An island or desert resort sits outside municipal networks and must run utilities itself. Those systems are largely invisible and they explain several things guests notice.
Fresh water is usually manufactured on site
Where groundwater is scarce or saline, resorts produce fresh water by desalination, which requires energy, maintenance and trained staff running continuously.
The cost per litre is far higher than piped supply, which is why some properties ask guests to reuse towels and why irrigation is often limited to particular hours.
Output capacity is fixed, so a resort at full occupancy in hot weather is running its plant near its limit, and any fault becomes visible quickly.
Drinking water arrangements vary
Some properties bottle their own water on site, which removes shipping and plastic while requiring their own treatment and quality control.
Others import bottled water, which is heavy, expensive to transport and the reason bottled water is sometimes charged even at inclusive properties.
Where a resort provides filtered water freely in rooms and at stations, it has usually invested in on-site treatment, and that investment tends to correlate with other infrastructure.
Wastewater is treated and reused
Sewage cannot be discharged untreated in most jurisdictions, so resorts run treatment plants sized for peak occupancy rather than average.
Treated water is commonly reused for landscape irrigation, which is why gardens can be lush in places where fresh water is genuinely scarce.
Odour complaints near certain buildings usually trace to this plant, which is one reason those blocks are positioned downwind and away from the main guest areas.
Solid waste has to leave by boat or road
Remote properties cannot bury or burn most waste, so it is sorted, compacted and shipped out, which is expensive and constrained by the same transport that brings supplies in.
This is the practical driver behind reduced single-use plastics at many resorts, since every item brought in must eventually be carried back out.
Food waste is often composted or fed to on-site gardens, because it is the fraction that is heaviest, most perishable and least practical to ship.
Power ties the whole system together
Desalination, treatment, refrigeration and air conditioning are all electrical loads, and remote resorts frequently generate their own supply.
Generator capacity therefore sets a ceiling on everything else, and properties adding solar generation are usually doing so to relieve that constraint as much as for environmental reasons.
Guests notice the outcome as reliable cooling, consistent water pressure and no interruptions, all of which are downstream of decisions made about the power plant.