The Rittenhouse Hotel may not be as famous as many of its guests, but the five-diamond luxury hotel on Philadelphia's exclusive Rittenhouse Square is pretty well known. With nearly $20 million in sales and over 78 percent occupancy last year, the independent hotel is once again near the top of Lodging Hospitality's Top Performers list (see pages 62 and 64).

Success didn't come easy, though. The shell of the building at 210 West Rittenhouse Square sat unfinished for years through several failed attempts at development.

Wharton School of business graduate David Marshall, the chairman and CEO of Amerimar Realty, had long eyed the beleaguered building from his nearby office.

Construction first began in 1970 with another developer, but it was quickly halted a year later, leaving steel bars exposed from the ground for nearly a decade. Construction began again in 1980, but was stopped a year later. The bank found a new developer in the mid-1980s, but the project never got off the ground.

Marshall was watching and waiting. Every quarter, he'd call the bank to check on the property's status. For two years, the bank said everything was fine.

Finally, in September 1987, Marshall got what he wanted. In a partnership with what is now GE Investments, Rittenhouse Development Company was formed and the 33-story building opened its doors two years later in June 1989 with 98 hotel rooms, 153 condominiums and prime office space.

BUILDING THE BEST

Marshall's goal from the start was to create the city's preeminent luxury property. He had the right location on Philadelphia's ritzy Rittenhouse Square, one of the top ZIP codes in the country. He reconfigured the architectural plans to expand the size of the rooms, aiming to top the nearby Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton. “I said we don't want to beat them in one area or two areas, we want to beat them in every area,” he says.

He slept in the sample room, he did all the interviews the first three years, he sat in every piece of furniture, picked every piece of art. “This had failed for so long, it wasn't going to fail this time for a lack of attention,” he says.

The guestrooms-the largest in the city, ranging from 450 to 600 square feet — were renovated in 2004 and feature pillowtop mattresses, plush carpet, carved mahogany furniture and lavish marble bathrooms. The hotel offers a full spa and salon, including a full fitness center; over 8,000 square feet of meeting space; a comprehensive business center; and four dining options, including Lacroix, named Esquire's best new U.S. restaurant when it opened five years ago. Guestrooms have a residential feel, while designers brought Rittenhouse Square Park into the hotel's public space with a courtyard, gardens, a statue, fountain and the use of cobblestone. The pride of Philadelphia is infused throughout the property with local artwork and the Boathouse Row Bar. Rates vary from $300 to $500 a night, with the presidential suite topping out at $2,700. David Benton, the only general manager the hotel has had, estimates 48 percent of his occupancy comes from groups, 15 percent from leisure travelers and the rest corporate.

The condos — ranging in size from 1,000 square feet to 8,000 and valued at around $1,000 per square foot — are home to many of the city's movers and shakers. Residents benefit from all of the hotel's amenities, commonplace today, but unique when the property opened almost 20 years ago.

INDEPENDENT'S DAY

Without the backing of a major — for that matter, any — brand, The Rittenhouse had a long and uphill climb in its early years. “We had to create everything from scratch,” says Benton, Marshall's most important hire. “Our HR policies, f&b programs, 401ks…it was more than just putting together the wine list.”

Benton, who had been with Marshall and Amerimar since 1977, says if a major brand had been interested during those early years, the hotel would probably have a different name today. The Rittenhouse does take full advantage of its status as a member of the Leading Hotels of the World. Marshall Calder, Leading's senior vice president of marketing, says The Rittenhouse's service is what makes it stand out.

“At the beginning, we kind of copied what our two competitors were doing,” says Benton. “I don't know if it was an epiphany or what, but we realized it wasn't working. We had to develop our own identity.”

Marshall and Benton started by empowering the staff of 300. Every employee was given the authority — and encouragement — to make any decision necessary to satisfy the guest. “We take that down to every level and every decision, so the customer can get an instant answer,” Benton says.

Without a huge marketing budget or a brand's national advertising or reservations system, The Rittenhouse had to find a different way to spread the news. “The only way we could compete was to market from within,” Benton says. “We had to please customers one by one as they came in and use old-fashioned word of mouth.”

