rating, where would you place yourself? Four and a half star( laughter). Seriously, we are above the four-star standard. Interestingly, some international group came here the other day and said, you are a five star hotel. We are proud of you guys; you know what you are doing. You are fivestar!
Nigeria is currently experiencing a recession but you are waxing stronger, how’ s that? Hospitality will always grow. No matter how tough things are, people will make effort to grow. And in that process, companies will still holding conferences. People will still need to travel. People will always eat. So the hospitality industry is a conduit to transfer wealth because you need it to be able to move around, when you find you need a hotel to stay, to do your business. So it helps to make business work. There’ s no way you can ever take it out. If you have foreign investors coming to Nigeria, they can’ t stay in people’ s homes; they will stay in hotels. You have serious business meeting and they will hold it in a hotel because they need a conducive atmosphere, a place that has been set up for that purpose so that they
can have their businesses done. Then, there are other social activities where you need the hotel to come and play. So as long as people keep travelling, hotel is the platform to help people and business.
The hotel is a store of value The hotel is a virtual office
How are you dealing with technology? We have an ICT department – our technology department – they handle all issues of technological advancement. We incorporate this into our marketing, into everything we do. We are seriously investing in cutting edge technology. Our reservation system is world best-practice standard. We are on web, we are on virtually all social media platforms. We are a smart hotel.
What is your advice for the prospective hotelier? They should do it for the passion, they should create value. Not do it for the money. If they are looking for quick money, they should do buying and selling FMCGS( fast moving consumer goods). If you want to make a success of it, there must be a hunger
to create value and prove that Nigeria can do it. This is the passion that will keep you. If you don’ t have that passion, you won’ t survive. There are lot of threats, for instance, government policy, monetary policy, interest rates, economies of scale, providing your own security, power, water treatment. These things can be frustrating. But then, the industry is still quite young in Nigeria. We don’ t have many schools offering hotelling and tourism. But we have a wealth of personnel. We have had to train from scratch. There are so many things that discourage you. So for you to succeed, you have to have the passion. Passion overrides disappointment. You will overcome with time.
Initial capital? It is capital – intensive but you can start small. You can start with 10-rooms and take if from there.
Orchid Hotels at Lekki and Asaba are worth billions of Naira. If I were to rank you, you should be easily be ranked as one of Nigeria’ s top – moving entrepreneurs. Maybe( Laughter).
The Sounds of the Masters
Classical Journey with Nkanu Egbe
Sundays 01:05pm
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20 invests. ng- MARCH / APRIL 2017