Radisson Hotel Group re-positions brands in Nigeria, to open first 2 Collections in Lagos
Photo caption:
L-R:Ahmed Raza, Kevin Kamau, Esther Ukandu, Rita Opiah, Jaco Prinsloo and Wellington Mpofu, representatives of Radisson Hotel Group Nigeria at the breakfast meeting at Radisson Blu Anchorage, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Radisson Hotel Group is repositioning its various brands in Nigeria to offer excellent and unique services to customers in line with its international brand standard.
The brands in recent years in the country have redefined hospitality by taking the industry by storm with its state of the art facilities, fantastic services, unique cuisines and beautiful architectural master piece.
In a recent breakfast meeting with the media at the Radisson Anchorage Hotel at Ozumba Mbadiwe street, Victoria Island, Lagos, the hotel management in Nigeria unveiled plans to re-brand the hotel group to be the leader in the hospitality business in the country.
Speaking during the breakfast meeting, the general manager of Radisson Anchorage Hotel and area manager of the hotel group in Nigeria, Mr Kevin Kamau stated that billions of naira is been invested in the hotels in the area of re-branding, renovation and others.
Kamau explained that as a company, the brand will now be able to merge the different regions under the same umbrella to create some fantastic new products.
In his words: “So if you look at our brand and architecture, we have certain specific brands coming in, our top tier brand is called Radisson Collection. This is the absolute Radisson brand that we have out there, and this sort of brand is dedicated for very key markets and you know coming to Nigeria, we will be opening our first two Radisson collection in the next two years in Lagos.
“It is a very unique brand because it is not only a Radisson brand, it is a very hard brand to get into. So we are proud that this is coming along. Secondly, you know when I talked about pride in Nigeria, I look at what we are doing here and also, it is actually of the three markets in Africa that has got three of the key brands. We are making pretty good strides here. So we have two Radisson Blus in Lagos and three Radisson Blus coming over the next three to five years”.
The GM stated further that the Park Inns is absolutely an exciting brand as well because it has lifestyle, fun, colourful, vibrant and there is a lot that goes into the brand.
He noted that Radisson Anchorage, Park Inn VI and the Radisson in Ikeja are undergoing significant renovation in the next year or so.
According to him, “when I hear people talking about renovation, sometimes it is about removing the chairs, put it back and they say they have renovated, here we are talking about significant investment, and when I take the most recent case of Park Inn by Radisson, the restaurant that opened by Friday, if you walk in there and you have been there weeks before, you will ask yourself what happened. Everything has been transformed, the tiles are gone, the furniture is gone, the uniforms are gone, it is a completely different product. We are doing a lot here, it has a beautiful restaurant, beautiful rooms, if you had seen the old rooms and what you have now you cannot compare it. So there is a lot of investment going on as well as Radisson in Ikeja, billions of naira is been invested in these hotels”.
Kamau said as an African, it hurts him the most is to hear people say hotels in Nigeria are not as good as those in Dubai or that Hotels in Africa are not as good as the ones in Rome.
The GM noted that investors are coming back to uplift the product to be able to ensure that it grows, adding that, this is how it has been able to build Park Inn by Radisson.
Kamau maintained that the group want to hire and have more people into the hotel just to create opportunities.
He said this October, the hotel group is looking at the Breast cancer awareness.
He disclosed that the hotel has a room that it decorated with pink for the whole month and the proceeds from the room will be donated to the breast cancer awareness of Nigeria, stressing that the gesture in a continuous exercise.
The GM said the hotels have re-launched their loyalty programme like Radisson Rewards for Meetings with a lot of loyalty coming.
Speaking also, the general manager Radisson Blu Ikeja, Mr Jaco Prinsloo explained that the Radisson that was re-branded in October 2018 is being through a lot of renovation already as the reception has been done, the bar, all the conference areas and basically all the public areas have been done.
He said the hotel is going to move up to the rooms in December, adding that already two mock rooms have been done just to show what it will look like when it start in December.
Prinsloo added that the management of the hotel is going to take it gradually at a time obviously to minimise any obstruction.
He disclosed that Radisson Ikeja property has 94 rooms in total with one restaurant offering three menus.
“We have got buffet menu which your breakfast, lunch and dinner and they have got a full àla carte menu as well and then the new one is the pizza menu. So they have pizza facilities. So if you don’t feel like having a full meal, you are more than welcome to have a light meal at the bar. For conferencing, we have six halls, some of the halls seats between 600 and 650 people. It is a beautiful property with a lot of renovation done already, and it has this Scandinavian look with a grey and white colour, very soft in the eye. It is classy look and yet it feels a little bit homely as well, it is really beautiful brand. We try to keep it afford with class and the feedback that we get is that we are trying to grow it year by year,” Prinsloo noted.
The GM stated that Radisson Blu Ikeja is obviously a bigger property and more classy with 155 rooms, two restaurants with buffet, breakfast, lunch and dinner and then the signature restaurant, where clients will find the most delicious stakes and sea foods.
On the unique features of the hotel, the GM pointed out that: “We also have our signature Spa, it is an international brand, and it is called Armani Spa, we are the first Spa in Lagos to have a floatation pool. There is another property that has such somewhere in Abuja but we are the first one in Lagos to have it. It has sauna steam rooms, 8 treatment rooms. So it is really a beautiful standard Spa. We have conference facilities as well, we have 8 halls hosting about 750 people. Then we have shops in the hotels as well, with proudly Nigerian made products. Both properties are situated in the GRA with 15 minute drive from the airport. Both properties are very nice for leisure travellers, business traveller and it is nice for people coming in and out of the country.
People who want to stay on the main land and with it situated in the GRA, it has all the local attractions like the Shrine and Ikeja mall”.
Speaking also on features of Park Inn by Radisson, the general manager of the hotel,Rita Opiah stated that the hotel transited in October, from Protea hotel Group formerly Protea Hotel Victoria Island to Park Inn by Radisson.
Opiah said the most exciting thing about Park Inn by Radisson is that it is a service apartment with three unique products.
These are the corporate, leisure and we have the long stay which is the most important thing to us and also to the group, she added.
“My hotel has 56 rooms with different category. Four meeting rooms that caters for from 60 to 200 capacity and we have a gym and two very cosy swimming pools. And we have also a very nice restaurant that opened recently on the 17th October,” she said.
According to her, “the thing here is, as we can see that the renovation is ongoing and coming from the boutique style, very serious brand to where there is that relaxation that we want to give to the client. You can still do your business in a very energetic and relaxed mood. That is why the product encompass with these three segment”.
For the service apartment, Opia said, “we try to compete with homes with the personalised touch and we equip it with all the domestic needs that we all see in the rooms. So we try to make sure that the guest more especially for the long stay feel comfortable and eat their locals, prepare it by themselves”.
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