ICON College: Resort Management Report - Woodford Bridge Analysis

This report, prepared for ICON College of Technology and Management, analyzes the multifaceted aspects of resort management. It begins by exploring various resort types, including beach, ski, golf, and destination resorts, highlighting their key features and potential management challenges such as evolving customer demands, pricing and booking complexities, employee work time, maintenance issues, and environmental considerations. The report then delves into the operational requirements of different specialist areas within a resort, such as upper management, front desk, kitchen, housekeeping, sales and marketing, accounts and finances, food and beverage services, and security, discussing their specific challenges and interdependencies. The report uses Woodford Bridge Country Club as a case study to illustrate these concepts, including an examination of its business plan and sustainable approaches. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of the complexities and strategies involved in effective resort management, offering valuable insights for both academic and practical applications.

ICON College of Technology and Management
Unit Name: 41-Tourism Resort Management
Tutor: Moghal Baig and Carlos Gomez
Submitted by:
Full Name: …………
ID No: …………
Session: September 2020
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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................3
LO 1...................................................................................................................................4
Explore the different types of resorts, their key features, and potential issues and
challenges of managing them........................................................................................4
Discuss the differences in operational requirements of specialist areas and the
potential issues managing the different specialist areas for a range of resorts.............8
LO 2.................................................................................................................................11
Assess different types of resort packages and how they fulfill overall sales objectives,
providing specific examples.........................................................................................11
LO 3.................................................................................................................................13
Market research of various resorts...............................................................................13
Business plan for Woodford Bridge Country Club.......................................................16
LO 4.................................................................................................................................19
Various sustainable approaches by Woodford Bridge Country Club...........................19
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................21
References.......................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
A resort is a place where tourists go for a relaxing vacation (Nasir, 2018). It offers
tourists more than just an accommodation service. Most of the resorts are known for
their variety of services and special attributes which makes it a bit more complex to
manage them.Woodford Bridge Country Club is agolf resort by Diamond Resorts
International, located in Devon, England. This report will be conducted fromthe
perspective of this resort. Throughout the report, there will be a discussion of the types
and variations of the resorts, their key features, issues, challenges, etc. There will also
be discussion and evaluation of packages and products. Market research will be
conducted for demand determination and plan implementation. And finally,an
investigation of sustainability will be conducted.
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LO 1
Explore the different types of resorts, their key features, and potential
issues and challenges of managing them
Travelers have so many options to choose from when they search for accommodations.
Resorts consist of so many types of providing services and unique features (Spandre et
al, 2016). These attributes help the tourists to determine a suitable resort for their
vacation. A well-balanced resort often becomes the destination. In most cases, the
privacy of the resorts creates the attraction of the visitors. Here are some common and
most popular types of resorts with their key features:
Figure 1: Variety of Resorts
Source: (Tripstodiscover.com, 2019).
Beach Resorts: Beach resorts are the resorts that are situated near or adjacent to the
beach. Apart from the accommodation facility, these resorts offer guests so many
adventurous activities (Walton, 2016). These are kayaking, surfing, scuba diving, jet-
skiing, parasailing, beach activities, and sports, etc. Some famous beach resorts also
offer private sections, i.e.: Private beach facilities for an extra private romantic holiday.
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The Nautilus Maldives, The Mulia&Mulia Villas, Naladhu Private Island Maldives, etc.
are some of the famous beach resorts around the globe.
Ski Resorts: These resorts are situated in the Mountains. Just like its name, its primary
focus is providing winter sports facilities to its guests. Snowboarding, skiing, sledging,
ice-skating, etc. sports facilities are offered here as the geographic position of this type
of resort allows it to arrange such facilities like trails, slopes & lifts, etc. Hot springs are
one of the unique features of this kind of resort (Goncalves, 2013). Fairmont Hot
Springs Resort Ski Area, Whistler Blackcomb, Vail Ski Resort, etc.
Golf Resorts: With a wide-open space allocated for playing golf, this type of resort is
famous for the sport. Guests are mainly attracted to playing golf. Golf resorts require a
wholesome area to be made as per the necessity of the sport (Readman, 2012). That’s
why it's situated in open spaces or islands with a lot of green lands. It also offers other
amenities including a spa, sauna, etc. to make the stay more relaxing for the guests.
Yas Links Abu Dhabi, Royal County Down Golf Club, Laucala Fiji, The Ritz-Carlton,
Grand Cayman, etc.are some of the famous golf resorts.
Destination resorts: Also known as all-inclusive destination resorts. Like its name,
these resorts provide almost all the regular facilities including food & beverage,
accommodation, spa, fitness centers, shopping facilities, games & sports, etc. All the
required facilities are provided in the resorts so that the guests don’t have to leave the
premises of the resort and get all sorts of entertainment they seek (Dryglas and
Salamaga, 2017). Such resorts are The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, Constance
Belle Mare Plage, Nihi Sumba Island, The Brando, etc.
