Emma Franklin
Hospitality and Event Management
Grand Traverse Resort and Spa
100 Grand Traverse Blvd, Acme, MI 49610
HSMG 392
Manager: Steve Baehr
Table of Contents
1. Operations
a. About the Property
b. Work Environment
c. Marketing
d. Human Resources
e. Administration
f. Planning
2. Manager Interviews
3. Personal Assessment
4. Artifacts
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Section 1: Operations
A. About The Property
Grand Traverse Resort and Spa is one of the most popular getaway locations in the Acme Township and Traverse City area. The property is one of the largest conference centers in northern Michigan and also caterers to leisure travelers, families, wedding groups, golf groups, and more. The resort offers a wide variety of packages and activities for groups and is conveniently located just a few miles from downtown Traverse City. It’s largest competitors include Boyne Mountain, Crystal Mountain, Shanty Creek, Hotel Indigo, Park Place Hotel, and more.
This resort sits on a 900-acre piece of property and hosts just under 500 guest rooms, suites, and condos. The Hotel guest rooms are split into the hotel side and the Tower side, with the hotel side offering 239 rooms and the Tower offering 186 newly renovated sleeping rooms. The resort offers multiple styles of condos on both the golf course and beachfront, with anywhere from 1 to 3-bed spaces. The property offers no shortage of recreational activities. Featuring a golf academy, driving range, 3 18-hole Golf Courses, two of which are Golf Professional signature courses, named Spruce Run, The Wolverine, and The Bear. The property offers a full 100,000 square foot health club and spa, tennis courts, indoor and outdoor pools, a private beach, snow equipment rentals, watersport rentals, a gallery of shops, and more.
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It also holds over 86,500 square feet of meeting space that offers options for groups of all sizes. There are 36 meeting spaces on the property of Grand Traverse Resort, ranging from board meeting rooms that seat 10 guests all the way up to major conference halls that have a capacity of 2,500 guests. The condo properties also feature scattered small meeting rooms but are not sold to clients as often, instead of being used for in-house meetings. The I Do Wedding Destination Shop is home to all things weddings at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa and manages multiple wedding ceremony and reception venues with a wide range of capacity limits. Some of these venues include:
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The Beach Club Deck
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The 55th Hole
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The Plaza
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The Pavilion
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The Ballrooms
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Level 17
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The Clubhouse Lawn
The Grand Traverse Resort features 10 Food and Beverage Outlets, not including room service and catering operations. These outlets include Sweetwater American Bistro, The Grille, Aerie Restaurant and Lounge, The Market Place, Afternine, Putter’s, Jack’s Taproom, The Grand Lobby Bar, The Den Bar, and the Governor’s Pool Bar. The resort provides in-house catering for all events held on the property. It is the company’s policy that no outside food is brought for event purposes, and they provide an extensive menu. See the attached GTRS Wedding Menu for an example.
B. Work Environment
The Grand Traverse Resort and Spa have been owned by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians since May 31, 2003. The Grand Traverse Resort is not a chain property, as it is unique to its name and ownership, however, it does feature sister properties, which are also owned by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. The other three properties are named Lelanau Sands Casino, Turtle Creek Casino and Hotel, and the Turtle Creek Baseball Stadium.
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I would say that the work atmosphere at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa is balanced between pleasant and tough. The resort holds high expectations of their staff and they are not afraid to demand more from their employees if they need to, however, most of the staff get along very well which loosens the atmosphere. The resort encourages their employees to enjoy the property and their coworkers, often organizing outings and recognition ceremonies to promote positive attitudes and comradery. Overall, the resort prioritizes effectiveness and hard work, but they also provide an environment that is usually enjoyable to work in.
