HFT4343: Resort and Recreation Facilities Management

Course Description

HFT4343 Resort and Recreation Facilities Management covers the physical plant of hospitality — the building systems, maintenance and renovation programmes that keep a resort operating — together with the programming of the recreation and leisure activities that guests actually come for.

The statewide inventory records the course at Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, the University of Central Florida and the University of West Florida.

Institution	Title	What the entry says
FGCU	Resort & Rec Facilities Mgt. (matches the statewide title)	"Introduces students to facilities management, design and programming. Included are characteristics of major building systems, the responsibilities of engineering-maintenance and renovations needs. Also covered are the methods of recreation and leisure activity programming." 3 credits. ⚠ Catalog note: "Previously HFT 4342."
FIU	⚠ Hotel and Restaurant Planning and Design	"Considers analysis, evaluation, and scheduling of the economic, technical, aesthetic, and merchandising factors involved in the systematic planning, programming and design cycle for hotels and restaurants. Actual hotel and restaurant projects will serve as the basis for discussion and student project work."

⚠ A second finding worth noting: FGCU records "Previously HFT 4342." The course was renumbered. That matters practically — a transfer student or degree audit searching for HFT 4342 on an older transcript is looking at the same course, and an articulation table built before the change may still carry the old number. ⚠ Catalogs record renumbering only sometimes; when they do, it is worth capturing.

Why facilities management is a hospitality course rather than an engineering one. ⚠⚠ In a hotel or resort, the building is the product. A guest does not experience the chiller plant, but they experience a room that is too warm, a lift that is out, a pool that is closed, water pressure that fails at seven in the morning, and a smell in the corridor. Facilities failures are guest-experience failures, and they are also — after labour — the largest controllable cost in the operation.

The building systems, which is the technical core. HVAC — ⚠ the dominant energy consumer in a Florida property, and the systems here run a load profile northern hotels do not; plumbing and domestic hot water; electrical distribution and emergency power; life safety — fire detection, suppression, alarm and egress; vertical transportation; laundry, kitchen and refrigeration equipment; pools and water features; and the building envelope, roofing and finishes.

⚠ The maintenance strategy question is the course's central management decision. Reactive maintenance — fixing what breaks — is the most expensive way to run a building, because failures happen at the worst time, damage adjacent systems and displace guests. Preventive maintenance on a schedule costs more in labour hours and far less in total; predictive maintenance, driven by monitored condition, is cheaper still where the instrumentation exists. Learning to argue this in front of a general manager who sees only the labour line is the actual professional skill.

Energy and water management follow directly, and are unusually consequential in Florida: energy is typically the third-largest operating cost in a hotel, and ⚠ a dollar saved on utilities falls straight to profit, where a dollar of additional revenue does not.

The recreation programming half — the part FIU's version omits — covers designing and scheduling guest activities: pools and beaches, kids' clubs, fitness, golf and tennis operations, water sports, spa, and event programming. ⚠ At a resort, unlike a city hotel, the programme is a substantial part of what is being sold, and it carries its own risk management, staffing and liability profile.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Explain the role of the facilities function in a hospitality operation and its relationship to guest experience and profitability.
• Describe the major building systems — HVAC, plumbing, electrical, life safety, vertical transportation — and how each works in outline.
• Explain the operating characteristics and typical failure modes of each system.
• Compare reactive, preventive and predictive maintenance strategies and justify a mix for a given property.
• Design a preventive maintenance programme and schedule.
• Explain work order systems and computerised maintenance management.
• Analyse energy consumption in a hospitality property and identify conservation measures.
• Analyse water use and identify conservation measures.
• ⚠ Evaluate a capital project using life-cycle cost and payback analysis, not first cost alone.
• Explain renovation planning — cycles, phasing, guest impact, and displacement cost.
• Explain capital budgeting and reserve for replacement in hospitality.
• Explain codes, permits and inspections governing hospitality facilities.
• Explain accessibility requirements under the ADA as they apply to lodging and recreation.
• Explain life safety and emergency preparedness, including evacuation and business continuity.
• Explain risk management for pools, beaches, fitness and recreational activities.
• Explain the principles of recreation and leisure programming and design a programme for a stated guest profile.
• Explain staffing, outsourcing and contractor management for the engineering function.
• Explain facilities design fundamentals — space programming, flow, back-of-house relationships.
• Explain sustainability practice and certification in hospitality facilities.
• Communicate a facilities recommendation in writing to a non-technical management audience.

