The Politics of Closed Vacation Resorts

Birds of Mexican Carib Riviera

I just spent a week in Playa Del Carmen along the Mexican Caribbean cost, east of the country.

The resort was an all-inclusive and an outstanding one, in many aspects. It featured very clean facilities, a very well designed landscape, a number of swimming pools for both adults and children and most importantly, the owners managed to provide an abundance of food and drinks, which after a day of wondering whether the supply will last, you will realize that the supply is steady and there to stay.  That in itself may be source of cost containment for the resort owners. Because instead of eating like it is going out of style, you no longer worry, therefore you pace yourself.  Less scared, less wasteful.

Mexico's Caribbean nature

The resort I had the pleasure to visit was one of the dozens of similar world-class resorts that stretch all over the area north and south of Cancun International Airport (CUN). The resort, which I will not name for legal purposes and who wants to advertise for free, anyway, has over 700 rooms.  In all cases, the rooms are built to accommodate at least a couple. Because it was a very family-friendly place, it was targeted toward couples with kids. In fact, the resort ran a promo where a couple could book with two kids free. Unless you are a journalist or an analyst they try to lobby, the resort marketing folks will try to get as many people per room as possible. This is because the cost of the room is there whether it is one person or four, and even the food, the cost may not expand so much given the scale. However, revenues would increase substantially around entertainment and leisure services offered upon arrival and during the stay. Things like scuba diving, horseback riding, jet ski rentals, spa and messages, can end up generating substantial income for the resorts. And so “bring your kids, it’s on us” is not mere generosity but a carefully calculated business plan.It turned out that at this end of December 2009, the resort was at least 90% full capacity.  So let’s say on a 700 room count, 630 rooms had guests, and if half of the rooms were earmarked for couples and the other half to 4 member-families, the total number of guests reaches almost 1,900 people.  Averaging the cost per guest to $900 per visit, say one week to exaggerate, the resort earns some $1.7 million per week.

[Via http://arezki.wordpress.com]