Gaylord's West Coast Expansion and More, With DOSM Russ Mitchell

A major player is about to disrupt the West Coast convention and large-meeting rotation landscape with the opening of Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center.

Gaylord Pacific DOSM Russ Mitchell talks about the brand's massive new $1.3 billion property near San Diego, which will be the largest hotel on the West Coast.

Located in Chula Vista, California, and set for a May 15, 2025 opening, the property will offer a whopping 1,600 rooms, 89 suites and 12 presidential suites, including two presidential penthouse suites, in addition to more than 477,000 square feet of meeting space that includes the 47,000-square-foot California Ballroom, the largest in the Golden State.

[Related: Gaylord Pacific Set to Launch a West Coast Game-Changer]

Mitchell also delves into what makes Gaylord stand apart in the large-meetings segment, including its all-under-one-roof onsite offerings, single-point-of-contact sales effort and top-tier service in the form of its Teal Coats and Celebrity Services.

* Sponsored by Gaylord Pacific

Transcript:

Editor's note: The following transcription was facilitated by an AI program and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.

Tyler Davidson 
Hello and welcome to this Meetings Today Podcast. I'm Tyler Davidson, vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today, and really happy to be joined today by Russ Mitchell, who is Gaylord Pacific's Director of Sales and Marketing. Thanks for joining us. Russ.

Russ Mitchell
Hey. Thanks, Tyler, thanks for having me on the podcast.

Tyler Davidson   
And so, I love it. You're a Marriott guy for more than 30 years. I love meeting people from Marriott that have worked there [that long]. They're veterans. Tell us about your history there at that iconic brand?

Russ Mitchell
Sure, sure. Tyler. Yeah. My experience, I've been with the company for a little over 33 years. I actually started off my career in the food and beverage space, moved into the event space for a little bit, but the better part of my career has been in sales and marketing up and down the coast of California,

Tyler Davidson  
And now you've lived in San Diego, in that area, for over 20 years now, and really developed strong ties in the community and work with students from San Diego State University's Tourism Management Program. Why is that important to you to give back both to the community you live in and also the industry?

Russ Mitchell 
Yeah, thanks. I've been in San Diego for about 25 years, and during my experience in the market, I've been able to build a relationship with the hospitality, tourism and and management program at San Diego State University, and I found that that they've done just an amazing job at building this program from scratch, and the talent that they've put out of here has been really, really great for our community, for the hospitality community. Not only for the Marriott brand, but really for the community as a whole. I felt really good, as I've spent time working with some of the students coming out of the program, and some of their initiatives to engage leaders from the community and have us work with students, so that way they get some real life professionals being involved with the program.

Tyler Davidson    
Yeah, and I think a lot of times there's--a having covered this industry for 25 years now, and knowing just how vibrant it is and how exciting--there seems to always be a disconnect with maybe people, the younger generation, just about what an exciting career opportunity it is, and it's it's good for someone like you who has really been in it for so long, to be there to communicate that to them?

Russ Mitchell   
Yeah, and I found so many examples where people are in school and they're kind of learning about the business side of hospitality, not just the hospitality business, but the business side of it. And I've seen in my career so much growth in this space, and it's been great to help navigate some people who are early in their careers or ready to take the leap in our business, and see them flourish over the years.

And sometimes they're students not only from the hospitality and tourism marketing or management program, but also people from other disciplines that are curious to know where  they start off in hospitality, working in restaurants or in some of the operational areas. And I love seeing them flourish in the business, whether it's in the operational area or transition over into the sales or the event side of our business as well. 

And I've seen time and time again, so many students grow very well in this space. 

Tyler Davidson  
Well, thanks again for doing that. Let's talk about your property. You're the DOSM for the newest Gaylord property. And of course, fitting with the Gaylord brand, it's a big one. The last figure I saw was $1.3 billion for the Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center. 

This Gaylord is first on the West Coast, and not only the largest hotel in California, but also on the West Coast. Tell us a bit more about what makes this, or what will make this, property so special.

Russ Mitchell  
Yeah, Tyler, we are so excited about what we're bringing to the West Coast, and this being the first expansion of the brand into the West Coast. 

There have been so many customers that have wanted to meet at Gaylords but their rotations bring them into California or somewhere along the West Coast, and we have many of our brand customers that are loyal that rotate through the brand, that sometimes their members want to go to California or Oregon or Washington, and we just haven't had the representation that we can now fulfill that need. 

So, it's a very exciting time for the brand, but it's also a very exciting time for our customers. What we found with the brand is we live in a space that's very unique, where many of our customers meet at Gaylord because they're too big for some of the big box hotels but they're too small to go into certain convention centers. And we've seen a lot of success in that with the brand. 

And then once our customers come into the brand, we've seen there's a lot of loyalty because of a certain niche market that this brand meets, and then also the experience once they come in and they experience some of the touches, like our celebrity services or our teal coats, and it just brings them back time and time again.

