International Resort Management: Challenges and Recommendations

This report discusses the challenges faced by international resort management and provides recommendations to overcome them. The report covers the case study of The Royal Duchy Hotels and Resorts, which is one of the finest luxury hotels in the UK. The challenges discussed include operational and managerial issues, retaining and attracting employees, personalizing customer experience, and implementing technology. The report also provides recommendations to overcome these challenges.

International Resort
Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
International resort management is all about giving a range of services to the international
customers such as spa, beach, ski, golf and much more. They tend to give relaxation,
entertainment and enjoyment to their international clients and guests. They are responsible to
offer best services which are relied on customer’s tastes and preferences. These kind of resorts
should have skilled and qualified employees to deal with international clients and visitors.
Managing resort organization at international level includes several challenges, together with
operational and managerial issues. So, handling and overcoming is essential and imperative at
the time same time. Technology is also the best tool to manage various customer services.
Organization should find ways to adopt modern technology to offer best services.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK...............................................................................................................................................4
About the Company................................................................................................................4
Literature Review...................................................................................................................5
Current challenges facing the case study................................................................................8
Recommendations................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
Books and Journals:..............................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality defines extending a welcome to tourists or indulging a home away from
home. The hospitality sector is vast in nature it covers all the economic activities that contribute
directly or indirectly or depend upon travel and tourism. This industry encompasses restaurants
and catering, hotels and resorts, night clubs and bars, tourism, spas and wellness, travel and
transportation, cruise liners and bus tours, events (business, sports, cultural and private).
Hospitality and resort management is a vast career field that offers several opportunities for
global career progression (Abrahão and et.al., 2019). The career paths are as diverse as the
hospitality and resort sector, with various new concepts as well as innovation altering the sector,
the career paths will continue to evolve with trends and technology of modern world. In the
respective management, customer satisfaction is the primary goal in which the best experience is
ensured. International resort management defines the skills and knowledge essential to manage a
resort, a hotel or an accommodation based company anywhere across the world. It includes the
aspects of regular day to day operations, covering housekeeping, guest relations, hotel
management and food and beverage.
TASK
About the Company
The organisation which is chosen to prepare this report is The Royal Duchy Hotels and
Resorts, It is known as one of the finest luxury hotels in UK. This organisation established in
1893. It is located in a seafront position that is why it is regarded as one of the tourists
attractions, especially among Victorian and Edwardian tourists. For a while, this organisation
was known as Hydro Hotel and it boosted the therapeutic health advantaged of sea bathing. It is
the part of award winning Brend Hotels Group (Ahn and Thomas, 2020). Also, it is suitable and
perfect for family trips and vacations and famous choice for weddings and other functions. When
guests and customers stay at the hotel, they are ensured a relaxing break in a famous waterside of
Falmouth. The customer can chill out on the sun terrace, pamper in a sauna or enjoy a swim in
the indoor heated pool. It also gives a vast range of bedroom choices. The client can opt for sheer
luxury, which as stunning views of the seafront as well as Cornwall coast. The family guests can
also opt for generous rooms with huge space for cots and beds, moreover, interconnecting rooms.
At the end of the day, looking into Falmouth and enjoy wealth of attractions of Cornwell, one

