September of 2007 and the process was anything but exceptional, it was actually pretty mediocre. We had been set up originally with a coordinator that stood us up, and then were set up to partner up with the manager, who at the end of the day did pretty much nothing. I thought that when you paid the type of money we did that we would be amazed with how well they handled our special day, instead I made countless phone calls to even get a call back. We reserved a block of rooms and the phone number that our guests were instructed to call was the gift shop! Needless to say, this was upsetting to us and our guests. On the day of our wedding our honeymoon suite was a disaster, dirty dishes from the morning were left there, it smelled like BBQ sauce from the chicken tenders my bridesmaids had five hours prior, overall the room wasn't picked up! My husband was overcharged money and he left 2 messages to get this resolved and he's yet to get a call back after one month and now his AMEX is having to deal with the dispute. We think the place is beautiful but we would never rate them high on customer service...I don't think we'll ever recommend them or stay at another Ritz Carlton again!