Tyler Davidson   
This new property is going to have 1.8 million square feet of meeting and event space, and also the largest ballroom in California. I mean, that must make you excited to be able to kind of dangle that in front of a lot of potential clients. 

Russ Mitchell  
Yeah, customers are really excited about it, because this will be the largest hotel on the West Coast in terms of square footage. When you look at our ballroom that we have, it's actually 140,000 square feet; we call it a flex hall. And so basically, it has the ability to work either as a ballroom space, and the largest space without pillars is 47,000 square feet, but it can also be used as breakout rooms or it can be used as a exhibit hall. 

So, there's a lot of flexibility with this space. And there's nothing else like it on the West Coast. And the best thing about it is we operate it. It's a convention center, so when our sales team sells the guest rooms, they also sell the convention center as well. 

So, you don't have to go to a different entity to buy the convention center, and then a different entity to book the hotel rooms or other options. It's all done under one roof.

Tyler Davidson   
The San Diego area, where, as we mentioned, you've lived for more than a couple decades...why was that area selected? And of course, it's probably the best weather in the world there. But you know, what makes that market especially ripe for this new property?

Russ Mitchell  
Well, I think when you look at what the market does in San Diego, and the team at the San Diego Tourism Authority, as well as the hotel packages, we have a great destination, and they really do a great job overall. 

But what we find with a lot of customers is they try to get into San Diego and they can't get in here. It's just busy; the availability is somewhat limited. There's also interesting an observation that I've seen firsthand, but there were also a lot of theories and thoughts that went into building this hotel that there was a certain demand that customers couldn't get into the market, and we're seeing that where customers can't get in get into the market, not only because of lack of availability, but also because some of the groups are too big for the big hotel or too small for the convention center. 

So, if we have a group that wants to get into the San Diego Convention Center and they need an 80,000-square-foot exhibit hall and it only has 12 or 1300 rooms on peak night, it's really difficult to place that business in the market. 

However, with the Gaylord Pacific in the market, now we can actually accommodate that group. In fact, we actually have a group that's coming up to us in August, and I met up with the customers yesterday. They were out for a planning meeting and they need about about 400 to 600 rooms of overflow. And they're looking at bringing these room nights into downtown San Diego in addition to their meetings that they're going to do it at the Gaylord Pacific. But they they actually need additional room blocks as well. 

So, it's a great opportunity for the market.

Tyler Davidson  
And looking at some of the facilities there and some of the key points, one thing that really jumped out to me was this Growlers Sports Bar. It'll have a hidden speakeasy. I mean, that's so cool. We've written about [speakeasy's]. It's sort of a trend. Now, tell us more about that, and can groups utilize it as an events venue? 

Russ Mitchell 
Yeah, in fact, that's really what Gaylord is built on, with the brand, and what the model, is built on, is everything is under one roof. And our goal with this hotel is to create an experience that while you're in a major gateway city, you're in a hot destination, but the restaurant offerings that we're going to have on property are going to be unlike any other hotel you know, where you basically have a city within the hotel itself, and anything from Old Hickory Steakhouse, which is our signature restaurant throughout the whole brand, but also other experiences like Trio or Marzul or Growlers Sports Bar or the speakeasy Cask and Crown. But you know, we're not going to tell you the passcode, Tyler. 

Tyler Davidson  
You know that's where I was going with that, of course.

Russ Mitchell   
But those are available for groups and group buyouts. Our ownership group; they're really proud of the fact that they've built a number of large convention hotels over the past 12 to 14 years, including the Gaylord Rockies, or including the the Marriott Marquee in Houston. 

But they take a lot of pride in building spaces that take care of groups and are group friendly. And so whether it's a group of 10 that wants to do a meeting and then they want to do a buyout of the private dining room and Old Hickory, or if it's a large group of 2,000 people and they want to do a dine-around on property, we have a lot of options, and that's what our model is built on.

Whether it's the Gaylord Pacific or the Gaylord Palms, or Gaylord Opryland or Rockies, or Gaylord National or Texan, we're all built in that similar model that we can do dine-arounds onsite, or you're in a great destination that if you want to go into downtown San Diego, or you want to go to the Gaslamp Quarter or Little Italy, you have those options as well.

Tyler Davidson  
Once a group is on site, you have what is called Gaylord's Event Experience Managers, affectionately known as Teal Coats, right? What are the services they provide to your clients?

Russ Mitchell  
The role of the Teal Coat is to provide onsite daily support for the meeting planner. And really, they're attached at the hip with our planners, and they're available to take care of last-minute setups, or if a speaker walks into a room and they don't like a particular way that the setup is, or if there's last-minute audiovisual needs, our Teal Coats are there to take the stress off of the planner and deliver experiences. And it's also not only about the meeting itself. Sometimes it's the VIPs that are coming in, or sometimes it's a change to a rooming list. Our Teal Coats are really designed to be a support for the meeting planner, to help deliver the meeting experience.

