Can we hold our conference here every year?
Written: Mar 16 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: I highly recommend holding your conference at the Gaylord Opryland hotel and Convention Center.
Cons: I only had three complaints over four days.
The Bottom Line: I'm very impressed and wish every hotel/convention center was this well laid out. The staff is amazing.
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| starstraf's Full Review: Gaylord Opryland Hotel |
Background
There is a conference that I travel to for work most years, and I have now found the place I wish it was every year. Our conference was just over 4000 attendees this year and we had up to 35 sessions going on at one time. Prior years were in Atlanta and Orlando. This year I had an added complication by breaking my ankle 2 months before the convention – I’m off crutches and doing well in physical therapy but my ability to walk long distances and navigate stairs well is compromised.
Before I got there
Online reservations were available linked thru our conference sight, there were easy to handle though they did require one nights deposit at the time of our reservation. The week before the conference I emailed the hotel explaining about my ankle and asking if there was a fridge in the room for my ice pack and could I please be near and elevator. I got quick response letting me know the fridge was not standard but they could put one in my room for $20 for my stay and they would not on my reservation about the elevator.
Arrival
My first impression was while I was still at the airport – heading down to baggage claim there was a sign over the escalator telling me where to go after getting my bags to get the hotel shuttle information. I was easily able to navigate there and purchase my round trip shuttle ticket for $30 , I then only had to go out the door and about a quarter of a block until I found the benches to wait for the bus. It was only 10 minutes before it arrived with a full size couch bus, they put our luggage underneath and that was the last time I handled it until I got to my room. The ride to the airport was quick and comfortable. The outside view of the complex intimidated me and I feared there would be much walking in my future. When we got off the bus the luggage was there, and we could either take it with us or have them check it until we called down with our room number. I then walked down a short hill into the Cascade Lobby for check in.
Check in
With a full bus of maybe 50 people arriving at once I was expecting to wait in line for quite a while – they split us up as we walked in to head to two different check in areas and they had five check in staff at each area. Within ten minutes I had my room keys and a map with directions how to get to my room.
Getting around
The map was intimidating at first glance. The hotel has three areas of guest rooms: Cascades, Magnolia, and Delta and then the convention center. I think the Cascade rooms are the nicest from what I heard, but both the Delta and Magnolia rooms offer very easy access to the convention center. I was on third floor Delta for my stay. Instead of the standard hotel design of one bank of elevators that you end up wait at many times during your stay, they had smaller banks of elevators spread out throughout the complex. Each Wing has five or six elevator areas so you can walk across on the level you are at to get to the elevator that is closest. Some of my co-workers got lost so I recommend you hanging onto your map for your stay, on the back it has info on how to find all the meeting rooms. I was able to find my way around easily, and to navigate from my room to the convention center and meeting rooms without having to go up or down more then 2-3 stairs (and there were always other ways around with ramps) The elevators are sometimes tucked in but there are plenty of maps and signs around.
The Room
My room was a standard two bed with desk layout. The bathroom was nicely sized with a large counter and a second sink outside the bathroom. My only complaint about the room (Complaint #1) was that the closet was behind the bathroom door so hard to access. The towels were plentiful and soft and BATH SHEET sized. I have gotten so used to small towels when traveling it was wonderful to have larger towels. There was also a very comfortable chair to lounge on. There could have been another light over by the comfortable chair but the rest of the room was well lit. The room had ironing board and iron, hair dryer, and coffee pot. My refrigerator was not there when I got there but after one call to the “Consider it done” line it was there promptly. I did not call for my luggage until after my first session, but when I did my luggage was in my room within fifteen minutes of my calling. The geek in me was happy with the high speed internet access in the rooms thru Ethernet cable on the desk and four available outlets in the desk area to charge my collection of gadgets. The Ethernet cable was long enough to stretch over to the bed if I wanted to do my computer work there instead of the desk. And one of the phones was cordless so I was able to move around when calling home at night.
Staff
The staff was friendly, unobtrusive, and efficient. I noticed small details like if someone was vacuuming a hallway and a group of guests walked by talking they would stop the vacuum cleaner until the guests had passed. They cleaned the bathrooms between each session break and knew how to coordinate so they were not cleaning during the breaks.
Food
The hotel catering did a wonderful job of feeding 4000 people. The conference had breakfast buffet of an egg dish, fruit, pastries, coffee and juice. There was some variation every day and the staff did a great job of directing the people coming in to different sections so there were never large lines or waiting. There were boxed sandwiches that were above average. But WOW was I impressed with the dinners. The first night of our meeting we had a reception set up in 3-4 different areas all with food buffet setup. There was a range of areas from outside patio for smoking, to quiet rooms for conversation, to band playing and dancing available. The food ranged from pasta to roast beef, to jambalaya, to bananas foster. The serving staff was friendly and quick, there were rarely lines, and food was replaced quickly as it ran out. The cleanup staff, going around collecting plates was quick without interrupting conversation. And the bartenders were a treat, and a great source of information about things to do during out trip to Nashville.
Convention area
Most of the meeting rooms were easy to find (except the Canal rooms), and the first day there were extra staff around to direct us to meeting rooms were needed. Our break/breakfast area was folding chairs around large tables, and one section had some pretty flimsy chairs, but there other areas had better chairs (Note this is complaint #2). I presented at two sessions and each time there was an AV staff there to help make sure what I needed was working. I did not encounter any sessions that had any microphone or projector problems, I had to stop the AV staff (easy to spot in their black shirts) and thank them for keeping things running so smoothly. The staff also made sure that all rooms were kept stocked with water and cups and did their best to straighten up chairs between sessions. The only meeting area that was not wonderful was the Delta Island rooms (Complaint #3) had noise overflow from the shop area below and were very humid.
I doubt I would be able to afford staying here on my own dime, but it was a wonderful location for a work conference.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
starstraf
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Member: Star Straf
Location: Lawrence, KS
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
I live in Lawrence, Kansas and enjoy folk music and good food.
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