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The Sims 3: Island Paradise
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Resort
Sparkling Sands front
Sparkling Sands, one of the premade resorts in Isla Paradiso.

Resorts are a new type of lot introduced in The Sims 3: Island Paradise. Resorts are functionally similar to hotels from The Sims 2: Bon Voyage as Sims can also check in and rest for a number of days. A new feature added in this iteration, however, is that players can now own a resort and improve it. Premade resorts exist in Isla Paradiso but they can be built in any world.

Checking In

To use any of the objects on a resort lot, you must check in first.

Sims can do so by using the front desk, a new build mode object added to the game. From there, they can choose between staying in a Standard Tower Room or a Luxury Suite. Standard rooms are generally cheaper, though "turning in for the night" or "getting refreshments" inside will be a simple rabbit hole. Luxury suites, on the other hand, while being considerably more expensive, allow your Sim to stay in a real room in the resort, giving them access to more amenities.

There must be an employee staffing the front desk in order for a player Sim to check in. If no one are staffing the desk at the time, it can potentially take hours in in-game time for the Sim to check in.

Workplace rabbit hole at resort greyed out Hidden Springs

Although non-resort rabbit holes, e.g. military bases, can be placed on resort lots, Sims must check in to the resort before visiting such rabbit holes as well, potentially causing complications when going to work.

Owning a Resort

Purchasing a Lot for a Resort

Sims can purchase a resort on their phones or computers under the "Real Estate" tab. This interaction will pull up a map of the world and the resorts available for purchase based on current household funds. Purchasing a resort can cost one quite a bit— hundreds of thousands of simoleons, even, and they might not be able to pay those back, so players should make sure to think on it before deciding!

Note that one of the resorts, Hobart's Hideaway is free for the taking, even at the beginning of the game.

Alternatively, the player can select an empty lot or one of the eight hidden islands in Isla Paradiso to turn into a resort, simply click on the resort's icon in map view to buy the lot, or purchase it at the front desk.

At least one bungalow, cabin, or resort tower must be on the lot in order to open the resort, or else the resort will instantly close again. It is not sufficient to only have freeform-built VIP rooms.

Improving a Resort

Star Ratings and Reviews

Sims can check the resort's star rating by selecting View Resort Reviews from the Resort Management pie menu.

Obtaining five stars will depend on a number of factors. If the resort is built from scratch, the resort will initially start out with no stars. Pre-built resorts will usually start out with a few stars at the beginning.

Every day at 7:00 am, the resort will either gain or lose half a star, or remain at the same star level depending on how many customers liked the resort. Resorts can only gain or lose the maximum of half a star, no matter how much one improves the resort.

Along with the updated star rating, the resort will get a few reviews commenting on what is good (or isn't) about the resort. These reviews come in the form of short sentences, which though brief, get to the point and gives one an idea on what the resort needs to improve.

If the resort is in Isla Paradiso, getting a resort to 5 stars will unlock the No Trouble Atoll hidden island.

What does a Resort need?

Based on what is known about the point system as of May 24, 2025, this setup would give 730 points for §25,880.

Based on what is known about the point system as of May 24, 2025, this setup would give 730 points for §25,880.

The lot requires a reception desk and a resort rabbit hole so that the resort can run properly. The game will refuse to let a resort open without at least one resort building; merely assigning rooms as VIP rooms and nothing else, is not accepted by the game.

The game uses a points system to determine the star rating. The system is not shown in the game itself, and the criteria are instead listed in "ResortManager_0x0d6804ccbb120191" in GameplayData.package, and various other resort-related _XML files in the same .package.

The total points needed for each star:
★: 50
★★: 200
★★★: 400
★★★★: 650
★★★★★: 1,000

Criteria Points
Having 4 or more gym objects, specifically treadmills and weight machines (whereas the PowerMax 50x120[TS3:A] in particular does not) +75
Having 10 or more art objects (What counts as art or not is haphazard; the base game Beach Umbrella is cheapest one that counts) +75
Having 50 or more landscaping objects, e.g. trees, bushes, etc. +75
There is ocean swimming water within the lot's area +75
Having a hot tub whose temperature is set to "Hot" +60
Having a firewalk pit +60
Having a swimming pool that is ≥80sq² (Equivalent to 10x8sq), and/or has 2.25sq of swimming pool squares per statistical guest +50
Having a wedding arch +50
Having ≥1 food stand(s), with the highest quality of any food stands on the lot being "High" +50
Hired maintenance workers (Each) +25
Shifts that the resort desk has been set to work in (Each; up to 3) +25
Shifts that the pool bar(s) has been set to work in (Each; up to 3 total) +25
Shifts that the food stand(s) has been set to work in (Each; up to 3 total) +25
Shifts that the professional bar(s)[TS3:LN] has been set to work in (Each; up to 3 total) +25
Having ≥1 food stand(s), with the highest quality of any food stands on the lot being "Medium" +25
Having a hot tub whose temperature is set to "Tepid", but none that are set to "Hot" +20
Buffet tables set to "High" (Highest on the lot within each categories; up to 8 total) +20
Having ≥1 food stand(s), with the highest quality of any food stands on the lot being "Low" +10
Buffet tables set to "Medium" (Highest on the lot within each categories; up to 8 total) +10
Buffet tables set to "Low" (Highest on the lot within each categories; up to 8 total) +5
Bonus for each pool tile that is set to "Chlorinated" (Each; up to 150 total) +0.5
Having 1 or 2 pool features, i.e. diving boards, water slides, and/or pool waterfalls (up to 2 total) +??
Has 0.0 ~ 0.49sq of swimming pool squares per statistical guest (unless the swimming pool is ≥80sq²) -10
Trash piles (Each) -10
Cockroach infestation spawners (Each) -10
Broken object (Each) -20
Dirty object (Each) -20

