Hotel business booming in Lagos

ADELE SHEVEL

TSOGO Sun is South Africa’s biggest hotel group, but it is its hotel in Lagos, the Southern Sun Ikoyi, that lays claim to the second-highest average room rate in the group, trailing only a boutique hotel in Seychelles.

It is not as if the Ikoyi is ultraluxurious. Instead it is aimed at companies and business needs are taken care of — Wi-Fi on tap, a popular bar area, a business centre and good food.

The average room rate is $260 a night (about R2700), excluding VAT and breakfast. By contrast, Umhlanga’s five-star Beverly Hills average rate is $220.

Marcel von Aulock, CEO of Tsogo Sun, said there was an undersupply of hotels in Lagos.

Hotel groups have caught on and there are more hotels and rooms in the pipeline to be built in Nigeria than in any other country in Africa, according to the W Hospitality Group.

South African Airways has been flying to Lagos since 1998 — first four times a week, now daily, and plans are to increase this to eight times a week.

Ohis Ehimiaghe, SAA’s North, West and Central Africa regional manager, said whereas economy seats were sold out first on other routes, business class filled up first on flights to Lagos.

•The writer was a guest of Tsogo Sun and SAA

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