FP40502

RESORT MANAGEMEMENT
&
HUMAN RESOURCE
Resort Management Principles
APPLICABLE THEORIES AND FRAMEWORKS

Demand Side: Family/Household Life Cycle Theory

Demand Side: Lifestyle Segmentation

Supply Side: Product Life Cycle/ Tourism Area Life

Cycle Theory
Supply Side: Competitive Advantage
DEMAND SIDE:
FAMILY LIFE CYCLE THEORY
(CONSENZA & DAVIS,1981)
Stage 1: Formation of household
Stage 2: Start of a Family

Stage 3: Children launching

Stage 4: Early stages of retirement

Stage 5: Loss of spouse / growing physical

limitations
DEMAND SIDE:
LIFESTYLE SEGMENTATION
Increasing prosperity and tourism options has given
tourist greater latitude of vacation choices.
Greater opportunity for many to experience the
personal fulfillment of Maslows highest level of need,
rather than be restricted to standard vacations of the
mass market variety.
This has led tourism research to place more emphasis
on the psychographic nature of vacation choices, the
personal values, attitudes and lifestyles that can
direct ones vacation choices.
Under these circumstances, tourism market is not a
homogeneous mass of buyers, but has split into a
myriad of specialized market where individuals follow
their own vacation needs and desires.
SUPPLY SIDE:
TOURISM AREA LIFE CYCLE (TALC)THEORY
(BUTLER, 1980)
Stage 1: Introduction of a new product
Stage 2: Trial of the new product
Stage 3: Adoption phase
Stage 4: Saturation of the market
Stage 5: Decline in production (or rejuvenation)

It is the resort guest who will determine the future

of a resort. Some may choose to age with the resort.
Others may try to hold onto the original purpose
and style of the resort, it will be up to the
management to determine which guest style they
wish to encourage.
SUPPLY SIDE:
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (PORTER, 1985)

Resorts are experiential service products that have a

STRONG regional character with respect to the
environment and sense of place.

Must balance productivity of industrial-business

approach with consideration of
how well regional resources are deployed,
how competitive or complementary is the regional
destination, and
how well local social capital is being engaged.
SUPPLY SIDE:
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (PORTER, 1985)

5 competitive forces faced by all industries are:

1. the entry of a new competitors
2. the threat of substitutes
3. the bargaining power of buyers
4. the bargaining power of suppliers
5. the rivalry between existing competitors
OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORKS

Environmental Scanning
Stakeholder Analysis

Triple Bottom Line Auditing

ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING

..the process of examining the internal and external

environments of a resorts demand opportunities,
before making a major business decision.
3 level of investigation and operation:
Level 1: The internal environment
Level 2: The task environment
Level 3: The Societal/global environment
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
3 level of investigation and operation:
Level 1: The internal environment
Involves operations within the organization, the resort business
and site, and represents the scale at which management has the
maximum control over its affairs. It can and should assess its
ability to meet new demand trends and market circumstances by
applying techniques such as SWOT analysis.
Level 2: The task environment
..is the immediate surrounding host community from which a resort
would draw its local supplies and labour. Within the environment
exist both collaborators and competitors, who would need to be
considered if the resort was to develop an attractive destination
package.
Level 3: The Societal/global environment
..is the outer layer representing the external impacts of national
policies and major global market and societal trends.
STAKEHOLDERS ANALYSIS

Stakeholders = those groups or individuals who are

directly or indirectly affected by an organisations
pursuit of its goals.
Murphy&Murphy (2004):
1. Creating better ideas
2. Identifying and resolving long-standing issues
3. Clarifying individual views
4. Raising interest and creativity
5. Exploring new approaches
6. Developing win-win situations
TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE AUDITING
(ELKINGTON, 1990)

Sustainable Development:
Economic prosperity
Environmental quality
Social Justice
TOP FIVE RESORT MANAGEMENT
PRINCIPLES

1. Tenure & Reputation

2. Flexibility

3. Accountability & Responsibility

4. Trust

5. Transparency
 1. TENURE &REPUTATION

How long have they been involved in resort

management?
What is their expertise?

