Just tired staying at home all day, a doctor on vacation decides to take a walk along the Ozumba Mbadiwe Street from his home on Kofo Aboyomi. Driving will be safer, but it will not provide the kind of sightseeing that will satiate his passion at that moment.
From the street, he notices that he cannot see as far as Munri Okunola Park where he intends resting. New developments on the street seem towering high above already existing ones, and creating a somewhat skyline on that stretch.
A little probing reveals that most of the developments are for world class hotel brands and hospitality use. He beams with happiness because to some extent, the Lagos Lagoon watersides on which most of these masterpieces stand undisturbed have been put to the right use.
From Radisson Blu, Four Point by Sheraton, Lagos Oriental Hotel among others that are yet to tag their name, hotels abound. The InterContinental on Kofo Aboyomi, the many structures at Eko Hotel and Suites, the Best Western Brand just opposite Lagos Bar beach, the recently opened Best Western on Allen Avenue Ikeja and the Golden Tulip Brand in Festac are few that are already competing with the likes of Sheraton and Hilton brands.
But the international business and even leisure traveler who make use of hotels more than residents has the finals say. He seems to have more options now than before. As an intending guest alights from his first-class airline lounge where he is treated to a five-star service, he also looks forward to the best of services and world class facilities in the hotel he intends lodging in. He often walks up to the concierge with high expectations in service delivery, facilities efficiency and luxury that befits his status. But are they met?
Christian Tomandl, the general manager, Four Point by Sheraton Lekki, thinks his hotel is among the new international brands that open to offer best of service and luxury to any caliber of guest.
For him, most international brands are coming in with the standards they uphold in their outlets in other parts of the world and if so, guests are treated equally like elsewhere in the world.
But Danny Kioupouroglou, general manager, Eko Hotel and Suites, says the development in the hotel is informed by the need to meet the luxury and service needs of the guests whose tastes keep growing day by day.
The managers unanimously subscribe to the fact that today’s guests are after best of luxury and that they go out of their way to provide them in order to retain them in their loyalty book.
“I wonder the kind of luxury you are looking for that is not here. I will go get it because that one guest means a lot to me”, says Tomandl.
There seems to be much emphasis on the way the rooms look, the colour, the furnishing and facilities. “Virtually, the rooms are what hotels sell, we need to bring additional comfort on our bed to make it home away from home while the bath area must have Jacuzzi or guests will look elsewhere”, a hotel room division manager says.
The game is fast changing because of the competition and proactive hotels are not taking chances. “On arrival, we ask what colour the guest like just to make him feel more at home and doing his things his own way. It is a personalized service sort of and it is working for us”, Bunmi Oye, of Best Western notes.
There are new attractions like never before. For instance, Best Western Victoria Island installed a rooftop swimming pool, and tennis court just to do things in a different way. Upcoming hotels are following suit with restaurants in places you will never imagine, introduction of some specialty menus and service on demand.
Big and glamorous hotel lobbies seems to be in vogue as well. But the guests think walking on them make no sense when the service is not worth their money value. Lots of guests still stand firm on the fact that Nigerian hotels are among the most expensive in the world.
They still think the staff need more training and maintenance taking seriously.
“I was embraced when an attendant in a so-called five-star hotel brought wine glass instead of water glass. My annoyance is that when I politely confronted him, he insisted that he did the right thing. You don’t expect me to go there until he and his likes are better trained”, Hakeem Okin, a guests voices out.
Damilola Davies, another guests in a four-star hotel in Abuja, dislikes the way rates are rather going up with the opening of more hotels in the Nigerian capital city. “I am used to paying certain amount for standard room in my choice hotel in Abuja, but I left their service a year ago because a better one opened just opposite them and yet they keep increasing their rate. I need some change.”
In a nutshell, guests are battling with choice, but right pricing, facilities and service are what Davies says will determine patronage from now going forward.
Sajid Khan, former manger of Golden Tulip Festac who is now managing the Accra outlet of the hotel, once noted that the challenges abound and hotel is like every other business. “We have to pay salaries, do maintenance, train staff and often time import most of our needs, so the cost goes down on the rooms and services”. However, the more international brands have their name to protect, and are doing every thing to balance the impact of the challenges and giving back the best of services and facilities to the guests.
Well, guests’ feelings and needs must be respected and met because they are the reasons hotels are in business. But hotels still attribute whatever poor service, high room rate and inconveniences to the Nigerian situation and challenges. “Until when we no longer source our own electric power, water and taxed appropriately, luxury for guests may still be expensive”, concludes a hotel manager.
OBINNA EMELIKE
