Kenyan hospitality group Sandalwood Hotels and Resorts is focusing on this growing market.
“The Kenyan middle class is pushing this market. They love holidays. They have time to play golf, go for spa weekends and spend time with family. The CEOs use conferencing time outside the city as a small getaway and extend their trip for a day or two to enjoy themselves,” says Leon Ndubai, the hotel group’s chairman.
Sandalwood Hotels and Resorts runs a portfolio of hotels including the Golden Beach Resort, a 20-room luxury hotel on the Kenyan coast, and Sandalwood Hotel Kitengela, 30km outside Nairobi.
The hotel group is currently constructing a 55-room facility in Elementaita, about 120km outside Nairobi. The Sandalwood Elementaita Lodge will cost KSh 500m (US$5.8m) to construct.
“We are looking at selling a room [in Elementaita] for $500,” said Ndubai. “We are also renovating Forest Lodge in Meru (about 226km outside Nairobi) which was my dad’s property and has been closed for five years now. We are looking at attracting health conscious tourists who want to go for spa treatments outside the city. That should be up and running by next year.
“We are targeting middle and upper classes because in that market profits are bigger. It is easier to handle the middle-up market because our hotels are not very big. Our biggest capacity is 80 rooms.”
Ndubai plunged into active management of his family’s business at the age of 21 after the death of his parents. The family had investments in hotels, a micro-finance firm and a gemstone export business. At the time, Ndubai was in Germany studying gemology.
“I came and found business was suffering. In the absence of both our parents, the vision was lost. The drive in many ways was also lost. The team was filling a very big vacuum. It was up to me and Richard (Ndubai ‘s brother) to step in. We started with reorganising the hotel business.”
Ndubai is also currently the CE of Nairobi-based microfinance institution Indo-Africa Finance. The firm provides middle and lower income Kenyans with simple and affordable access to asset financing. In the last decade, Ndubai and his team have focused on expanding the different business lines.