Benton realized it was even more valuable when it came from the voice of a celebrity. “One of our early struggles was we couldn't get any to stay here,” Benton says. “They'd all say, ‘We'd like to talk to the tour manager or travel agent of the last celebrity to stay here.’ We didn't have anyone they could talk to.”

INVISIBLE TOUCH

Fittingly, it began with Genesis. Benton was able to lure the band's tour manager to The Rittenhouse for lunch and convinced him to give the hotel a shot. The hotel has gone on to host actors like Tom Hanks (the first time while filming the movie “Philadelphia”) and Bruce Willis (“12 Monkeys” also was filmed in the city), to singers like the late Luciano Pavarotti and even former world leaders like George Bush Sr. and Mikhail Gorbachev, who both visited last month. Bush Sr., in fact, has become a frequent guest and a friend of Benton.

When Hanks visited, Benton knocked down walls to combine rooms to create a four-bedroom suite. For Willis, in less than a weekend, the hotel transformed a regular shower into a steam shower. “He asked and we said yes, not knowing what that entailed,” Benton recalls. After many hours of work by carpenters, plumbers and painters, Willis arrived three days later to his steam shower.

“Rather than put a $20,000 ad in Travel + Leisure (magazine), we can put in a $5,000 machine that converts water into steam and we think the investment is worth it. When people of that ilk tell people we're the place to stay, it's worth it.”

Willis stayed three months and returned again when filming “Sixth Sense” and “Unbreakable.” Hanks stayed for nine months while filming “Philadelphia” and has since returned. Pavarotti was always welcomed with Italian movies and newspapers in his room. When a big booster of the University of Alabama football visited for medical treatment nearby, Benton made sure the Crimson Tide game was piped into his room. When executives from Mitsubishi visited, Benton got Comcast to provide Japan's main TV station to all their rooms.

The employee empowerment and personalization is from top to bottom, on both sides of the equation. You don't have to be an Oscar winner to receive special treatment. And Benton, the vice president and GM, personally greets weekend guests, usually leisure travelers, with a champagne station and chocolate-covered strawberries every Friday evening. For those arriving with children, he's got a large pirate chest full of toys the younger guests can pick through while the parents are toasting bubbly.

“We try to understand people's needs to personalize our service,” Benton explains. It's a method that has worked to perfection. The Rittenhouse, in less than two decades, has already become a classic. Not only a perennial power in this magazine's Top Performers list, it also ranked on Condé Nast Traveler's Gold List and Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards ranking this year, while earning AAA's Five-Diamond Award 17 consecutive years.

“Immodestly, this is what we were shooting for,” Marshall says. “When you have the best location in the city, the best product, the only thing we had to do was get the word out.”

