Dollywood Resort Hotel Property Planned

[Leland Wykoff]

Herschend Family Entertainment planning a new resort hotel near the existing DreamMore Resort.  Local station WATE reports some salient facts:

https://www.wate.com/news/local-news/plans-hint-at-dollywood-addition/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WATE_6_On_Your_Side

We can extrapolate from the WATE report and reach a few likely conclusions amd educated guesses as to the scope and direction of this project:

This will be the long delayed follow-up to the DreamMore Resort.

One clue is the street name leading to this area--Dollywood Resorts Way.  Resorts, plural.  Not singular.

This Resort will be of similar size to the DreamMore which hosts 300 plus rooms and suites.

Parking for 100 employees suggests a total workforce similar to DreamMore.  

Dollywood has experienced a bit of a rough patch in opening and operating the DreamMore.  A management company, Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, opened the property and immediately was challenged by tough labor force issues.  

Wages offered for many key positions were far below par for similar positioned upscale hotels.  Virtually the entire housekeeping staff has walked off, reportedly, on more than one occasion.

Guest rooms are small, furnishings and design are at least a decade behind modern benchmarks, and food and beverage operations consistently have received poor reviews.

In this challenging climate further Resort openings were delayed.  Now catch-up time seems to have arrived.  Perhaps the new offering will improve the collection of accomodations.  

Generally theme park resorts opt for a "good, better, best" strategy to capture the low, middle, high rate categories.  Thus it is likely this hotel will be positioned as more, or less, luxurious than the DreamMore.  

Being located literally on higher ground we can bet it will be a more upscale property.  Views and elevated location likely will comand higher rates.    

The 100 employee parking spots also offers clues to the level of service and luxury.  Three star hotels generally employ eight staff per every ten guest rooms. Four star properties employ twelve staff per ten rooms.  Thus employment would run 248 to 372 people.  Divide the 100 employee parking spots across three shifts and we can guess employment at approximately 250 to 275 total workforce.  About a three star plus property.

Look for Dollywood parent company Herschend Family Entertainment to learn from mistakes in the design of DreamMore in areas such as furnishings, guest room size, handicap accessibality, guest room amenities, internet connectivity, improved corridor and public space ambience, and more efficient guest baggage handling and bell hop services.

Or so it would seem.

 

 

[flightoffear1996]

Does Dollywood even need multiple resorts?  I used to be a pass holder there and visited several times durning the year and always on a weekend and was able to ride all the rides without hardly waiting for any of them. The only ride I waited for was Lighting Racer. 

[purdude86]

I think their resorts get a lot more than just the attendees off Dollywood. With it's location to Pigeon Forge/Gatinburg they probably have plenty of visitors to the city itself that stay there that never even go to the park, or else a park visit is only a part of their stay. Plus the addition of convention space with this plan will give them more stuff to bring people to them.

[MDMC01]

On 11/27/2019 at 12:44 AM, Leland Wykoff said:

The 100 employee parking spots also offers clues to the level of service and luxury.  Three star hotels generally employ eight staff per every ten guest rooms. Four star properties employ twelve staff per ten rooms.  Thus employment would run 248 to 372 people.  Divide the 100 employee parking spots across three shifts and we can guess employment at approximately 250 to 275 total workforce.  About a three star plus property.

Look for Dollywood parent company Herschend Family Entertainment to learn from mistakes in the design of DreamMore in areas such as furnishings, guest room size, handicap accessibality, guest room amenities, internet connectivity, improved corridor and public space ambience, and more efficient guest baggage handling and bell hop services.

Or so it would seem.

 

I must say, your speculative knowledge and math (with estimating how many employees will work there) is impressive!

Also, in accordance with the post above mine, keep in mind that there is a TON to do in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg/Servierville area including Ober Gatlinburg, Cade's Cove and of course, the many attractions on the Pigeon Forge strip.