can vitally relax and view sunset from sea-positioning lounges as well as the outdoor terrace is
the one of the perfect spots in evening, especially in summers. Furthermore, the dining sector of
The Royal Duchy is always includes pleasure as winning chefs offers mouth watering dishes
from local and fresh ingredients to be served in the deluxe restaurant environment (Ahn, Back
and Boger, 2019). Therefore, it is one of the perfect place where customers can get great
experience of relaxation.
Literature Review
International Resort Management:
As per the viewpoint of Asibey, Amponsah and Yeboah (2019), international
management covers overseeing lodging operations, food services and recreational facilities at
international level. A s international resort management professional or expert, the key
responsibility is the make sure the customers, guests or tourists who come around the world
should have enjoyable recreational or vacation experience. It will also overlook that resort or any
kind of lodging facility is running smoothly. Resort manager is also called lodging managers,
does their jobs in places such as ski lodges, resorts, hotels, camp-grounds, motor home parks,
amusement parks. When dealing functions and activities of international resort, the
accountabilities can involve advertising, repairs and upkeep, cleaning and employee relations
(Asibey, Amponsah and Yeboah, 2019). The obligations and duties may also involve employing
safety measures, acquisitions and overseeing various events. A resort simply signifies a self-
contained commercial business that attempts to offer most of a vacationer's wants such as food,
swimming, entertainment, drinks, lodging and shopping on the premises. It is mainly aims to
offer an array of amenities, typically recreational and entertainment activities. The Royal Duchy
is a spa resort where customers can get several kinds of entertainment facilities, indoor heated
pool, spa facilities and much more. It is perfect for people who visit of vacational or holiday
purpose. It also can be taken as a destination resort that itself includes the important guest
attraction capabilities so it does not require to be near a destination to attract its clients. It is sea-
positioning site where guests want to come and enjoy the sea views while taking baths at the
same time. The resort also offers a range of delighted and tasteful dishes, foods and drinks so
tourists can enjoy. As it is one of the finest luxury spa hotel and resort, the main purpose is to
offer individual services for spa clients to evolve healthy habits. They provide spa facilities of
natural hot springs or even sources mineral water. Many international tourists and clients loves

to enjoy spa and massages. They like to enjoy pedicure and manicure as well, so they look for
the best spa facility provider (Bardhan, Sunikka-Blank and Haque, 2019). The Royal Duchy
comes in one of them which can offer all those services. The key aim is to manage the resort to
give effective massage which is able to provide best experience to the international clients. These
also cover services such as body scrub, scalp massage, nail art, nail treatment, hair removal using
wax.
Operational and Management Issues:
As per the viewpoint of Basu, Liu and Stallaert (2019), operational issues are those issues
or problems that occurs which can give an organisation less profitable. There are many diverse
categories which make up operational issues, each with their own unsuitable outcomes. In simple
words, these can cause massive drains on business resources and energy, can influence
operational performance as well. Whereas, managerial issues relates with those challenges which
may associate with productivity. For a good international resort management, identifying and
addressing these issues can assist in advancing ability and confidence to lead a team (Basu, Liu
and Stallaert, 2019). In context of The Royal Duchy, some of the key operational and managerial
issues are discussed below:
 Dirty rooms: A clean and fresh hotel room is one of the prior indications a visitor has of
how enjoyable their stay at the resort will be. Undoubtedly, housekeeping tasks can be
overviewed from time to time, even the chicest bedrooms can be viewed as deficiency
depending on the visitor. These problems are less complicated to manage when tackled
with consideration and swiftness. Make sure housekeeping employees is clean rooms on
regular basis to match resort standards. In case of The Royal Duchy, the front desk
employees should have incoming clients wait until the housekeeping staff clean their
room.
 Poor guest experience: Another extremely major issue is poor customer experience. No
matter what the position, team members should be occupied well training and
development sessions to rectify the issues of visitors promptly, make necessary changes
while expressing sincere apologies (Blagoeva, Jensen and Merchant, 2020).
 Communication between teams: Communication between maintenance, housekeeping,
management and other team members is a massive daily issue for hospitality. It is

