A stunning location, attractive facilities and a steady stream of visitors may seem like the recipe for a successful resort. But what happens behind the scenes can determine whether a property merely survives or becomes a high-performing hospitality asset. In an increasingly competitive tourism market, effective resort management requires far more than keeping the doors open.
Source: Supplied.
Tony Hazel, Group Resorts Executive: Beekman Group, examines how the right management model can balance guest expectations, operational demands and commercial sustainability – ultimately unlocking greater value and long-term performance from the property:
With more than 55 years of experience in tourism, hospitality and leisure property, this lesson has been reinforced through our management of more than 30 resorts across five countries in very different environments, from coastal and mountain destinations to bushveld resorts and urban hospitality.
A resort needs to be managed as three things at once.
We believe that the most effective management models consider three interconnected dimensions:
1. A resort is a guest experience: Our guests expect quality accommodation, reliable facilities, engaging activities, responsive service, and a seamless stay – all tailored to the modern traveller.
2. A resort is an operation: As an operation, hundreds of daily decisions are being made behind the scenes, involving staffing, procurement, maintenance, reservations, inventory, technology, finance, security, and compliance.
3. A resort is a business asset: As a business asset, the resort needs to generate sustainable occupancy and revenue, control costs, protect its physical infrastructure, and remain relevant to the market over time.
These three areas cannot be managed independently.
A decision to improve the guest experience could impact operations or finance. An investment in a new facility could potentially impact occupancy and revenue.
Similarly, aggressive cost-cutting can undermine service levels or maintenance, ultimately affecting your asset's reputation and long-term value.
The strongest resort-management models consider the entire resort ecosystem.
Source: Located outside of Brits in the North West, Dikhololo is a Beekman Group resort within a beautiful game farm, ideal for family adventures and relaxation.
The commercial engine behind a successful resort: Occupancy is an obvious starting point for commercial success, but a high-performing resort isn’t just about filling rooms. We need to understand when, how, and at what value those rooms are being occupied. Effective management can use booking patterns, seasonal demand, market conditions, and available inventory to inform pricing and promotional activity.
Marketing is also vital because, while your resort may have excellent facilities, this doesn’t mean anything if potential guests don’t know about them or can’t easily book rooms. That’s why centralised reservations, digital distribution, targeted marketing, and reputation management are also commercial assets.
The same applies to cost control and financial oversight. Budgeting, accounting, procurement, stock management, cash-flow monitoring, and performance reporting allow management teams to make informed decisions.
Rather than considering these as administrative tools, they should be considered as strategic tools - fundamental to understanding if your resort is performing and identifying opportunities to improve.
Maintenance is an investment, not simply an expense: The physical condition of your resort is another area where operational management and asset value intersect. Hospitality properties experience significant wear and tear, with accommodation, recreational facilities, restaurants, landscaping, electrical systems, plumbing, and other infrastructure needing ongoing attention.
Waiting for something to fail before addressing it is much costlier than having planned maintenance and refurbishment programmes in place.
Strategic upgrades also allow resorts to respond to changing traveller expectations. Today's guests tend to expect stronger connectivity, more wellness options, flexible workspaces, or updated accommodation than previous generations.
Properly planned capital expenditure can protect the physical asset while helping the resort remain competitive. And this is particularly important for destinations that need to perform beyond traditional peak holiday periods.
People remain at the centre of the system: Technology and systems are behind modern resort management, but hospitality is ultimately a people-driven industry.
Recruitment, training, performance management, and workplace culture influence service delivery. This makes consistency important, particularly when you have a business that operates across multiple destinations. Guests want the same professional standards, even if you retain the unique character of each resort.
For us at Beekman Group, operating across more than 30 resorts has reinforced the need to build strong internal capabilities. This can include centralised finance and accounting, reservations, marketing, information technology, human resources, training, owner and member relations, procurement, and operational support.
Every destination is different. Guest profiles, geography, seasonality, and operational challenges vary – but having centralised expertise and established processes provides support that would be difficult to build from scratch.
Source: Supplied. The Kingdom Resort is a Beekman Group resort in Pilanesberg, home to an awe-inspiring wildlife experience that combines encounters with some of the world’s rarest game animals with interactive opportunities to learn about them.
Reputation is now a commercial consideration: Guest reviews and online ratings are increasingly influencing booking decisions, which makes reputation management a commercial responsibility.
But your reputation is essentially a reflection of the experience being delivered. Clean accommodation, functioning facilities, responsive staff, and effective problem resolution contribute to the public perception of a resort.
The best way is to connect reputation management with operational performance. Use guest feedback to identify recurring issues and make improvements. A strong reputation will support demand; a declining reputation quickly creates commercial pressure.
Unlocking the potential of the property
Good resort management should ultimately make the property better than the sum of its individual parts. It should create an environment where guests enjoy better experiences, employees are supported, owners have visibility, and the asset is set up for long-term performance.
When considering the future of a resort, you need to ask: is the current management model simply keeping the property running, or is it unlocking its full potential?
The real measure of success is not simply whether the resort opens its doors every morning. It’s whether the operation behind those doors is creating lasting value.