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This summer was a tough time for the employees at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, just like it was for almost all businesses in the Hospitality field. Over the course of the summer, I noticed varying levels of satisfaction from employes. I witnessed multiple long-term employees quit the company due to unsatisfaction or wanting to relocate. I also witnessed large amounts of turnover and difficulty hiring employees to fill much-needed positions, and I learned that a large amount of people are being paid at rates that are uncompetitive and very unsatisfactory. There were many employees that quit suddenly which left a lot of very stressed personnel to cover the holes, which resulted in very unhappy employees and even more leaving.
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That being said, there are also many people who love their jobs with Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. There are a lot of long-term employees that feel that this is just a rough patch and that it will hopefully get better. This summer included a lot of COVID related factors that may have caused the employees to be unhappy, so it was fairly difficult to accurately judge how satisfied the employees are normally.
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Many employees have the ability to makes suggestions to their supervisors, but this is strongly dependent on what department they are working in and who their supervisors are. Being such a large property, there are a lot of rule and regulations in place that sometimes prevent employees from making any changes, whether they would yield positive results or not. Chain of command is valued very highly here, and I believe that often results in employees in smaller positions feeling like they are only used for labor and not for their ideas. This is not the case for everyone, as I have witnessed many employees over the course of my internship here make great changes and improvements, but I would say that there are many employees who do not use their voice and rely solely on the decisions of their superiors.
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The main personnel problem that I noticed during my time with Grand Traverse Resort was the severe amount of understaffing. This is due to COVID’s influence on the amount of employees hunting for a job and the low wages on top of the unwillingness to pay overtime. Unfortunately, most of the staff are overworked and underpaid, resulting in salaried employees working for weeks without breaks and burning out. The phrase “that is above my pay grade” is frequently heard from employees and the amount of stress that the employees are under is undeniably evident. All of this has resulted in low morale and unhappy employees, which is a huge issue, making it even harder to convince new employees to sign and stay with the company. Overall, the biggest personnel problems are stemming from unhappy employees, and the longer that it continues, the harder it will be for this property to fix it.
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C. Marketing
Guests have reported that they love the tower side rooms, but the hotel side is not up to standards. Most of the guests feel that this set of rooms is outdated and overpriced. However, the guests that stay in the tower side usually have no complaints. Guests have also complained about the lack of transportation offered to downtown Traverse City. Although the Bell stand offers transportation to Turtle Creek Casino and the Traverse City Airport, they do not offer free transportation downtown. The amount of Uber drivers in Traverse City has decreased substantially and the city cabs have proven to be hard to reach. This has been a recurring problem for guests who fly into Traverse City and are left with limited options for getting around town.
The Resort mainly utilizes local TV and radio, news outlets, digital and online advertising, and social media as their main marketing methods. Depending on what type of business needs to be brought in, they use a wide variety of marketing strategies including videos, photos, deals, and discounts. The most successful outlets come from the relationships formed with local media. The resort has been successful with getting on TV and radio. Truthful transparency has been a great tactic that has also helped the resort get through tough times. On the other hand, print marketing has been widely unsuccessful and has been phased out over time. The resort used to have partnerships with multiple magazines and print shops, and also had a magazine of its own, however, due to the overwhelming response to digital media, they have not proven to be worth the effort and money. All of this also has a direct relationship with the prices of the rooms, food items, and amenities offered at the resort. Prices are determined based on numerous factors, including competition, demand, supply, and current events.
Currently, the Resort has been experiencing an uptake in leisure travelers and golf groups. In the past, a wide majority of revenue came from conference and group business, but due to COVID, this has changed. While groups were unable to book conferences, weddings, and meetings during the shutdowns, leisure travelers were itching to get away, and many did that by booking a stay at the resort. This also increased the golf sales to the highest amount of revenue that the resort has ever seen. Although the groups are slowly starting to return to the resort, the value of the leisure travelers and golf groups was definitely recognized, resulting in more marketing towards these specific markets. Guests have realized that the resort offers something for everyone and is also conveniently located to many tourist and natural attractions. This has resulted in three main target markets, which are golf groups, leisure travelers, and conference groups.