complicated to fix the issues and to give feedback to the relevant individual or individuals
to make that the failures are resolved.
 High cost of operations: High operational costs, as such an all including and
overwhelming issue to solve, make the evolution of new tasks or the execution of more
explained preventive maintenance impossible. In context to respective resort, controlling
consumption is a method to limit the operational costs.
 Calls and interruptions: Another frustration that faced by many of the guests is the
quantity of interruptions as well as maintenance calls that hinder the abilities of manager
to progression with more pressing matters (Elkhwesky, Salem and Barakat, 2019). Often
these calls would be not complicated, regular queries concerning certain information on
resources.
 Retaining employees: It is one of the major operational issues in hotel and resort
businesses is employees' turnover. Hotel employees not performs typically Monday to
Saturday jobs or working days, they are perform day and night alternative shift duties.
Hence, identifying long-term employees to work in these patterns can be typical and
problematic. Also, dealing with huge volume clients can be trying, and may be a big
reason hotels are called to have the huge employee's turnover rates. Furthermore,
identifying the right candidate can affect the international hotel business. It covers the
spending on advertising for the position, uniforms, training for the position and other
costs. Hence, the high costs of labour linked with employee turnover can influence
operational issues.
 Operational costs: There are certain reasons that operating costs are becoming a
problem for hotels. Foremost, hotels are trying to maintain the technology trends and
each modifications adds certain expenses such as advancing Wi-Fi networks so that
tourists to check in on their phones. Having an advance Wi-Fi networks needs addition to
costs. The Royal Duchy also have to modify their equipments and ensure their systems
are compatible.
 Long failure resolution times: Making sure a good failure resolution time is a
complicated part of resort management and has a direct influence on customer
satisfaction as well as billing (Fichtner, 2021). A room with damaged products is a room
that is not available to customers and a locked hotel and resort unit shows less profit

created. Limiting the time between reporting as well as solving a non-achievement is
crucial to make sure the quality, along with speed of maintenance services.
 The constantly changing customer's expectations: The customers is the king of market
where businesses needs to consider their changing expectations and tastes as well. The
entire aim is keep consumers happy and satisfied. As a hotel and resort manager, there is
a necessity to identify the ways to make customers delighted (Fu and Wang, 2020).
Hence, delighting the customers in the international resort management us getting more
complicated with altering expectations of guests and international tourists as well.
 Political and security challenges: It is one of the top managerial issues in the
international resort management. The problem of managing the macro complications
dealing with the socio-political, together with economic challenges. In present times, the
threat of terrorism has changed the perceptions of people regarding travelling and where
they travel. Resort managers are tasked with the obligation of making sure that suitable
surveillance systems are installed and well-kept across, so the visitors can feel safe and
comfortable at the same time. With an intent to deal with security challenges, resort
managers have to depend on high tech gadgets as well as software, which can be costly to
adopt and hold.
Current challenges facing the case study.
There is not secret that the hospitality industry and international resort management has
struggled in the past year and will tend to proceed to grow and recover in 2022. International
resort organisations are continually faced with several challenges regarding customer
expectations and trends, the industry is promptly increasing and companies are struggling to hold
with the demand (Haobin Ye, Fong and Luo, 2021). In respect of The Royal Duchy Resort, the
following are some current challenges that are facing by the business:
 Implementation of technology: Over the last some years, technology has ramped up
within the hospitality sector, contactless services, self-check-ins, payment through apps,
online ordering has become the new normal. It is found as the challenge to offer a good
customer experience with a combination of human as well as tech-enabled interactions,
customers want best experiences, thus, the organisation must be doing anything they can
to adhere to this. If the technology is not adopted at all then it can stop the entire system

