Gaylord Hotels is leaning hard into experiential hospitality this summer, unveiling a two-pronged seasonal programming strategy across all six of its flagship resorts. The Marriott International brand is expanding its Super Hero Summer featuring DC — bringing character experiences, themed activations, and immersive entertainment to guests — while simultaneously launching a new concept called All-American SummerFest, built around fireworks celebrations, poolside parties, and classic summer Americana.
For operators watching the hospitality industry's experiential pivot, the Gaylord play is a textbook case of using licensed intellectual property to differentiate a large-format resort from competitors. Rather than competing solely on amenities or price point, the brand is packaging a reason-to-book directly into the guest itinerary — a strategy that drives both occupancy and on-property spending on activity tickets, food, and beverage.
The dual-program approach also signals a deliberate effort to broaden the addressable audience. Super Hero Summer targets families with younger children drawn to DC characters, while All-American SummerFest layers in a broader, multigenerational appeal timed to the Fourth of July corridor — historically one of the highest-demand windows for resort destinations. Together, the programs are designed to sustain elevated occupancy across the full summer period rather than spiking around a single holiday weekend.
From a food and beverage standpoint, themed resort programming of this scale routinely generates significant ancillary revenue. Poolside parties, character dining experiences, and festive celebrations each represent structured F&B moments that operators can price and staff accordingly. Industry observers tracking resort F&B revenue strategies have noted that licensed-theme programming consistently outperforms generic seasonal menus in per-guest check averages.
Gaylord Hotels operates six resorts under the Marriott International portfolio, with properties in Nashville, Orlando, Denver, Washington D.C., Houston, and Coral Springs. Rooms and activity tickets for the summer programming are available at gaylordhotels.com. Food & Beverage Magazine has separately covered the broader trend of hotel brands using entertainment IP partnerships to strengthen on-property dining and experience revenue.
For hospitality operators, the Gaylord summer rollout is worth watching as a model for how large-format resorts are structuring the guest journey — turning the property itself into the destination attraction and using programming calendars to smooth demand curves across an entire season.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