Apart from these types of resorts, there are other variations of resorts that keep being
seen in service like river resorts, economy resorts, island resorts,specialty resorts,
luxury resorts, spa resorts, etc. (Rivergateresorts.com 2020). All of these resorts serve
the key purpose of providing the guest with a relaxing holiday. Apart from that, they
bring their creativity and unique services to make the stay of the guests more
demanding and comforting. Pool & BBQ area, Laundry facility, Fast Internet service, car
rental service, and privacy are services that made resorts more popular demand.Thus,
resorts are meant to be a place to take a break from life and relax.
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Potential Issues and Challenges in Resort Management
Managing a resort is complex and needs more effort than managing a hotel. With wide-
open spaces and a variety of activities, the resort needs constant active management
(Cetin et al, 2016). So many challenges appear in both physical and financial
management in a resort that a manager has to deal with competency. Some of these
issues are discussed below:
Evolving Customer Demands: Flexible planning and strategy implementation is a hard
job to keep up with evolving customer demand (Alananzeh et al, 2018). Managers are
required to handle these challengesefficiently to maintain productivity. Better and faster
service, quicker response time is also a tough job to maintain.
Pricing and Booking: Most of the Booking processes are now dependent on the online
booking system or OTAs. Maintaining the price on different sites, peak and off-peak
season pricing strategies is a tough challenge as it's directly connected with the money
that the resorts make (Vives and Jacob, 2019). Providing efficient strategy over time
and seasons in every place is a big challenge manager of resorts has to take.
Work Time: Resort employees are tended to work for long working hours than hotels.
The hospitality industry employees are required to do a lot of hard work including
standing up most of the time and carry out all sorts of responsibilities throughout the
time (Page et al, 2017). Overworking or stress is most likely to affect the performance of
the employees. So, managers need to maintain these long-haul processes of the
employees to successfully run and operate the resorts.
Maintenance: Constant service providing and customer demands made resort
maintenance a challenge. Maintaining enough amenities and keep all the facilities ready
for service is tough as all these things are in use constantly. The wide-open spaces
make the work even more challenging.Especially in peak seasons, the maintenance
work of resorts is a tough job while keeping up with customer demands (Reason and
Hobbs, 2017).
Environmental Issues: Most resorts are situated on the island, coastal areas, or
mountains with a natural setting. As the environment cannot be controlled, the
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management regarding the environmental factors can sometimes cause trouble for the
managers (Yusof and Jamaludin, 2014).
Apart from these challenges, there are other issues like keeping up with modern
technologies, staffing issues, modernisation, and renovations, etc. the resort
management is required to come up with strategies that fit best with the running
challenges to overcome them and earn revenue. An efficient team with a capable leader
is indeed a key for successful resort management.
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Discuss the differences in operational requirements of specialist
areas and the potential issues managing the different specialist areas
for a range of resorts
Resort management operations are vast and spread across many sectors. Each of
them is equally important for the overall success of the resort (Spandre et al, 2016).
Employees are divided into several teams dedicated to these operations and run them
properly. In the following discussion, such operational requirements of the key areas
and the management issues are presented:
Figure 2: Key operations of resorts
Source: (Gourmet Marketing, 2020)
Upper Management operations: The directors, department managers, and resort
managers undertake the task of making important decisions regarding the operations of
the resort (François et al, 2014). They create the strategies and plans for the operations
and the lower level management ensures the output of the employees. The managers
have to come up with strategies and decisions that suit the overall management best.
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Front Desk Management: The department of the front office is called a resort's
cynosure.This section conducts numerous tasks such as booking, greeting, check-in,
room allocations, and check-out. Guests of the resorts come to the front office for any
kind of information regarding their stay. Most of the face to face service is done here.
So, the operation of the front desk requires polite behaviour, patients, and similar
interpersonal skill to deal with the guests. Employees of this sector must be attentive to
details as they are required to handle the guests first hand (Islam, 2018).
Kitchen Management: Resorts offer their guest with various food options as the
average staying period in resorts are more than one night. And the food is a necessary
item required by everyone. The food production process is done in the kitchen sector. It
needs to be fast and maintain the quality of the food as the demand for food is high.
Resorts that offer live kitchen facility or unique dining experience requires special and
trained workforce to meet the demand of the customers (Kubickova and Neal, 2020).
Woodford Bridge Country club offers traditional pub dining a range of food options.With
faster service and reasonable pricing, they are offering good quality food and drinks.
