It quickly established a reputation for luxury and attracted a clientele that included royalty, politicians, writers, film stars, and singers.

Because of its status as a symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is featured in many notable works of fiction, including novels (F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises), a play (Noël Coward's play Semi-Monde), and films (Billy Wilder's 1957 comedy Love in the Afternoon and William Wyler's 1966 comedy How to Steal a Million).

It was sold in 1750 to Charles de la Villette, treasurer of the extraordinary wars, who rented it to the Prince of Andorra, Spanish ambassador.

From 1775 it belonged to Claude Darras, secretary of the king, and then was occupied from 1788 by the Direction of the liquidation of the public debt and then from 1792 by the Mortgage credit.

[7] Aided by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle, Ritz purchased the palace and transformed the former Hôtel de Gramont building into a 210-room hotel.

[9] Ritz's innovative standards of hygiene demanded a bathroom for every suite, the maximum possible amount of sunlight, and the minimum of curtains and other hangings.

[6] At the same time he furnished the hotel with all the old-fashioned appeal of an English or French gentleman's house, in order to make clients feel at home.

[10][11] Together with the culinary talents of his junior partner Escoffier, Ritz made the hotel synonymous with opulence, service, and fine dining, as embodied in the term "ritzy."

It was rescued, however, in 1979 by Egyptian businessman, Mohamed Al-Fayed, who purchased the hotel for $20 million and installed a new managing director, Frank Klein.

[17] Al-Fayed renovated it completely over several years without stopping its operation; this was achieved by annexing two townhouses, joined by an arcade with many of Paris's leading boutiques.

[27] During the summer of 1940, the Luftwaffe, the air forces of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, set up their headquarters at the Ritz, with their chief Hermann Göring.

[28] Ernest Hemingway, who stayed at the hotel many times after World War II, was there when he learned his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, wanted a divorce.

[30] On 22 April 1955, the Duke and Duchess of Parma hosted a coming out ball for their daughter, Princess Cécile Marie of Bourbon-Parma, at the hotel.

In the 1970s a travel publication Holiday wrote, "Practically every royal head of state has snoozed under down quilts on the finest linen sheets, beneath fifteen-foot-high (4.6 m) ceilings in rooms looking out, through huge double windows, on the elegant Place Vendôme.

"[16] The bathrooms contain unique golden swan taps, and peach-coloured towels and robes, believed to be more flattering than white to a woman's complexion.

"[40] The Vendôme Suite is one of the most spacious of the hotel, containing Louis XIV furnishings, with a red and ivory theme and grand windows overlooking the square.

The bathroom is a former boudoir overlooking the Vendôme garden, with 18th-century paneling and a Jacuzzi bath and steam-bath shower, and has its own plasma television and cosmetics fridge.

The suite was Hermann Göring's choice of residence during the Second World War and it was where Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al-Fayed ate their last meal.

[51] The restaurant is inspired by the legendary first chef of the hotel, Auguste Escoffier, serving "traditional French culinary style with contemporary overtones".

[54][55] In 1999, Esquire magazine wrote, "the dining room, L'Espadon, down the long corridor of mirrors and display cases, has a glittering Regency formality that seems to swirl around you, and it's easy enough to imagine Hemingway sitting down with Dietrich to a dish of chef Guy Legay's buttery scrambled eggs..."[55] The restaurant decor is described as "opulent with trompe-l’œil ceilings, swagged drapes, and views into the garden.

The Ritz Bar, just inside the Rue Cambon entrance on the left, gained a reputation over the years for its glamorous cocktail parties and the unique bartending skills of Frank Meier, a head barman from 1921 until his death in 1947.

Many novels of the Lost Generation feature scenes in the Ritz, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

Noël Coward's play Semi-Monde is perhaps the most notable work covering the hotel in detail, following the escapades of an extravagant, promiscuous fictional Paris elite between 1924 and 1926.

[64] In the Bret Easton Ellis novel Glamorama, a group of supermodels turned terrorists plant a home-made bomb in the Ritz, resulting in its destruction.

[65] In The Da Vinci Code, the protagonist, Robert Langdon, stays at the hotel while in Paris, as do Andrea Sachs and Miranda Priestly in Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada.

[68] In Julian Fellowes' novel Snobs (2004), those attending Earl Broughton's pre-marriage bachelor party are accommodated at the Ritz.

In Billy Wilder's 1957 comedy Love in the Afternoon, Hepburn initiates her romance with Gary Cooper in his suite in the hotel and much of the film is set there.

[70] The story of the Al-Fayeds and the acquisition of the Ritz Hotel is part of the 3rd episode of the 5th season "Mou-Mou" of the Netflix series The Crown in 2022.