Part of the problem with the Ritz's dress code is that for business it is out of synch with the current times. My friend was in London on business, running a tech company where business is done (including with clients) in jeans, not in jacket/tie. Just as it is inappropriate to go into a formal restaurant in jeans for dinner, it is equally inappropriate to show up for a business meeting in a jacket and tie when the normal standard of dress is jeans. So the Ritz dress code effectively made the public areas of the hotel unusable for business purposes (meetings mostly). I'm glad to hear they've relaxed it; the stay I was referring to was 3 or so years ago.