There are also complicated calculations based on how many statistical guests that have checked in to the resort, which usually don't correspond at all to how many physical, non-staff NPCs that are on the lot. There is also a limit to how much higher (or lower) the star rating score can change each day; the higher the current rating, the more the score can go up or down.

Finances

Owning a resort costs money, not just from purchasing new objects and improving existing ones but also through maintenance. Ideally, the resort payout should be higher than maintenance costs so profit is being made, but if it isn't one might want to consider the following:

Cleanliness

In contrast to other lot types, resorts have a tendency to easily become derelict. Any and all objects that can break or get dirty, will do so, and they do it often and without even being used. They have even been known to break partway through an ongoing attempted Unbreakable Handiness upgrade. Cockroaches will also spawn both inside and outside any walled areas (which can only be stomped on and not collected), and random bits of garbage may spawn as well.

A resort that is considered by the game to be particularly dirty, will give Sims on the lot (except resort staff) the Nauseous moodlet no matter where they are on the lot.

There are some methods to make the resort more consistently clean, even if the problems never go away entirely:

Resorts in penthouses

Running a resort in a penthouse skyscraper shell building[TS3:LN] poses additional difficulties. When checking in to a hotel, the penthouse's ground floor entrance can't be entered before checking in, so the reception desk must be placed outside. Buffet tables' food types and qualities can't be changed until at least one of the active household's Sims have entered the penthouse.

Cabins are treated as large public buildings and will not be hidden from view when viewing lower floors, which can significantly restrict the player's ability to see the resort; and all cabins require at least 2 floors' worth of roof space.

Elevators between the high and low floors are often busy, especially if there's only 1 elevator.

Prebuilt resort lots in Isla Paradiso

La Costa Verde

La Costa Verde
La Costa Verde
Address 75 Fiesta Circle
Unfurnished lot value §162,885
Furnished lot value §242,828
Price per day §57 - 86
Lot size 64x64
N° of floors 2
Bedrooms 7
Bathrooms 3
Neighborhood Isla Paradiso (island)
World Isla Paradiso
Game TS3IP Icon The Sims 3: Island Paradise

Sparkling Sands

Sparkling Sands
Sparkling Sands Isla Paradiso
Address 45 Paradise Road
Unfurnished lot value §170,872
Furnished lot value §260,797
Price per day §127 - 191
Lot size 64x64
N° of floors 2
Bedrooms 3
Bathrooms 5
Neighborhood Isla Paradiso (island)
World Isla Paradiso
Game TS3IP Icon The Sims 3: Island Paradise

Around a 15 square walk to the nearby Sparkling Sands Beach lot.

Hobart's Hideaway

Hobart's Hideaway
Hobart's Hideaway
Address 101 Surf Circle
Unfurnished lot value §52,531
Furnished lot value §69,403
Price per day §24 - 36
Lot size 64x64
N° of floors 2
Bedrooms 5
Bathrooms 3 (incl. 1 outdoor all-in-one bathroom)
Neighborhood Surf Island
World Isla Paradiso
Game TS3IP Icon The Sims 3: Island Paradise

Built to resemble an abandoned and derelict resort, but is in fact fully operational by default as long as the reception is staffed. Player Sims can buy the resort for free (i.e. §0), which is not otherwise normally possible.

Other expansion packs

A few expansion pack worlds and The Sims 3 Store worlds have pre-made lots that resemble resorts or which may even have the word "Resort" in their names. If their lot assignments are changed to "Resort", then only minor changes to the lots (Usually placing one resort building and setting VIP locks) would be needed to turn them into functional Island Paradise-type resorts, though their star ratings would be somewhat low.

Other info

Other languages (Lot assignment)

If different from the English name.

Language Title Translated etymology
Chinese (Traditional)
Czech
Danish Feriehotel Vacation hotel
Dutch
Finnish Hotelli Hotel
French Complexe hôtelier
German
Greek Θέρετρο
Hungarian
Italian Centro turistico
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian Hotell Hotel
Polish
Russian Курорт
Spanish (Mexico) Complejo turístico
Swedish
Thai

External links