The Grand Ole Opry got its start in 1925 as the WSM Barn Dance, a Saturday night radio hoedown that would evolve into one of country music’s most cherished icons. More than 80 years later, Gaylord Entertainment, the parent company of the Grand Ole Opry, is creating another landmark property with the construction of the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in the Washington, DC area.

The centerpiece of the $2 billion National Harbor project, a mix of business, leisure, and living along a 1.25-mile stretch of the Potomac River, 2,000-room Gaylord National will become the largest combined hotel and convention center in Washington’s Capital Beltway area and is the largest hospitality industry project taking place outside of Las Vegas.

“This is an unprecedented, blockbuster project that we have in National Harbor,” said Jack Johnson, executive of Prince George’s County, Md. “It is literally changing the face of Prince George’s County, the state of Maryland, and the Washington region. It is going to change the way people from all over the world visit the nation’s capital.”

And thousands have already planned their visit. The National isn’t scheduled to open its doors to guests until March of 2008, but more than 646,000 cumulative room nights have been booked. “We have already seen a tremendous amount of demand for the Gaylord National hotel, and believe that it will be a strong anchor for the National Harbor project,” said Colin Reed, Gaylord chairman and CEO. “As America’s leading convention resort brand, the future of Gaylord Hotels is indeed very bright and will continue to grow as we expand into other markets.”

Unique design
Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Gaylord Entertainment owns and operates the Grand Ole Opry and its broadcast radio station, WSM-AM, along with a handful of other country music-related entertainment and media companies. But the $868 million company derives roughly 90% of its revenue from owning and operating Gaylord Hotels.

The company’s growing network includes flagship Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida, and Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. And Gaylord will soon have locations on both coasts. Along with the facility being built outside the nation’s capital, the company is currently in the permitting stages for a 2,000-room resort and convention center in San Diego.

No matter where they are located, each of Gaylord’s hotel complexes feature a unique blend of guest, meeting, and exhibition space, with a variety of shopping, dining, and entertainment options—all under one roof. The result is a meeting planner’s dream come true, and that’s just what Gaylord intended.

“We want the very best meeting facilities we can provide for our customers,” said John Caparella, COO. “It starts with a great logistical plan for running first class meetings and conventions. In the design process, we ask what the requirements are for loading docks to easily move conventions in and out of the facility, elevator lifts, back-of-the-house service, etc. Then we ask, how can we put an entertaining environment around it? What can we do to make this a world-class experience for the guests from an entertainment perspective?”

“Entertainment is in our roots,” Caparella continued. “With our unique history and culture, it’s natural for us to be able to create these unique environments. At Gaylord, it’s not an either-or proposition; it’s how we think.”

While the hybrid design philosophy has been critical to Gaylord’s success, Caparella stressed that the organization’s quality service is what truly sets it apart in the industry, making it America’s fastest-growing specialty lodging and entertainment provider.

Service profit chain
On stage at the Grand Ole Opry isn’t the only place you’ll find stars. Gaylord refers to each of its 7,000-plus employees as stars, and the company provides them with all the training, support, and incentives they need to provide the best customer service possible.

“We believe in the service profit chain,” Caparella said. “Our business’ success starts with star satisfaction. If our people think Gaylord is a great place to work, and they love the company they work for, they’re far more likely to give great service. If they give great service, our customers will demonstrate loyalty to us. If customers are loyal, they’ll come back and our business will be successful. Our senior leadership believes this 100%, and we challenge our stars to be accountable to this high standard.”

From Opryland to the nation’s capital, Gaylord Entertainment is bringing a new model to the hospitality industry.

Once employees are brought into the fold, they become critical resources executives within Gaylord regularly call on to contribute ideas for improvement. At each location, general managers run Star Advisory Committees. Every two weeks, the GMs sit with a group of employees and go over a simple agenda: how do we improve employee satisfaction, guest satisfaction, and financial performance?

And employees don’t only have direct input in the decisionmaking process at their own hotels, they also contribute to company-wide decisions. Every other month, employees get a chance to “Call CVR,” where CEO Colin V. Reed holds a conference call and speaks directly with front-line employees. Everyone is encouraged to participate and provide feedback or ideas for improvement.

“There’s a great feeling for innovation in this company,” Caparella said. “We allow our properties to try things, see how they go, and give us feedback. If front-line employees have an idea, we encourage them to develop it and roll it out. If it works, we extend it across our resorts.”

The metric for a successful idea? Customer satisfaction. Each quarter, the company sets customer satisfaction goals and conducts customer satisfaction surveys to measure performance. Depending on the results, employees are given monetary rewards of $50, $100, or $150. Said Caparella, “Potentially, every star can make up to $600 in guest satisfaction bonuses every year. No other hotel is making that kind of investment.”

And the results of Gaylord’s investment speak for themselves: in the second quarter of 2006, a relatively slow quarter in the hospitality industry, Gaylord Opryland achieved a 12.8% increase in revenues; Gaylord Palms generated revenue per available room growth of 10.9%; and Gaylord Texan revenues increased 2.1%. Perhaps most telling, roughly 45% of Gaylord’s customers are return clients.

“We have awesome facilities, and awesome facilities are important,” Caparella said. “But if you don’t deliver the goods, it doesn’t matter. We’re not a product driven company. We’re a service driven company. Our service is driven by our stars, who we love and value and honor. That’s the difference. We get it right with our stars first, and the rest works itself out.”

Gaylord’s unique design philosophy and dedication to customer service will come together like never before at the Gaylord National. A soaring 18-story glass atrium will overlook the Potomac River and the national monuments beyond; at its core, the complex will feature 400,000 square feet of exhibition and meeting space.

Milt Peterson, of Fairfax Virginia’s The Peterson Companies, the lead developer on the 300-acre National Harbor project, will surround the National with 1 million square feet of world-class retail, dining, and entertainment in the style of Barcelona’s magnificent Ramblas. It’s taken 20 years to cut through countless layers of red tape, but thanks to the work of Peterson, County Executive Johnson, and Gaylord Entertainment, among others, National Harbor will soon become reality.

“During the groundbreaking ceremony, I said that all of the partners involved in this project came together as one, just like an orchestra, and together we are playing a great musical piece, 20 years in the making,” Johnson said. “And I can tell you without a doubt that it sounds absolutely amazing.”