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Mostly, guests leave the resort happy and with positive things to say about their stay. The guests love the golf courses and Governor’s Pool is extremely popular as well. The views from the Tower rooms are hard to beat and the rates are considered very reasonable in comparison to other Traverse City competitors. Wedding groups almost always leave extremely happy and love how convenient the resort makes it to have a destination wedding. Guests report that the staff is friendly and that their overall experience with the resort was good. Overall, I think that a renovation to the hotel side of the resort would greatly increase guest satisfaction. Many guests have given feedback to the resort saying that they felt like they were charged too much for a bad room, especially after they see the difference between the Hotel and Tower sides. A renovation to the older rooms would make all guests feel a bit more equal and would raise the overall resort experience substantially.
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Some of the resort’s competitors include Crystal Mountain, Boyne Mountain, Shanty Creek, The Delmar, Hotel Indigo, and the Park Place Hotel. Crystal Mountain is a ski resort with outdoor activities and hotel rooms, which is often an attractive draw for families looking to spend time in the northern Michigan area. The Delmar and Hotel Indigo are hotels in downtown Traverse City that are newly renovated and offer some meeting space. Both of these properties are situated in the heart of downtown Traverse City and also sit on the water’s edge. They are steps away from beaches and tourist attractions, making them more convenient for some guests. However, they do not feature many of the amenities and recreational opportunities as the Grand Traverse Resort, which appeals more to families. Although they are both very different properties from the Resort, they are very competitive, attracting different segments of the Traverse City tourism market. The Park Place Hotel, however, is very competitive in the conference services and event market. Park Place is a historic property situated in downtown Traverse City and features newly renovated guest rooms, conference space, and a top-floor bay view event space, just like the resort’s Level 17. Although they are a smaller property than the resort, they feature many key elements that make them a strong competitor to Grand Traverse Resort and Spa.
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D. Human Resources
The Grand Traverse Resort employs around 500 total employees. There are an estimated 300 part-time employees and 200 full-time staff, and this number features approximately 50 supervisory or management positions. The average starting hourly wage is around $9.65 and they are also offered a 401K program. Although that may seem like a large staff, the resort is constantly hiring new employees and needs to keep a high number of staff to keep the property running properly. The resort has been experiencing a higher-than-normal annual turnover rate since the COVID-19 Pandemic but has been working hard to turn this around.
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When a new position is approved for posting, most, if not all jobs available are advertised online. Once a person submits their application they are asked to come in for an interview and if hired, they have a new hire appointment with the HR department. At this appointment they are drug tested and are given tours and are required to complete all onboarding paperwork. Once the new hire appointment is complete, new employees are invited in groups to an orientation day. At orientation they learn all about the property and are given essential resort trainings before they are able to go into their departments for job-specific training. They are also subject to regular employee evaluations with the Human Resources department. Many employees are sent to other properties for site tours and to conferences that help develop their knowledge about their competition and about their career as a whole. For example, the Wedding Manager often attends regional bridal expos to learn about trends in the wedding industry and to help promote the business. Golf professionals are sent to golf shows to promote the courses and to learn about new techniques and technologies that can improve the resort. The sales teams are often sent on site tours of competing properties to talk strategy and discover opportunities with other resorts and hotels. All of these trips offer excellent professional development opportunities and are also extremely fun for the employees. However, even though the staff may be well trained and may like where they work, there is always room for improvement in guest services. The best way for guest service to be improved at the resort right now is to hire more employees. The staff has become so frustrated and burnt out that they have a hard time keeping up with demand. Although they are doing their best, I truly believe that the resort will not be able to fully service their guests to the best of their abilities until they hire more staff.