of production, thus, business require to have back up plans to be ready for any problems
related with the technology.
 Retaining and attracting employees: The hospitality sector is highly recognised as the
sector in which employee's turnover rate is high as one third of employees leaving their
jobs after working for few months and approx. 45% of employees holding on for an
average of 2 years (Hsu and Scott, 2020). The sector is continuing to evolve with more
workers being expected to be employees every twelve months, thus, organisations to
remain competitive they require to make sure they have workers with high skills,
competencies as well as cognition. Also, employees' expectations and demands are
always growing and changing, companies require to keep their eye on current
hospitality trends for attracting and holding the employees for a good period of time,
which is proving to be a current challenge within the international resort management.
 Personalising customers' experience: Customers demands and anticipate a higher
level of personalisation, organisations still facing issues to translate information and
visions into actions. This information covers the former purchasing habits and their
tastes, letting spa and resorts to tailor their givings and promotions to the certain
customers. They sector requires to continually identify new and differentiated ways to
customize their visitor's experience to keep a competitive edge.
 Excellent services: Every hotel and resort guests demands or anticipates a good
customer service but now a days resort or hotel management must exceed anticipations
by being more than just good- they require to be extra ordinary. A resort or hotel is
clearly viewed by the quality of services they offered. Highly attentive and skilled
employees, respect, individual touch, together with the ability to make a client's stay as
comfortable and as enjoyable as possible, are all significant to succeed.
 Reputation management: As the online or digital platforms are progressing day by
day, with clients and customers offering organisation online feedback or review,
through their ratings, comments as well as photos. The international resort organisations
has been facing issues to grow healthy and strong relationships with their guests to boost
their reputation and brand image as well (Hwang and Choi, 2019). Comments and
reviews can harm the organisation, thus the hospitality industry required to exploit

specific platforms to their benefits and manage their brand image, a challenge that
company may face in upcoming times.
 Health and wellness: Multi-purpose spaces that increases health as well as wellness for
customers is a significant and evolving trend. These design upgrades involves additional
costs while takes time to execute (Li and Ryan, 2020). However, millennials
progressively expecting more sustainable accommodations to stay, along with local
organic farm grown food. In case of The Royal Duchy, as many of tourists come
especially to take spa sessions in the resort so that they can be relaxed and calmed, spa
service provider can use organic oils, creams, wooden equipments and many more in
order to offer effective spa services.
 Environmentally friendly practices: Environmental concerns proceed to alter present
hospitality sector, over the past few years, it has been paying focus for all the companies
to spend in. Organisations make sustainable practices in order to stand out, guests want
to know that the organisation they take services from follow socially, environmentally
and culturally sound practices (Junxia, 2019). It also has been researched that guests and
tourists will ready to pay extra money for the goods and services that do not harm the
natural goodness and environment. Hence, a big challenge that Royal Duchy might face
in the future as sustainability is becoming a new norm of life to the customers and
company as well.
 Change in guest expectations: Change in guest expectations is one the massive
challenges in the hotel and resort industry. It has been seen that in present times,
consumers demand a lot more from the resort and hotels such as swift check in and
check out services, unique stay experience, entertainment system, Free Wi-Fi and much
more. Owing to the Covid-19 global pandemic, guests also be expecting online payment
services, contactless hotel services to make sure a safe stay. Hence, it is quite
challenging to abide by these expectations because of capital and resource bandwidth,
also, it is going to be vital to do it (Kaiser and Kirton, 2019).
Recommendations
By analysing all the above aspects, it is found that there are various challenges and issues
faced by chosen organisation. In order to overcome challenges and problems, following are some
suggestions or recommendation for The Royal Duchy. The discussion is further below:

 Innovative technology: Most luxury tourists and travellers are purchasing a curated
experience as well as are often time-poor. They put significance friction free together
with well-organized services, and specifically do not want to be queuing at a reception
desk (Lowe, Tejada and Meekan, 2019). An online or contactless, electronic check in is
easily attained with the help of web technology. Most of the hotels and resort, nowadays
implemented this innovation in response to global pandemic. Once the customer has
booked their rooms, the resort or hotel provides the services as well as all future dealings
are carried out in a digital way. Scannable door keys may still a choice, but may also
offer better solution is use of app in customer’s mobile phone. So, as they arrive at the
hotel they do not required to check in at the front desk while creating their way directly to
the room which is pre-confirmed. They can also use their mobile phone as a key to
unlock the rooms, simultaneously all the other services which the resort or hotel provides.
Therefore, a time-consuming offline documented work can be shifted to strenuously to
the digitalisation (Marsudi, Sirat and Hadady, 2022). In case of chosen organization, they
can also offer online booking for spa or rooms or food as well so that their customer can
have in their room or they can enjoy any service by viewing beautiful sea.
 Reputation management: Online feedback, reviews or comments enable visitors or
tourists to directly communicate their personal experience in a resort or hotel mainly with
images or videos. This channel is also likely to manage the brand as well as evolving a
high level of trust between organisation and their guests. A positive review, feedback or
comment can make or break the reputation of a hotel and resort (Moreno-González, León
and Fernández-Hernández, 2020). Digital media as well as luxury travel inseparable.
High end tourist have embarrassed platform such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
where they can share their stories and real time experience. The chosen organisation can
also leverage this opportunity to promote and manage their brand reputation while
creating a positive feedback loop where more bookings and revenue can be generated
(Rood and Holdnak, 2020). In case of selected hotel and resort, they can get reviews on
their hotel rooms, food they offer, behaviour and services of staff members, about pricing
and much more.
 Finding and retaining talent: People are very important to the success of a luxury hotels
and resort. As, it is very crucial that hotels and resorts attract and hire top and skilled