RANK	SALES PER ROOM ($)	PROPERTY/LOCATION	ROOMS AND SUITES	TOTAL SALES ($000)	AVERAGE OCCUPANCY %
1	487,000	LITTLE PALM ISLAND RESORT Little Torch Key, FL	30	14,610	77
2	244,591	GROVE ISLE HOTEL & SPA Coconut Grove, FL	49	11,985	64
3	241,090	ORLEANS WATERFRONT INN Cape Cod, MA	11	2,652	99
4	221,693	WATERCOLOR INN & RESORT Santa Rosa Beach, FL	98	21,726	52
5	200,948	THE RITTENHOUSE HOTEL Philadelphia	98	19,693	78
6	178,880	OCEAN KEY RESORT & SPA Key West, FL	100	17,888	81
7	173,423	LA PLAYA BEACH & GOLF RESORT Naples, FL	189	32,777	75
8	139,644	MISSION INN HOTEL & SPA Riverside, CA	239	33,375	70
9	135,515	SHEPHARD'S BEACH RESORT Clearwater Beach, FL	95	12,874	80
10	119,313	THE EDGEWATER Seattle	223	26,607	83
11	119,000	GAYLORD PALMS RESORT Kissimmee, FL	1,521	181,000	77
12	117,216	GAYLORD TEXAN RESORT Grapevine, TX	1,638	192,000	75
13	116,625	PORTOFINO HOTEL & YACHT CLUB Redondo Beach, CA	163	19,010	80
14	113,820	PARADISE POINT RESORT & SPA San Diego	462	52,585	77
15	109,286	HARRAH'S ST. LOUIS HOTEL Maryland Heights, MO	502	54,862	96
16	106,188	DANFORDS HOTEL & MARINA Port Jefferson, NY	85	9,026	58
17	105,164	THE BRIARS RESORT Jackson's Point, ON	91	9,570	68
18	101,351	GARDEN CITY HOTEL Garden City, NY	296	30,000	68
19	100,674	HOLIDAY INN SOHO New York	227	22,853	94
20	99,271	GAYLORD OPRYLAND RESORT Nashville	2,881	286,000	80
21	95,560	HILTON SAN DIEGO RESORT San Diego	357	34,115	81
22	95,532	THE CAROLINA INN Chapel Hill, NC	184	17,578	76
23	91,387	THE BOULDERADO Boulder, CO	160	14,622	79
24	88,723	TUDOR HOTEL AT THE UN New York	300	26,617	86
25	85,114	CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN Thompsonville, MI	261	22,215	48
26	83,921	GRAVES 601 HOTEL Minneapolis	255	21,400	68
27	82,900	HOTEL VIKING Newport, RI	222	18,404	64
28	80,505	ROSEN SHINGLE CREEK RESORT Orlando	1,501	120,959	74
29	79,696	BEACON HOTEL & CORP. QUARTERS Washington, DC	198	15,780	87
30	78,225	FITGER'S INN Duluth, MN	62	4,850	74
31	77,956	DOUBLETREE SURFCOMBER Miami Beach, FL	186	14,500	84
32	77,489	INTERCONTINENTAL KANSAS CITY Kansas City, MO	366	28,361	70
33	76,948	ST. GREGORY HOTEL & SUITES Washington, DC	154	11,850	89
34	76,324	HILTON SUITES MAGNIFICENT MILE Chicago	345	26,332	80
35	73,483	THE HOMESTEAD Midway, UT	122	8,965	46
36	71,573	MOUNTAIN HAUS Vail, CO	68	4,867	65
37	69,348	EMBASSY SUITES HOTEL & SPA Albuquerque, NM	261	18,100	84
38	65,320	WARNER CENTER MARRIOTT Woodland Hills, CA	474	30,962	75
39	65,084	THE LODGE AT CLOUDCROFT Cloudcroft, NM	59	3,840	49
40	63,910	SUN MOUNTAIN LODGE Winthrop, WA	112	7,518	58
41	63,786	ADOLPHUS Dallas	422	26,918	60
42	61,880	BEST WESTERN JAMAICA BAY INN Marina del Rey, CA	42	2,599	86
43	61,661	MARRIOTT WATERSIDE Norfolk, VA	405	24,973	75
44	58,333	RENAISSANCE AT WORLD GOLF St. Augustine, FL	300	17,500	60
45	58,091	DOUBLETREE HOTEL AIRPORT Ontario, CA	482	28,000	76
46	57,302	WESTIN DFW AIRPORT Irving, TX	506	28,995	74
47	57,270	GLORIETTA BAY INN Coronado, CA	100	5,727	77
48	56,086	SHERATON EATONTOWN Eatontown, NJ	208	11,666	68
49	55,922	ROSEN CENTRE HOTEL Orlando	1,334	74,600	71
50	55,884	WESTIN PROVIDENCE Providence, RI	564	31,519	60
51	55,558	EMBASSY SUITES HOTEL Bellevue, WA	240	13,334	75
52	55,125	BEST WESTERN CARLYLE INN West Los Angeles, CA	32	1,764	92