The Grand Traverse Resort has a very diverse work environment, featuring many hourly employees from all over the world. Many workers and managers are from all over the country, and many are from other countries as well. The J-1 employment program allows the resort to employ a large number of employees from countries like Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. These staff members are a great help, and they work in a wide variety of departments. Hourly employees, including J-1 staff, often communicate with managers, especially since many of the managers are working right alongside their staff. Due to short staffing, the managers have been busier than ever and the reliance on one another has become stronger than ever before. Hourly employees are often asked to step-up and act as if they are management and frequently express their ideas and concerns with their actual bosses.
During this difficult time, multiple motivational techniques have been implemented. The HR department has introduced Bear Bucks, which are tokens meant to reward staff for doing good work. These tokens are worth $1 each and can be used as cash at any location on the property. Although this is a great idea and staff do love when they get the tokens, I hardly ever saw them in use. Managers did not think to use these as a reward and I personally never saw anyone receive them after the first week of employment.
The Human Resources Department also puts on many different events to try and boost morale and recognize their employees. Some of these events include awards ceremonies, picnics, staff comradery events, and more. These events often feature good food and drinks and are usually really fun. Personally, I feel that these events were very beneficial in boosting workplace relationships.
E. Administration
The Grand Traverse Resort and Spa is obviously a lodging property but my position was specifically in event management. In my department, we do not handle any form of general guest room reservations besides room blocks for our wedding groups. These room blocks secure a section of rooms for our clients and their guests and they are held accountable to a minimum of 10-rooms and 2-nights. If they do not meet that room requirement, we bill them to their group's master number. The rooms are serviced like regular rooms, which currently do not have stay-over housekeeping service.
The resort has full engineering, housekeeping, accounting, and security teams. These teams also form committees for different initiatives. One of those committees is the “green committee’ which focuses on ways that the resort can make a positive environmental impact. They organize environmental initiatives, trips, outings, and research opportunities. Another thing that they try to do is push the importance of using less paper and decreasing waste. This has resulted in a lot of the work that the resort employees do being switched to online platforms. Online reservations, emails, sales systems, accounting systems, presentations, and more have been extremely beneficial and offer a lot of improvement. However, sometimes those online systems glitch or offer more room for user error. This summer, I did notice how easy it was for employees to lose track of online communications, which often caused bumps in the events. All in all, computerization has been beneficial to the resort and the environment.
F. Planning
Unfortunately, since the resort is so huge, it is hard to learn of specific goals for the property. However, after talking with my bosses and coworkers, I learned that management has aspirations to create new wedding venues and to exponentially increase the number of weddings that are hosted on the property. A lot of these plans are kept as a secret, but I do know that they have big plans for the next few years and hope to improve the wedding department greatly. They realize that they have to increase wages and hire new staff in order to make these goals come true, and it seems that they are accepting of this fact and ready to move forward. Once they improve their staff and hopefully improve or build new venues, I think that they will become even more successful than they already are.
Section 2: Manager Interviews
Caroline Rizzo - Public Relations Manager
Grand Traverse Resort and Spa
Q: What has been your career path to your current position? (Where did you work/what did you do to get to your position now)
A: I graduated from CMU in 2015 as a broadcasting major. I worked as a television news anchor and reporter for 6 years. I worked as a reporter at 9&10 News in Traverse City and I was also a reporter and weekend news anchor in Massachusetts and Connecticut. I was looking to do something that was still media and writing involved that used my broadcasting skills but wasn’t in broadcasting. I was actually contacted for this job and my name was given to them by a friend who had mutual connections and knew what my career dreams were. I then applied and interviewed for this position in January 2020 and have been here since.
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Q: If you could change anything about your career path what would it be?
A: Honestly nothing, because I was passionate about news and reporting, and every single thing, I have done has led me to this job. I am back in the city that I love where I am working and have all of the connections that I love. I have gotten to explore new parts of the country and get new experiences and have gotten to use everything that I have learned in this role to expand it as well. My favorite thing that I hear around the resort is that I am doing new things that have never been done here, and I wouldn’t be able to do that without those past experiences
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Q: What do you enjoy the most about your position?
