At most large resorts the reception building stands apart from the rooms, often with a ride or a walk between them. The separation is a traffic decision before it is an architectural one.
Arrival is a vehicle problem
Check-in concentrates cars, coaches, taxis and shuttles into a few hours, and all of them need somewhere to stop, unload and turn around.
That requires a large paved area with clear circulation, which is exactly the environment nobody wants outside a bedroom window.
Putting the arrival zone at the property edge keeps the vehicle movement at the boundary and leaves the interior to pedestrians.
Separation creates a controlled threshold
A single arrival point lets a resort establish who is on the property, which matters where the grounds, beaches and pools are reserved for guests.
It also concentrates the functions that only happen once per stay: registration, luggage handling, orientation and the sale of activities.
Grouping them means those staff and systems sit in one building instead of being duplicated across the accommodation blocks.
The gap has to be bridged
Once reception is distant from the rooms, the resort must move both guests and bags, which is why internal shuttles, carts and buggies exist.
Bags are usually separated at arrival and delivered afterward, since a cart carrying luggage runs a different route from one carrying people.
The lag between checking in and receiving bags is a direct product of that split, and it is why swimwear in a day bag is standard advice at large resorts.
Distance is used to sort the property
Accommodation nearest the arrival hall is the most convenient and the least private; the units farthest out are the reverse.
Resorts price along that gradient, so a category description mentioning seclusion is usually also describing a longer wait for a cart.
Guests with mobility constraints, small children or short stays are generally better served by proximity, which is worth stating at booking rather than on arrival.
Service routes run behind the same line
Deliveries, laundry, waste and staff transport all enter near the arrival zone and travel to the units on service paths kept separate from guest routes.
Those paths are why a resort can be resupplied daily without guests seeing a truck, and why the back edges of a property look industrial.
A unit sited near a service crossing gets early morning activity, which is the most common reason two rooms in the same category feel different.