Optional Outcomes (strong in the design-oriented variant)

• Analyse the planning and design cycle for a new hotel or restaurant project.
• Evaluate site selection and feasibility for a hospitality development.
• Explain aesthetic and merchandising factors in hospitality design.
• Read and interpret architectural drawings.
• Explain brand standards and their effect on design and renovation.
• Explain project scheduling for construction and renovation.
• Explain kitchen and food service facility design.
• Explain golf, marina or spa facility operations specifically.
• Explain hurricane preparedness and resilience for coastal properties.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• The facilities function in hospitality.
• HVAC systems.
• Plumbing and water systems.
• Electrical systems and emergency power.
• Life safety and fire protection.
• Vertical transportation.
• Laundry, kitchen and refrigeration equipment.
• Pools, water features and grounds.
• Building envelope, roofing and finishes.
• Maintenance strategy and work order systems.
• Energy and water management.
• Capital budgeting, reserves and life-cycle cost.
• Renovation planning.
• Codes, accessibility and inspections.
• Risk management and emergency preparedness.
• Recreation and leisure programming.
• Sustainability.

Optional Topics

• Hotel and restaurant planning and design cycle.
• Site selection and feasibility.
• Reading construction documents.
• Brand standards.
• Project scheduling.
• Food service facility design.
• Golf, marina and spa operations.
• Hurricane resilience.
• Smart building technology.

Resources & Tools

• Standard texts: Stipanuk, Hospitality Facilities Management and Design — ⚠⚠ the standard text in this course by a wide margin, published by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute; Mill, Resorts: Management and Operation for the resort-wide view; Baraban and Durocher, Successful Restaurant Design and Rutes, Penner and Adams, Hotel Design, Planning and Development for the design-oriented variant.
• Codes and standards, and these govern the work: ⚠ the Florida Building Code and the Florida Fire Prevention Code — free to read at codes.iccsafe.org, and authoritative in this state; NFPA 101 Life Safety Code; ASHRAE standards for ventilation, thermal comfort and energy (⚠ ASHRAE 188 on Legionella risk management is directly relevant to hotel water systems); and the ADA Standards for Accessible Design, ⚠ whose 2010 revision added specific requirements for pools and spas that hotels are routinely cited for missing.
• Florida-specific regulation: the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Hotels and Restaurants — ⚠ it licenses and inspects lodging and food service in Florida and publishes inspection results publicly; the Florida Department of Health for public swimming pool rules (Chapter 64E-9, Florida Administrative Code); and the water management districts for irrigation and consumptive use.
• Energy and sustainability: ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager — ⚠ free, and the standard tool for benchmarking a building's energy use against comparable properties; LEED and Green Lodging certification; the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative; and utility rebate programmes from Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy Florida, which fund real retrofit projects.
• Professional bodies: ⚠ the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) and above all AHLA's Educational Institute, whose Certified Hospitality Facilities Executive and related certifications are the recognised credentials; the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) and its FMP and CFM designations; the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals; and NRPA for the recreation programming side, whose CPRP certification is standard in that sector.
• Software: computerised maintenance management systems (HotSOS, Quore, UpKeep, Limble) and building automation systems; ⚠ Quore and HotSOS are what Florida hotels actually run, and naming them in an interview lands.
• ⚠⚠ The best resource is a back-of-house tour. Ask your instructor to arrange one, and ask the chief engineer questions. Twenty minutes in a mechanical room does more than a chapter on chillers, and Florida students are surrounded by properties that will host a class.

