César Ritz (French: [sezaʁ ʁits]; né Cäsar Ritz; 23 February 1850 – 26 October 1918) was a Swiss businessman, hotelier and pioneer of the travel industry. He most notably founded several hotels most famously the Hôtel Ritz in Paris and the Ritz and Carlton Hotels in London (the forerunners of the modern Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company). He was an early hotel chain founder known as "King of Hoteliers, and Hotelier to Kings," and it is from his name and that of his hotels that the term ritzy derives.