Housekeeping Operations: Housekeeping team is responsible for the cleaning and
hygiene operations of a hotel. The work of housekeeping must be detail-oriented as
minimum negligence can cause loss of quality. Each room and area of the resorts must
be kept clean and tidy from time to time. The challenge of this department is to do the
work efficiently without spending too much time (Etcuban, 2019). Ensuring cleanliness
in a big open area can be troublesome. Woodford Bridge Country Club maintains the
housekeeping work with an efficient trained professional team to ensure top tier
hygiene. They also provide quite a good number of amenities such as pools, parking,
bar, on-site fishing, heated indoor pool, theme park, shopping facilities,etc.
Sales & Marketing Operations: This back-office team is responsible to lure the guests
into the resort. All the promotions, sales of packages and products, the planning and
advertising are done in this operational sector. Woodford Bridge Country Club is
associated with OTAs and numerous booking sites online. With its main feature the golf
club, it uses many other amenities to create customer demands (Cetin et al, 2016).
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Accounts& Finances: The main function of this department is to deal with the financial
transactions and records and providing the data to the upper-level management. The
budget is made based on the reports and needs which this department needs to
allocate and keep track of. Preventing theft and embezzlement of the resort’s monetary
property is another key role of this department. Audits and taxes are also done by this
operational team. As Woodford Bridge Country Club is a timesharing property, the
timetables and the schedule data are also handled by this department which makes
their work even more challenging (Nasir, 2018).
Food & Beverage Services: This sector is responsible for the service of food and
beverages. Trained employees increase the service quality of serving a lot in food and
beverage operations. Providing the guests' food in their room, or serving drinks in a
large area like Woodford Bridge can be challenging. Guests can’t be satisfied with only
good quality food if the service isn’t up to mark (Goncalves, 2013).
Security Operations: One of the most important operations in resort management.
Protecting the guests, their belongings, as well as the company property, is the key role
of this operational department. Woodford Bridge Country Club requires a lot of security
personnel as the area is quite big with a lot of open places (Mawby, 2014). The security
team’s work is a bit challenging and also troublesome for the nature of the work. But it’s
a major sector as the guests rely on the security to choose a destination.
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LO 2
Assess different types of resort packages and how they fulfill overall
sales objectives, providing specific examples
Different packages that are offered by resorts are to give the guests an all-inclusive
service with their available amenities. Such packages are shown below:
Economy Package: This kind of package is meant for budget-oriented travelers. The
main purpose of this package to attract guests by providing minimum amenities. Guests
would love to have as much service possible with a low amount of cost
(Destinationhotels.com, 2020). Apart from cheap accommodation, this kind of package
often includes in-room internet and tv facilities, complimentary bathroom amenities, etc.
Other on-site amenities are excluded from the package to lower the cost. Woodford
Bridge Country Club provides such package of one-night stay starting from £90 that
includes free Wi-Fi and parking with a bed of two persons.
Golf Packages: Golf resorts provide this special kind of package focused on the
golfers. Guests whose main interest is in playing the sport are the perfect market for this
specialised package. The main amenities of this package consistof accommodation and
golf course rounds. Other amenities includegolf carts, food, or breakfast facilities (Kiss,
2019). As Woodford Bridge Country Club is a golf resort, it offers the guests several golf
packages. One of the most popular packages named ‘Stay more & Play More’ offers 2-
night accommodation in a 2-bedroom condo, 1 round of golf per golfer, and
complimentary range balls for each player. The rates start from £189 per golfer.
MICE Packages: Also known as corporate packages. This specific package is focused
on a large group of guests whose primary objective is to attend meetings or
conferences. Resorts provide a range of rooms and sometimes a whole floor or sections
dedicated to the groups. The primary requirement of amenities of this package is a large
meeting place, transportation facility, and buffet service for the guests. Resorts often
provide transportation credits for off-property transportation in these packages
(Smagina, 2017). The rates may vary from time to time and also on availability. A
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request proposal must be submitted before booking such a package as the resort need
to check for the availability of the amenities which are requested by the group.
Couple Packages: Romantic packages for honeymoon is famous for resorts. As
couples want to spend some private time together, resorts provide this privacy service
(Moscardo, 2017). From a private pool to a private island, these packages depend on
the guests and their requirements. Woodford Bridge Country Club offers a couple
package consist of a honeymoon suite with an in-room full kitchen and private bathroom
amenity with special complimentary breakfast and Spa facility. For this2-person
package,the rates start from £230 per night.
Bed and Breakfast Packages: With the objective of a staycation, or staying out for
holidays, Bed & Breakfast is a popular package. Focusing on the night stays, this
package sometimes includes in-bed breakfast service, and lots of indoor activities such
as pools, games, etc. (Lambot-Lepp, 2014). Woodford Bridge Country club has a
package ‘Home for the Holidays’ that includes overnight stay with free parking and
complimentary internet, breakfast for two persons starting from only £95 with taxes.
All of these kinds of packages are made based on the available amenities and customer
demands. With a range of available amenities, Woodford Bridge Country Club has been
serving the guests with more than the package facilities (Diamondresorts.com, 2020).
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