Career Pathways

• Lodging managers and resort managers (SOC 11-9081) — ⚠ facilities literacy is a differentiator on the general manager track, because most hospitality graduates have none and the GM signs off on capital requests.
• Facilities managers and directors of engineering (SOC 11-3013) — ⚠ the direct destination, though the chief engineer role is often reached from the trades rather than from a degree; the degree route leads to the management and capital-planning side.
• Maintenance supervisors (SOC 49-1011).
• Recreation and activities directors (SOC 11-9179, 39-9032) — ⚠ a substantial resort role in Florida and the destination the programming half serves.
• Golf, marina, spa and club managers (SOC 11-9081, 11-9179) — ⚠ Florida has more golf courses than any other state, and club management is a distinct career with its own association (CMAA) and credential (CCM).
• Project and capital project managers (SOC 11-9021, 13-1082) — renovation and new-build programmes for brands and owners.
• Asset managers (SOC 11-3011, 13-2051) — the owner's representative overseeing the property's physical condition and capital spend.
• Sustainability managers (SOC 11-9199) — a growing hospitality role.
• Risk and safety managers (SOC 11-9199, 13-1151).
• Theme park and attractions operations (SOC 11-9081, 49-1011) — ⚠⚠ a distinctively Central Florida destination. Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando run facilities and ride-maintenance organisations at a scale found almost nowhere else, with formal internship and college programme pipelines.

⚠ Florida employers by name: Disney and Universal (Orlando), Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt resorts across the state, Loews, Vinoy and Don CeSar (Tampa Bay), Boca Raton Resort, the Keys resorts, the Panhandle beach properties, plus the cruise lines out of Miami, Port Everglades and Port Canaveral — ⚠ a cruise ship is a resort with the hardest facilities problem in the industry, and shoreside engineering roles hire from hospitality programmes.

Special Information

⚠ Check which version you are taking — and note the old number

• FGCU's version (matching the statewide title) is facilities operations plus recreation programming.
• FIU's version is hotel and restaurant planning and design, worked through real projects.
• ⚠ Both are legitimate readings of "facilities", and the difference is whether you study running a building or creating one.
• ⚠ FGCU records that this course was previously HFT 4342. If you hold older credit under that number, or a degree audit is looking for it, they are the same course. Renumbering is rarely documented; when a catalog does record it, keep the note.

Prerequisites and position in the curriculum

⚠ Neither retrievable entry lists a prerequisite, but the 4000-level number places it late in a hospitality degree.

• An introductory hospitality management course is the practical assumption.
• ⚠ Hospitality accounting or finance is the high-value unlisted preparation. A large share of this course is capital budgeting, payback analysis and reserve funding — a student who cannot compare a five-year payback against a capital constraint will struggle with the assignments that matter most.
• ⚠ No engineering or physics background is required, and students are frequently anxious about that unnecessarily. The systems are taught at the level a manager needs: what it does, how it fails, what it costs, and what questions to ask the contractor. You are not being trained to repair a chiller — you are being trained to know when the quote to replace one is reasonable.
• Work experience in a hotel or resort helps enormously, and many students in Florida programmes have it.

Course format and workload

3 credits, 45 contact hours — lecture and discussion, three hours per week, frequently with site visits.

Expect 5–8 hours per week outside class. Assessment typically includes examinations, a facilities audit or preventive maintenance programme project, energy analysis exercises, and — in the design variant — a planning or space-programming project. ⚠ The audit project is the portfolio piece; do it on a real property if you can.

⚠⚠ Florida makes this course materially different, and a national textbook will understate it

• ⚠⚠ Humidity, not just heat, is the governing design problem. A Florida HVAC system is a dehumidification system that also cools, and getting it wrong produces mould, which closes rooms and produces litigation. Building pressurisation matters here in a way it does not in a dry climate — a negatively pressurised hotel pulls humid outdoor air through the envelope and condenses it inside the wall.
• Hurricanes. ⚠ Emergency preparedness in a Florida resort is an operational plan that gets used: shutters and impact glazing, generator capacity and fuel contracts, water, guest and staff sheltering or evacuation, post-storm damage assessment, insurance documentation, and reopening. Business continuity is not a theoretical chapter here.
• Corrosion. Salt air destroys rooftop equipment, railings, fasteners and coastal structures on a schedule inland properties never see. It drives material selection and replacement cycles.
• Water. ⚠ Consumptive use permitting, irrigation restrictions, reclaimed water for landscape, and pool water chemistry under Florida Department of Health rules.
• ⚠⚠ Legionella — a genuine and recurring hotel risk. Warm water systems, cooling towers, decorative fountains and spas are the classic sources, and ASHRAE 188 water management plans are becoming standard practice. Florida's climate and its large lodging sector make this a live operational issue, not a curiosity.
• Sinkholes and high water table in parts of the state; termites and aggressive biological growth generally.
• ⚠ Age of stock. Much of Florida's resort inventory is decades old and on renovation cycles — which is why renovation planning is disproportionately important here.

