Gaylord resort rebounds after 'a PR nightmare'

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. --A headline-making breakout of the nasty norovirus gastrointestinal bug and sightings of mice in guestrooms reported by guests on TripAdvisor.com are not ideal ways to launch an ambitious, upscale hotel.

"I was like, 'Oh, my God' ... it was a PR nightmare," says Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center public relations director Amie Gorrell.

It hasn't been an auspicious start for the 2,000-room hotel with 470,000-square-foot conference center, designed as the anchor of the new NationalHarbor project on the Potomac River in a once-undeveloped area eight miles south of the U.S. Capitol. It began accepting guests this month (the grand opening ceremony is April 25). National Harbor includes a marina, a just-opened Hampton Inn and a Westin, Residence Inn and Wyndham due later.

The Gaylord norovirus outbreak the first week of April was confined to guests in one ...