Tyler Davidson   
And you mentioned your VIP services. I think you guys call it Celebrity Services. What does that entail?

Russ Mitchell  
Sure, well, celebrity services really goes to the experience of the brand and  Gaylords history in the entertainment world. And so our Stars are our employees who deliver the experiences, and our celebrities are the guests and the VIP guests. 

So, we have celebrity services which are designed to take care of our VIPs with groups. It actually goes back to arranging the experience from the moment of arrival in town, where we set up town car services, to the arrival experience, where they're basically shuttled behind the front desk and given just really a high-level, high-touch experience into the hotel. They'll help set up restaurant reservations and their departure out of the hotel, so they really take care of those guests.

Tyler Davidson  
What are some of the other attributes of Gaylord that really make it stand out. I mean, I believe the mission statement is it was "founded to deliver a purpose-built offering for the underserved meetings and event customer." You tell us more about that concept, and if a planner is not super familiar with Gaylord as abrand, what makes it stand out, you know, in terms of you versus your competition?

Russ Mitchell  
Sure, it's a great question. And really, when we talk about it being purpose-built, and you look at this model, whether it's the other Gaylord properties or Gaylord Pacific, and you see the amount of space that we have under one roof and the ability to accommodate events, whether it's on site or in our outdoor event spaces or our restaurant spaces, we've really tried to create the all-inclusive destination resort for meetings. 

And when I say all-inclusive it's about the inclusion of outdoor event spaces or indoor meeting spaces or opportunities so groups don't have to leave the property. They can come to great, world-class destinations, whether it's Nashville, Orlando, D.C., Dallas or San Diego or Denver, and they can take advantage of the amenities of those destinations, but really they're purpose-built; purpose-built with the idea that you can do things without having to deal with some of the logistics that go with moving people offsite.

Tyler Davidson    
And I believe that the Gaylord Pacific is anticipating a mid-May opening. I'm guessing that's still on track. And then any other announcements, or any other markets, you anticipate Gaylord kind of sussing out for future expansion? 

Russ Mitchell
Well, in terms of expansion, I'm really not in a position to quote on that. I think we're really excited about this; about having the coverage across the U.S., and having this hotel being on the West Coast. And I know everybody's really excited about this and where we are at this point in time and opening soon.

Tyler Davidson  
How's everything looking? Gearing up for the opening?

Russ Mitchell
Yeah, it's really exciting. So, if you listen to our ownership group, they talk about the hotel being open on time and on budget, which can be unheard of in this day and age. 

And I'll tell you, our owner started talking... I've been on this project for almost three years, and our owner has been saying that we're gonna open in May of 2025, and in fact, their original date that they were telling me was 5/25/25, and now we're actually gonna open on 5/15/25, so we're really excited about that.

Tyler Davidson
Excellent and, yeah, this is a big project for you, too, to open such a massive property. Have you ever been involved at anything even approaching the scale before? 

Russ Mitchell 
From my experience, not at this scale. And I'm so grateful that we have such an amazing team around us, from our sales team to our operations team, and then even the general contractor, to our ownership group, to our leadership team that they've been involved with the Rockies opening to most of the Gaylord properties opening as well. 

They've enabled us with really a great group to get this hotel off the ground and  get it open successfully.

Tyler Davidson 
Well, awesome. I'm really looking forward to it, and best of luck with it. I'm sure it's going to go swimmingly. And anything else to add to folks listening out there?

Russ Mitchell  
I think Tyler, it's good for people to know that we open May 15, we'll have our first group in house around June 13, and then we're really taking business from June 15 and on. 

So, we're open for business and so excited about the opportunity to welcome groups into San Diego and into this marketplace and into the Gaylord brand as well. 

So, the Gaylord brand is new to the West Coast, so a lot of people that live in California, they may heard of Gaylord and Gaylord Hotels, but they may not really understand what the brand is about. So, we're really excited about introducing Gaylord to the West Coast and West Coast customers as well.

Tyler Davidson    
Well, excellent. Well, thanks for joining us today. Russ,

Russ Mitchell 
Hey. Thanks a lot, Tyler. Thanks for your time. 

Tyler Davidson 
And that was Russ Mitchell, who is a Gaylord Pacific's director of sales and marketing, on track for a May 15 opening. 

We didn't get the secret code to the speakeasy, but we'll just have to hope that comes. Maybe if you're on property there, I'm sure they'll divulge that. 

I'm Tyler Davidson, vice president and chief content director for Meetings Today. Thank you for joining us for this Meetings Today Podcast, and if you're interested in any of our other podcasts with meetings industry thought leaders, head on over to MeetingsToday.com and check out our podcast section for a wealth of other podcasts that you can listen to on demand. 

Thanks again for joining us, and no matter what you're up to with the rest of the day, go out and make it great.