A: That I get to be involved in the entire resort property and I have my hand in everything going on here. I get to work with every department and understand how everything works from guest experience to operations to areas that I have never had experience in before. I am always learning new things and working with great workers who have been in the industry for so long.
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Q: What do you least enjoy?
A: Seeing the way that people will interact with our staff. When I am brought in to help with tools and resources that our staff needs to handle difficult guests and clients, it can be hard to see how guests treat employees. It is crazy to see people treat workers the way that they do in the service industry.
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Q: What are the biggest challenges you've faced in your position and how did you overcome them?
A: Making sure that everyone is communicating efficiently and effectively. Making sure that everyone is putting out the same message on such a large property. Some projects are extremely involved with a lot of people and making sure that the message is consistent can be difficult. Staying on top of communication and making sure that the guests aren’t seeing the things that they are not supposed to be can be difficult.
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Q: If you could give me one piece of advice as I enter into the business world, what would it be?
A: Absolutely stay in touch with the connections that you have made. Stay in touch with your network and tap into all of the experiences that you have had at this internship. Network stay close with people and use the connections you have made to your advantage. Make sure you market yourself and use your connections wisely. That’s how I got my job here and I couldn’t be more thankful.
Steve Baehr - Conference Services Manager
Grand Traverse Resort and Spa
Q: What has been your career path to your current position? (Where did you work/what did you do to get to your position now)
A: I started off in restaurants at 14 and was in restaurants primarily until I was in my mid 20’s. I was a nightclub manager, fine dining general manager, and then moved into the resort business starting as a banquet and beverage manager for 7-8 years. After that, I moved into Corporate event management. I have been working as a Corporate and Conference Sales Manager for the last 18 years until I temporarily took over the wedding department due to the COVID pandemic.
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Q: If you could change anything about your career path what would it be?
A: ​I honestly wouldn't change a thing.
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Q: What do you enjoy the most about your position?
A: I love when clients are satisfied with the results of our hard work.
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Q: What do you least enjoy?
A: I do not love working with clients and staff with negative attitudes.
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Q: What are the biggest challenges you've faced in your position and how did you overcome them?
A: There have been a lot of challenges in my career. One of the largest and most interesting challenges that I have faced was working with an association to get approval for a 300-foot temporary zipline structure. It was a big challenge but after many meetings and a lot of discussions, we were able to make it work for the client and it turned out so cool.
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Q: If you could give me one piece of advice as I enter into the business world, what would it be?
A: Stay positive. Don’t sweat the small stuff, because there is always an answer, it is just a matter of finding it.
Section 3: Personal Assesment
The Intern Experience
This internship has taught me so much about the different aspects of being a wedding and events manager. Being able to dive into the world of weddings has shown me just how important time management is. Especially at a venue such as the resort, which has multiple venues and events going on at the same time. I have had to learn how to manage time wisely and prioritize tasks based on a wide variety of factors. Not only have I had to learn to manage my own time, but I have also gotten the chance to encourage my coworkers to do the same. This position has shown me that I do have a passion for wedding and special event management, but it has changed my course of action in many ways. Gaining experience with such a large business has been a blessing and has shown me more aspects to business management than I could have dreamed of, however it has also taught me that I do not have a desire to work for a resort or really any large corporations at all. I feel strongly that I am made to be in this business, however my dreams have shifted to now incorporate working for smaller businesses or even myself.
My time with Grand Traverse Resort has forced me to improve my self-confidence, leadership skills, and my ability to stand up for myself. This internship put me in the position to run events and all of the staff that goes into it, including housemen, banquet staff, and housekeepers. Although I thought that I was confident in myself as a professional before this job, I learned that I did not have as much experience in being the one in charge as I thought. I was forced to learn to stand my ground and even be a tough leader when I needed to be in order to get things done for my clients. I had to learn to be confident when talking to my staff and to be the foundation for my wedding parties in order to reassure them that their day would go smoothly. Although this all proved to be difficult at first, it didn’t take me long to learn how to speak up and how to take charge, which are essential skills in this business.