Do they have years of experience and references you can

call upon to assure for their management capabilities?
Do they have good relationships with industry partners
and veterans?
 1. TENURE &REPUTATION

- So much of resort management is learned on the job.

- Finding a company who has been in the industry for a
while ensures they have the knowledge and expertise
from many years on the job.
- It also ensure the company will be here tomorrow.
- The experience and lessons learned during the years are
what they rely upon to ensure quality resort
management for their associations and properties.
- Additionally, finding a company who has a positive
reputation within the industry is important as they will
need to communicate on the associations behalf with
important industry partners.
- Strong ties and good relationships with vendors will help
facilitate smooth communication among these groups
within the industry.
2. FLEXIBILITY

Flexibility is important for any relationship.

In the business sense it means having the ability to change as
situations change.
Being able to change and accommodate to changes ensures your
homeowners association can continue to evolve and change with
the world around us.
It is important to know that what works for one association may
not work for another.
The management company needs to understand the role of
flexibility to be able to adapt to the needs of each individual
association or resort.
From a board of directors perspective, it is important to be
flexible and recognize that the way problems have been handled
in the past might not work anymore.
For boards, flexibility will foster an atmosphere of openness to
receiving new ways of solving old problems.
 3. ACCOUNTABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY
In board-management company relationship,
accountability is paramount because each group relies
on the other for success.
The board relies on the management company to
handle the needs of the resort staffing, cleaning,
financial oversight and management, billing and
collections, and all of the administrative functions
that go with running a resort.
The board relies on the management company to
ensure these tasks are completed to the best of their
ability and within budget.
On the other side, the management company needs
good information from the board in order to make the
resort operations work smoothly. It needs a strong
board who can follow through on their plan of action.
 3. ACCOUNTABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY
If both parts work well, then each groups
accountability will produce positive response-ability.
Both will be better equipped and able to complete
their tasks with the best possible results.
However, it is important to hire employees who
understand accountability as well.
If the front desk staff or housekeeping staff does not
feel accountable for their work, important functions of
the resort operations will cease to run smoothly.
Lack of understanding will begin to show to the
owners and guests in all areas of the resort, thus
creating unhappy owners.
 3. ACCOUNTABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY
Along with accountability comes the important topic of
proper financial management. It is of utmost importance to
have timely and accurate financial reporting. Without this,
the board will be unable to make informed decisions
regarding the association.
E.g., provide the boards a financial report on a scheduled
monthly basis to help them have as accurate of a picture of
the financial health of the association as possible (each
month) the board members see not only the high level
overview of the budget, but in-depth reporting to include
transaction registers, notes to financials, forecasted vs.
actual budget and more.
By putting all the information in the hands of the board
members help them to better understand their association
and in turn help run the resort more efficiently.
 3. ACCOUNTABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY
It is also important to have solid collection policies in
place.
If the association has not been following its own
collection policy, immediately start working to get
operations back in line with what is called for in the
governing documents.
This is one area where many associations begin to see
an immediate difference in their receivables.
Have policies in place to hold owners accountable for
their maintenance fees helps all owners in the end.
 3. ACCOUNTABILITY & RESPONSIBILITY
Finally, with fiduciary responsibility, a good resort
management company will always keep an eye on
things such as insurance premiums and other
expenses to look for cost savings.
Keeping a close eye on the financials, vendor
contracts, staffing and salary levels, benefits and
other expenses helps ensure we make the most of each
dollar paid in maintenance fees by the owners.
 4. TRUST
Can you fully trust your management company?
Similar to accountability, trust is a two-way street
between a management company and a homeowners
association board.
In a relationship where there is mutual trust, much
can be accomplished.
In a trusting relationship, it does not mean the
appropriate checks and balances can go away. It is
quite the opposite. Trust is built over time by proving
your trust.
E.g., Financial report: it is always a good idea to have
checkers checking the checkers third-party
accounting firm to handle association finances; then,
second third-party auditor to check the work of the
accounting firm.
TRANSPARENCY

Throughout all the items, transparency is the key.

Transparency creates the opportunity to have the
complete picture.
The board and management company need to hide
nothing from each other.
Be clear and up front about status of projects, financials
and operations.
Transparency breeds accountability, which in turn
breeds responsibility.