⚠ Safety and liability, which the recreation half brings with it

Recreation programming carries risk that rooms do not.

• ⚠⚠ Drowning is the risk that dominates. Pool and beach supervision, barrier requirements, signage, depth marking and lifeguard staffing are regulated, and Florida's rules on public pools are specific.
• Children's programmes require background screening for staff and defined ratios and release procedures.
• Water sports, marinas and equipment rental carry their own liability and insurance profile, and waivers do not eliminate it.
• Heat illness for both guests and outdoor staff is a Florida-specific operational hazard.
• ⚠ ADA compliance in recreation is frequently missed — pool lifts and accessible entries have been a recurring source of enforcement against hotels since the 2010 standards took effect.

Articulation and transfer

⚠ Two transfer risks here, and both are unusual. First, the title and emphasis divergence — a course transferring as "facilities management" may not be recognised as covering planning and design, or the reverse. Second, ⚠ the renumbering from HFT 4342, which can leave older credit or an older articulation table pointing at a number the catalog no longer lists. Keep the syllabus.

Prefix note. HFT is hospitality and tourism management; FSS food service systems; LEI leisure and recreation; BCN building construction; ARC architecture; MAN management. ⚠ The recreation programming half is squarely LEI territory at institutions with a separate recreation programme, and the facilities half overlaps with BCN content taught for a different audience. Search by subject rather than prefix.

Florida College System institutions teach hospitality widely at the lower division and those courses transfer cleanly; this upper-division specialisation is taken after transfer.

AI Integration

⚠ Building operations is one of the more genuinely automated areas of hospitality, and much of it predates the current wave.

What is actually deployed:

• Building automation and energy management systems — ⚠ optimising HVAC by occupancy, weather forecast and utility rate schedule. Long-standing, and increasingly model-driven.
• Predictive maintenance — vibration, temperature and current monitoring on chillers, pumps and lifts to flag degradation before failure. ⚠ This is the technology that makes the predictive strategy in this course practical rather than theoretical.
• Occupancy-linked control — room energy management tied to the property management system so an unsold room is not conditioned to guest standard.
• Work order routing and prioritisation in CMMS platforms.
• Water leak detection — ⚠ a genuine Florida application, since a slow leak in a guest room produces mould before it produces a complaint.
• Computer vision for pool and area safety, which is deployed and is contested on privacy grounds.
• Demand forecasting for recreation programme staffing.

Where a language model helps a student in this course: explaining how a system works, drafting a preventive maintenance schedule as a starting point, summarising a code section, and structuring a capital request memo.

⚠⚠ Where it fails, and here the failures reach guest safety:

• ⚠⚠ Code requirements. Models blend building and fire codes across jurisdictions and editions, and the Florida Building Code and Florida Fire Prevention Code differ from the model codes in exactly the provisions that matter here. Life safety is not a place to accept an approximate answer.
• Climate-inappropriate advice. ⚠⚠ The same failure the construction guides document: training data is dominated by northern practice, and HVAC and envelope advice generated on that basis can be actively wrong in a hot-humid climate. Vapour retarder placement and building pressurisation are the specific traps.
• Fabricated standards, equipment specifications and cost figures. ⚠ Capital costs and payback periods are property- and market-specific; a generated number is a guess with a decimal point. Get quotes.
• Regulatory detail. Florida pool rules, DBPR lodging requirements and ADA specifics are precise and enforced. Read the rule.

⚠ The professional point. A facilities manager signs off on work that keeps a building safe and occupied. Life safety systems, pool operations and structural conditions carry legal responsibility that attaches to a person and to a licence. Automation improves what you can monitor; it does not transfer the responsibility for the decision — and "the system said so" is not a defence in an inspection, a lawsuit, or after an incident.

Academic integrity. Follow the course policy. Submitting generated work as your own violates every Florida institution's policy — and in a course whose project work is the thing an employer will ask you about, it is a poor trade.