employees and often this will require to be hired internationally. In respect of this fact,
the growth of hospitality organisation highly depends on both local and global economies
(Seraphin, 2019). International organisations attract the right candidate but they find it
difficult to retain them. One of the main methods of hospitality sector is recruiting based
on referral (Sangpikul, 2022). A training and attitude development program can also
indulge to the employees as an individual who acknowledges and can respond to the
requirements of luxury customers can transfer their competencies to any hotel or resort.
Inspiring and motivating employees should be focused on offering a service centric rather
than product centric.
 Guest experience personalization: The digital world has grown the want and demands
for a more focused and authentic travel experience. Personalisation should be the main
reason for luxury service facilitators and they should look to offer personalized
experiences for tourists. On an average customers travel globally between 1 to 3 times a
year (Stamatiou and et.al., 2019). This does not provide hotels and resorts several
opportunities to learn directly about their customers. A comprehensive digital strategy let
the resort and hotel manager to remain in touch and evolve strong and customised
messaging with the help of email or social media.
 Brand loyalty: Accomplishing direct bookings is another big issue which hotels in
resorts are experiencing as they face stiff competition (Um and Chung, 2021). Therefore,
it is very essential that independent hotels and resorts give loyalty programs, along with
value added special services. But, this is not enough as word of mouth, brand awareness
and customer advocacy are also important for any luxury hotel and resort organisation
(Yang and Lau, 2019). Brand loyalty is relied on hotels been seeing as trustworthy,
authentic as well as carrying partner who can fulfil the aspirations and demands of guests.
CONCLUSION
From the above stated report, this has been concluded that hospitality sector is very broad in
nature as it involves several types of organization such as hotels, travel and accommodations,
food and beverages. Resort organizations is one of them in which diverse services are indulged
to the customers by keeping mind about their satisfaction and enjoyment. These resorts can be
ski resort, beach resort, spa resort and so forth. Managing resorts at international level
necessitates the support of highly skilled and qualified employees who can understand and match