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Another thing that I had to learn this summer was empathy. Many people believe that being empathetic is a personality trait, however, I strongly feel that empathy is a skill that takes strong development and effort, especially in a professional setting. Due to the COVID pandemic, many businesses have been left with very few stressed-out employees, and the resort was no exception. Learning to respect employees who have been working extra hours and filling in for new positions took time for me, but I am glad that I was able to work on it. One of the ways that I was able to learn this was by watching how different managers acted. Some managers treated their employees as labor that were at their command and showed them no empathy, making them do small tasks that they didn’t feel like doing, however, other managers realized that their workers were being pulled in all directions, and jumped into work on things that were “below them.” The difference in the attitudes of the staff members based on how their managers treated them was astounding, and really showed me whom I want to be as a leader in the event world. I want to be the manager that stands up for their staff and jumps in to pick up trash or move tables and chairs when need be. I want my staff to feel safe and valued with me, and in order to be that person, I have to develop my leadership and empathy skills in many ways. I am so grateful that I was able to learn more about these skills this summer and seeing the difference firsthand was very beneficial.
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Although the wedding days allowed me to dive deeper into my career and were extremely beneficial to my learning, the planning and office days left much to be desired in this internship. Due to the current state of the wedding department, there were many days that I was left with nothing to do. Although I did my best to create projects for myself, there were times where I came up short. I spent a lot of time taking photos and editing them for the Marketing Department’s use on the website, which was able to fill a lot of my time, but I do wish that there would have been a bit more organization and structure to the days spent in the office. If I was able to do one thing to improve my internship experience, it would have been to be a bit more independent at work. This is a personal preference and is largely due to the fact that I had a lot of previous management experience. Being an “intern” proved to be difficult for me because I am so used to being independent in my work. I would have loved to be left on my own a bit more, but I do understand that as an intern, that is not always normal and is sometimes not possible.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
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Self confident
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Ability to think on my feet and take charge of difficult situations
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Adaptable
Opportunities
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The Covid-19 Pandemic has left many establishments understaffed and ready to hire, resulting in more jobs available
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Event Design classes and job shadow opportunities this coming fall
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Multiple certification opportunities and experience building events
Weaknesses
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Hard time saying no
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Likes to work independently, has a harder time working with a partner or team
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Can become disorganized when stressed
Threats
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Many Hospitality Majors want to be Event Managers, and wedding planners are becoming extremely popular, resulting in high competition
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The COVID-19 Pandemic has changed the way that events function, and have made event planning more time consuming and involved
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Section 4: Artifacts
I have included an example of some work that I have done for my business classes. The piece that I have decided to highlight is my final project for my Digitial Marketing class. This piece was all about improving my own personal brand. Over the course of the semester, I spent time developing my social media presence, improving my profiles, and developing my resume. The final project includes some of my writing about the experience.
I have also included some examples of work from my Hospitality courses. The pieces that I have chosen to include are from Hospitality Law and Event Management. From HSMG 403, I provided an example of a law analysis worksheet that I was required to study every week. These writings gave me the opportunity to understand laws regarding the Hospitality industry on a deeper level.
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From HSMG 401 and 402, which is a 2-semester long Event Management course, I provided examples of work that I completed for the digital event that my group planned. Our project was called the Happy Rock Campaign and it focused on painting rocks with positive messages and spreading them around the campus to spread joy. I have included an example of a budget for the supplies needed for the event, an informational card that I designed, and a copy of our group's final post-event write-up.
I have also included a piece that I created for the Auxiliary Marketing Department. This was a simple design used on social media to advertise a luggage giveaway for Ferris graduates. This piece was created in Canva and is an example of some of the day-to-day work that I do for the department.
