Resorts

Resorts are the icing on the cake of tourism. Not always serving the wealthy or upper class, resorts range in price from affordable to upscale and offer such services and amenities as golf on site, spa treatments, tennis clubs and even a zoo in places such as Safari West in Santa Rosa or theme park and California Resorts.

Resorts generally require restaurants on site, usually cocktail service, room service and sometimes valet parking. Popular for special events and corporate travel, resorts in most locations depend on a steady clientele or on good sales staff to keep the rooms filled with conferences. A trend in downsized resort offerings is the Hilton Garden Inn, for instance. Feeling more like a budget hotel than a traditional Hilton Resort, the Garden Inns feature some of the resort amenities in most cases minus the price.

Location, location is key to resort viability and financial security. A resort in Beverly Hills, for instance, may garner a steady clientele of Hollywood celebs with money to burn while just down the road in Redondo Beach, the same rooms would likely cost much less. There are few resorts in Central California, which was traditionally farm country. Now that wine grapes have been planted and the area grows in population daily, resorts are waiting to happen in that Hometown Buffet region. 

Resorts often grow a town or city into a destination actually. Little Huntington Beach with its oil drills and offshore platforms was much like Santa Cruz in its hotel offerings with many small, privately owned no-diamond, one and two diamond properties. Many still exist there in fact. But a resort complex was built with first, a Waterfront Hilton Hotel and next, a Hyatt Regency Resort. Great staffing and strong sales teams drove their properties to increased occupancy rates and then the city began appearing on the map, on the news and elsewhere.

Resorts are the lifeblood of many communities and when built and operated with the community in mind, can bring benefits not seen through traditional industries.