53	54,907	EMBASSY SUITES HOTEL San Luis Obispo, CA	195	10,707	78
54	54,720	EMBASSY SUITES CONV. CENTER Las Vegas	286	15,650	88
55	54,563	BEST WESTERN BLUE SEA LODGE San Diego	126	6,875	74
56	51,560	RENAISSANCE HOTEL Asheville, NC	275	14,179	70
57	51,434	BEST WESTERN FIRESIDE INN Cambria, CA	46	2,366	74
58	51,183	PACIFICA SUITES Goleta, CA	87	4,453	80
59	50,232	EMBASSY SUITES Brea, CA	228	11,453	69
60	49,876	EMPRESS HOTEL La Jolla, CA	73	3,641	80
61	47,500	HOMEWOOD SUITES DEL MAR San Diego	120	5,700	78
62	47,400	ROSEN PLAZA HOTEL Orlando	800	37,920	72
63	46,445	COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT Pittsburgh	182	8,453	78
64	46,280	SANDCASTLE INN Pismo Beach, CA	75	3,471	66
65	46,223	COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT Pittsburgh	94	4,345	81
66	46,092	RADISSON JOHN DEERE COMMONS Moline, IL	162	7,467	74
67	45,868	CHANCELLOR HOTEL ON UNION SQ. San Francisco	137	6,284	92
68	44,396	WALNUT CREEK MARRIOTT Walnut Creek, CA	338	15,006	60
69	44,111	EMBASSY SUITES Blue Ash, OH	234	10,322	72
70	44,075	COMFORT INN Long Island City, NY	80	3,526	81
71	43,646	EMBASSY SUITES Santa Ana, CA	300	13,094	77
72	43,612	EMBASSY SUITES Lynnwood, WA	240	10,467	68
73	43,235	HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS Marina del Rey, CA	68	2,940	80
74	42,735	COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT Hamilton, ON	136	5,812	78
75	42,310	HOTEL DECA Seattle	158	6,685	75
76	40,828	PORT ROYAL OCEAN RESORT Port Aransas, TX	210	8,574	56
77	40,810	MARINA DEL REY HOTEL Marina del Rey, CA	153	6,244	78
78	39,985	EMBASSY SUITES WASH. SQUARE Tigard, OR	354	14,155	67
79	39,351	BEST WESTERN SUNRISE HOTEL Redondo Beach, CA	111	4,368	79
80	39,345	HOLIDAY INN Burlington, ON	240	9,443	59
81	38,148	HILTON KNOXVILLE AIRPORT Alcoa, TN	236	9,003	78
82	37,431	GOLDEN ARROW LAKESIDE RESORT Lake Placid, NY	153	5,727	64
83	37,037	BEST WESTERN YACHT HARBOR INN Dunedin, FL	54	2,000	68
84	35,087	FRENCH QTR. CHATEAU LE MOYNE New Orleans	171	6,000	75
85	34,581	SPRINGHILL SUITES BY MARRIOTT Washington, PA	86	2,974	86
86	34,127	COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT Greensburg, PA	102	3,481	80
87	33,306	COURTYARD UNIV. OF DAYTON Dayton, OH	101	3,364	74
88	33,039	BROOKFIELD SUITES HOTEL Brookfield, WI	201	6,641	59
89	32,989	SPRINGHILL SUITES MALL OF GA. Buford, GA	97	3,200	82
90	32,428	STONEY CREEK INN Moline, IL	140	4,540	74
91	32,119	HAMPTON INN MALL OF GEORGIA Buford, GA	92	2,955	85
92	31,443	HAMPTON INN Gatlinburg, TN	97	3,050	81
93	30,222	COMFORT INN SHADY GROVE Gaithersburg, MD	126	3,808	87
94	30,121	STONEY CREEK INN Johnston, IA	165	4,970	67
95	28,435	TRAVELODGE HOTEL AT LAX Los Angeles	147	4,180	99
96	28,125	COUNTRY INN & SUITES WEST Clive, IA	104	2,925	78
97	27,611	STONEY CREEK INN Columbia, MO	180	4,970	64
98	27,515	STONEY CREEK INN E. Peoria, IL	165	4,540	73
99	27,434	AMERICAS BEST VALUE INN Glenwood Springs, CO	23	631	81
100	27,391	FAIRFIELD INN & SUITES BUCKHEAD Atlanta	115	3,150	70
101	27,234	FAIRFIELD INN & SUITES-HAMMOND Atlanta	114	3,115	75
102	27,240	FAIRFIELD INN BY MARRIOTT Butler, PA	75	2,043	73
103	26,041	DEGRAY LAKE STATE PARK LODGE Bismarck, AR	96	2,500	60
104	25,925	SEACLIFF LAGUNA INN Laguna Beach, CA	27	700	70
75	17,564	ASHMORE INN & SUITES Lubbock, TX	124	2,178	73