the tastes and preferences of international customers. In the following report, there is a
discussion on various operational and managerial issues that are involved in an international
resort management. Also, the current challenges which are facing by international resort
organizations is a part of this report. By analysing all the facts and aspects some key suggestions
have been done to make and deliver better customer services and experiences.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Abrahão, C.D.S. and et.al., 2019. Second homes in coastal tourist destinations: a study on
socioeconomic impacts with strategic actors from the Caiobá/Matinhos resort, coast of
Paraná (Brazil). TURyDES: Revista Turismo y Desarrollo Local, 12(26).
Ahn, J. and Thomas, T.K., 2020. The role of customers’ perceived values of integrated resort
brands in destination. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 15, p.100403.
Ahn, J., Back, K.J. and Boger, C., 2019. Effects of integrated resort experience on customers’
hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 43(8),
pp.1225-1255.
Asibey, M.O., Amponsah, O. and Yeboah, V., 2019. Solid waste management in informal urban
neighbourhoods. Occupational safety and health practices among tricycle operators in
Kumasi, Ghana. International journal of environmental health research, 29(6), pp.702-
717.
Bardhan, R., Sunikka-Blank, M. and Haque, A.N., 2019. Sentiment analysis as tool for gender
mainstreaming in slum rehabilitation housing management in Mumbai, India. Habitat
International, 92, p.102040.
Basu, P., Liu, Q. and Stallaert, J., 2019. Supply chain management using put option contracts
with information asymmetry. International Journal of Production Research, 57(6),
pp.1772-1796.
Blagoeva, D.H., Jensen, P.D.Ø. and Merchant, H., 2020. Services in international business
studies: A replication and extension of Merchant and Gaur (2008). Management
International Review, 60(3), pp.427-457.
Elkhwesky, Z., Salem, I.E. and Barakat, M., 2019. Diversity management in hotels: The
moderating role of empowerment and capability development. Journal of Hospitality
and Tourism Insights.
Fichtner, A., 2021. Disease spectrum among guests and staff of an international luxury beach
resort in the tropics. Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin, 116(7),
pp.595-600.
Fu, Y.K. and Wang, Y.J., 2020. Experiential value influences authentic happiness and
behavioural intention: Lessons from Taiwan’s tourism accommodation sector. Tourism
Review.
Haobin Ye, B., Fong, L.H.N. and Luo, J.M., 2021. Parasocial interaction on tourism companies’
social media sites: antecedents and consequences. Current Issues in Tourism, 24(8),
pp.1093-1108.
Hsu, F.C. and Scott, N., 2020. Food experience, place attachment, destination image and the role
of food-related personality traits. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 44,
pp.79-87.
Hwang, Y.S. and Choi, Y.K., 2019. Higher education service quality and student satisfaction,
institutional image, and behavioral intention. Social Behavior and Personality: an
international journal, 47(2), pp.1-12.
Junxia, L., 2019. Investments in the energy sector of Central Asia: Corruption risk and policy
implications. Energy Policy, 133, p.110912.

Kaiser, K. and Kirton, J.J., 2019. Shaping a New International Financial System: Challenges of
Governance in a Globalizing World. Routledge.
Li, F.S. and Ryan, C., 2020. Western guest experiences of a Pyongyang international hotel,
North Korea: Satisfaction under conditions of constrained choice. Tourism
Management, 76, p.103947.
Lowe, J., Tejada, J.F.C. and Meekan, M.G., 2019. Linking livelihoods to improved biodiversity
conservation through sustainable integrated coastal management and community based
dive tourism: Oslob Whale Sharks. Marine Policy, 108, p.103630.
Marsudi, M., Sirat, A.H. and Hadady, H., 2022. Implementation of Performance-Based Budget
on Ternate Resort Police Task Force. JURNAL MANAJEMEN BISNIS, 9(1), pp.44-56.
Moreno-González, A.A., León, C.J. and Fernández-Hernández, C., 2020. Health destination
image: The influence of public health management and well-being conditions. Journal
of Destination Marketing & Management, 16, p.100430.
Rood, A.S. and Holdnak, A., 2020. Resort and Commercial Recreation Association-annual
national conference 2019 reflections of a symbiotic conference–November 9–11,
2019. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 20(2), pp.166-168.
Sangpikul, A., 2022. Understanding resort service quality through customer
complaints. Anatolia, 33(1), pp.143-156.
Seraphin, H., 2019. Natural disaster and destination management: The case of the Caribbean and
hurricane Irma. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(1), pp.21-28.
Stamatiou, D.R.I. and et.al., 2019. A process reference model for claims management in
construction supply chains: the contractors’ perspective. International Journal of
Construction Management, 19(5), pp.382-400.
Um, T. and Chung, N., 2021. Does smart tourism technology matter? Lessons from three smart
tourism cities in South Korea. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 26(4), pp.396-
414.
Yang, F.X. and Lau, V.M.C., 2019. Evil customers, an angel boss and coopetitive coworkers:
Burnout of frontline employees. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 83,
pp.1-10.