The Haute In Hotel

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Gaylord Hotel

The Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Prince George's County, a new addition to the Gaylord Hotels chain in D.C., boasts an 18-story glass atrium, multi-level indoor gardens, and a rooftop lounge.

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(A few days later, a new tiny trouble surfaces at the Gaylord: Mice! Three mice in a guest's room, nibbling on an unattended energy bar! Crisis control starts all over, and a top team of exterminators is brought in. This is a PR problem, but it was also a very successful Pixar movie. Can this incident somehow be re-spun? Can the mice sing and dance?)

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The Gaylord National was built by the Nashville-based Gaylord media/entertainment empire, and is billed as the largest hotel on the East Coast, if you don't count casinos. Gaylord has now built four such hotels, starting with the Gaylord Opryland, which it acquired when the Gaylords, a rich Oklahoma newspaper family, bought the Grand Ole Opry, which came with a hotel. A Florida hotel opened in 2002, and then one in Texas in 2004.

The Gaylord National has 2,000 rooms, five restaurants, five shops, a spa and a two-level, extra-bougie, New York-style nightclub at its tippy top. The hotel is staffed by more than 2,000 workers (culled from an applicant pool, according to the Gaylord, of at least 16,000). Gaylord employees are all referred to as "stars" and have been drilled with the company's mantra for serving People of the Atrium: "Consider It Done."

"Consider It Done" is a twist on the Disney slogan "Be Our Guest" crossed with the golden rule of commerce: "The customer is always right." Here's how it works:

Guest: Please kill the mouse in my room.

Front-desk star: Consider it done.

One thing People of the Atrium love more than premium service, more than atria, more than sending their Kobe steaks back, is meeting space. The Gaylord National has a half-million-square-foot convention center attached to it, seemingly miles of carpeted ballrooms, walkways and vast hallways.

People of the Atrium go to plenary sessions and breakout sessions and keynote luncheons. They love a trade fair. They are at their happiest in hotels.

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So we check in for a night, in an atrium-facing $314 king.

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