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Simon Cooper is Moving On Up from Ritz-Carlton to Marriott Asia Pacific

Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall

We were pretty stunned to hear that Ritz-Carlton's CEO and President Simon Cooper was leaving the brand, but it looks like he's getting a far bigger job. We had heard he would stay on at Marriott in another capacity and as it turns out he will now be president and managing director of Marriott's Asia Pacific division--an exciting job for sure, given all the hotel action that's going on in China. In fact, Marriott has 130 hotels and 70 more under development in this region. Plus, he gets to be based in Hong Kong.

Marriott tells us the move is a part of their ongoing strategy for the last 18 months to break the Marriott company into four divisions---Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. These divisions were designed to facilitate growth and bring more Marriott-branded hotels to the market, i.e. opening them faster so we can stay in them.

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Ritz-Carlton's President and CEO, Simon Cooper, is Stepping Down

UPDATE: Go HERE for details on Simon Cooper's new gig for Marriott

*A HotelChatter Exclusive*

There's a big shake-up happening in the hotel industry today. We've got extremely reliable word that Simon F. Cooper, president and CEO of Ritz-Carlton Hotels, is stepping down. In a memo sent to high-level Ritz-Carlton employees, it noted Cooper will stay on at Marriott in another capacity but Herve Humler, currently President of Ritz's international division, will assume the role of prez and CEO. And from what we've heard, it sounds like that's effective immediately.

Last year, we speculated on the Marriotization of Ritz-Carlton and since then Marriott has been making subtle changes in its corporate structure. A commenter last August offered up some interesting perspective on all the changes. Later on in November, Cooper himself admitted that there were a lot of movement in "the back of the house" as Ritz continued to undergo a serious corporate makeover.

We just never imagined he would be the one lost in the shuffle. (Although Ritz folks tell us the writing has been on the wall for Cooper since then.)

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Between The Pages Of The Ritz-Carlton Magazine

This week we're taking a look at a dying hotel amenity--The Hotel Magazine. Sure, most hotels stock their guestrooms with the trendy magazines of the day or at least place some localized publication on the desks but there are actually a few hotels out there that still publish their own magazine. We've got our hands on a few copies of these rare breeds and we'll be documenting our finds for you here. Know of a hotel magazine we should see before it goes out of print? Send it to us!

As such a well-established luxury brand, it makes sense that Ritz-Carlton Hotels want their in-room magazine to share a similar pedigree. That's no doubt why on the website for the magazine, they tout its relatively recent redesign "led by James Truman, former editorial director of Condé Nast." [Just to be clear: Conde Nast does not publish the Ritz-Carlton Magazine. It does publish us. ]

Truman and a solid lineup of contributors bring their years of established print-mag experience to these well-produced pages and altogether it certainly looks and feels as expensive and stylish as the rooms you'd find the publication in.

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Marriott is Putting on (Some Changes at) The Ritz-Carlton

Back in August, we had heard whispers that Marriott Hotels would be changing things up with its Ritz-Carlton Hotels. The rumors were that Marriott would be making Ritz more Marriott-y by handing over some of the operations to Marriott corporate folks. A commenter lamented the change saying:

It is at General Manager level in Ritz Carlton that is causing the biggest effect. Marriott GM's are coming onboard and don't have the passion or understanding that "Old School" Ritz Carlton GM's have. The 15 year Ritz Carlton Veteran becoming a GM is a thing of the past.

And then that was pretty much we heard about all of that. Until Travel Weekly's article about the "ambitious corporate makeover" going on over at the Ritz. The rumors were true--Marriott is doing extensive restructuring of Ritz-Carlton.

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Is Marriott Taking Out a Hit On The Ritz-Carlton?

The Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey.

We got a tip late last night that told us things could be changing drastically at Ritz-Carlton Hotels which as you all know is a part of the Marriott Hotels. Our Hotel Deep Throat writes:

Major restructure with Marriott International underway. Most Ritz Carlton corporate roles are gone or replaced with Marriott personnel. The operational and regional structure will also be replaced by Marriott. The question will be what effect this will have on the guest experience and the famous Ritz Carlton mystique.....is this the beginning of the end for this great brand (Ritz)?

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Twitter / Ritz-Carlton Hotels / Simon Cooper / → All Tags

The Latest From The Hotel Twitterverse

Yes, we're talking about Twitter again. If you haven't signed up for Twitter by now, then we're past the point of explaining it to you. But if you have taken a liking to micro-blogging and real-time status updates, then here are a few hotel-related Twitterers we think are worth following.

· Simon F. Cooper: The CEO of Ritz-Carlton has finally gotten his own Twitter. We were fortunate enough to give him a tutorial of Twitter back in April and we look forward to his upcoming tweets!

· Stan D'Arde: This is the alter-ego of Standard Hotels and if you're a hotel design nut or an Andre Balazs stalker (we are personally both), then this Twitter feed will surely fill you up.

· Concierge.com: A few Concierge travel writers have been mixing it up in Shanghai and Beijing, sending back awesome snapshots and street scene reports. (FYI: HC and Concierge.com are part of the same Conde Nast Digital family.)

· Apple Core Hotels: This Manhattan collection of hotels is set to launch a new Twitter promotion tomorrow called, "Thrifty Thursdays" where Twitter followers will get 10 percent off stays booked on Thursdays through the month of June. Read more about the deal here.

· Tablet Hotels: If you only seek out design hotels on your trips, follow Tablet Hotels for up-to-the-minute deals.

Click here to follow HotelChatter, Jaunted and VegasChatter on Twitter!

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Confirmed: Ritz-Carlton Makes Airplane Food You'll Actually Enjoy

The first chef up in the Star Chefs rotation talks about his fave dishes (Andres Jimenez, Executive Chef of the Ritz-Carlton Denver).

Last night, we hit up the appropriately-swanky launch soiree of the Ritz-Carlton Hotels/Lufthansa Airlines partnership, the newly-formed "Star Chefs" program we told you about earlier this week. Starting May 1st, selected chefs from Ritz-Carlton properties around the United States will be sending their fine food up into the friendly skies for the enjoyment of first and business class passengers on Lufthansa airlines throughout the summer. The idea here is to reinvent airplane food (i.e., um, make it good), and to make the Ritz-Carlton experience "seamless," so to speak: the brand will be all up in their faces even before they check into their hotels. Literally being stuffed into their faces.

And oh, we'd better believe we stuffed our faces with a little Ritz-Carlton fare last night. Along with our brother site, Jaunted, we hit up the launch party and canoodled with executives and chefs in a breathtaking Tribeca penthouse all night long.

And oh, before we forget? At some point in the evening, we were totally the Ashton to Ritz-Carlton's Oprah: we helped the ever-dapper Ritz-Carlton CEO, Simon Cooper, send his very first tweet (which he dictated to us Bill-Marriott-style).

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