Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Cascades Atrium
General information
Location Nashville, Tennessee
Coordinates 36°12′41″N 86°41′40″W / 36.21139°N 86.69444°W / 36.21139; -86.69444Coordinates: 36°12′41″N 86°41′40″W / 36.21139°N 86.69444°W / 36.21139; -86.69444
Opening November 1977
Owner Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc.
Management Marriott International
Technical details
Floor count 6[1]
Design and construction
Architect Earl Swensson Associates
Other information
Number of rooms 2,881
Number of suites 220
Number of restaurants 15
Website
Gaylord Opryland
[2]

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, formerly known as Opryland Hotel, is a large hotel and convention center located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Gaylord Hotels, a division of Ryman Hospitality Properties (formerly known as Gaylord Entertainment Company), and operated by Marriott International. It is the largest non-casino hotel in the Continental United States outside of Las Vegas and also ranks as the 28th in the List of largest hotels in the world.

History

The waterfalls of the Cascades Atrium

On October 26, 2001, Opryland Hotel Nashville was rebranded as Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center (or Gaylord Opryland, for short), taking its name from its corporate parent. Company officials at the time stated that the "Opryland" branding was strong to Nashville (and Texas, initially), but did not fit with projects in other parts of the United States.[3] According to a 2003 press release, Gaylord Opryland planned to build a 5,000-seat amphitheatre on the site in the near future, but those plans seem to have been abandoned in favor of a convention center expansion.[4]

On January 19, 2012 Gaylord Entertainment announced a new partnership with Dolly Parton's The Dollywood Company to build a new water and seasonal snow park on acreage the company owns across Briley Parkway from Gaylord Opryland. The $50 Million Phase 1 of the overall project was expected to open in Spring of 2014.[5] On September 28, 2012, Dolly decided to withdraw her partnership in the new Nashville theme park.[6]

Wi-fi jamming

On October 3, 2014 the US Federal Communication Commission imposed a $600,000 fine on Marriott for willful interference with private Wi-fi hotspot connections linking its clients' portable computers to client-owned mobile telephones in the hotel's convention space.

The scheme abused a "containment" feature of a Wi-Fi monitoring system which was designed for the nominally lawful purpose of removing unwanted "rogue access points" from corporations' own local area networks. Marriott misused the system to send spurious de-authentication packets to client-owned wireless access points, which is unlawful as these are not part of Marriott's network but are owned by individual mobile subscribers. The fraudulent packets, which dissociate consumers’ devices from their own Wi-Fi hotspot access points, were sent deliberately as a means to force convention-goers to buy wireless Internet access from the hotel at rates from $250-1000 per access point.

According to FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. “It is unacceptable for any hotel to intentionally disable personal hotspots while also charging consumers and small businesses high fees to use the hotel’s own Wi-Fi network. This practice puts consumers in the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or forgoing Internet access altogether.”[7] Despite the substantial fine, Marriott continues to deny that its conduct is illegal, saying it was using FCC approved equipment to protect its customers from hackers.[8]

Related Gaylord-owned properties in Nashville

References

  1. "Gaylord Opryland Resort Hotel, Nashville | 236912". Emporis.com. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  2. Archived July 11, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Vacation Resorts and Convention Centers". Gaylordhotels.com. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  4. "Vacation Resorts and Convention Centers". Gaylordhotels.com. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  5. "Gaylord Hotels® - Marriott News Center". Gaylordhotels.com. 2014-11-20. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  6. "Dolly Parton drops out of new Nashville theme park". CNN.com. 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  7. "MARRIOTT TO PAY $600,000 TO RESOLVE WIFI-BLOCKING INVESTIGATION" (TXT). Transition.fcc.gov. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
  8. "Marriott settles complaint that it blocked guest wi-fi hotspots". Fortune.com. 2014-10-03. Retrieved 2015-07-01.

External links

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