Since opening its first outlet in 2003, Citilodge Hotels, an indigenous hotel brand, has not relented in growing its offerings, amidst the fierce competition in the market, especially by foreign chains, as well as, the economic realities.
With three outlets in its portfolio and the fourth hotel opening soon in Ikoyi, Lagos, in this interview, Olufemi Talabi, chairman and CEO of the indigenous hotel brand, unveils to Obinna Emelike, the secret of the success, challenges, and strategies for staying afloat, expansion plans, the dynamics of the business, among other related issues. Excerpt:
Can you trail the journey of Citiheight Hotel in the hospitality business?
Citiheight Hotel is an offshoot of Citilodge Hotels. We opened shop in Area 1 in Abuja on September 18, 2003. The Lekki branch in Lagos was established in March 2007. But Citiheight Hotel Ikeja, Lagos, was opened for business on September 16, 2016.
So far, it has been a worthwhile experience, and I can tell you that every day comes with its challenges, but more importantly, it also comes with its excitement. For me, running a hotel is everyday fun and we are happy that we are contributing our quota to the development of the hospitality industry in Nigeria.
How is the indigenous brand fairing in the midst of fierce competition?
Hospitality is based on the ability to exceed guests’ expectations, by consistently providing excellent services and anticipating their needs. An average guest is more interested in getting value for money, so whether you belong to an international chain or an independent indigenous brand, you will thrive, provided you are able to satisfy their needs and wants. In fact, I strongly believe that independent hotels are at a greater advantage because of their ability to innovate rapidly, speed of making decisions, flexibility of operations, opportunity to be unique in their offerings, delivering personalised services and experience.
The quality of care now desired by younger guests is best achieved in smaller, intimate boutique-type settings. What differentiates us at Citiheight Hotel is the style of delivery; that is, personalised brand services, which are theme-defined by the location.
It is even more interesting that the presence of international brands has enhanced and encouraged indigenous brands to improve on their standards. We learn a lot from them in terms of international best practices and operational procedures. Furthermore, the big boys (international chains) see us more as partners and are always ready to support us in terms of training, security collaboration, sharing ideas and feeding us with guests when they have large bookings. I can tell you that at Citiheight, we are taking advantage of their confidence in us because of our ability to take care of their guests.
Read also: NANTA Lagos partners Eko Hotels to showcase hospitality potential
What are the major feats of Citiheight in the over two decades of operation?
We take the view that hospitality is more than a business. It is a way of fulfilling the country’s dream as a tourist destination.
On our part, we keep on growing organically in terms of outlets and number of guests and are able to create unique experiences, which are now becoming a key differentiator in an otherwise crowded marketplace.
We contribute to the GDP of the nation, pay various taxes to the government, provide jobs for our staff, assist local businesses by way of partnership and support the community where we operate. Our involvement and ability to provide relief materials, food and free accommodation to essential workers during the pandemic, COVID 19 was quite fulfilling and satisfying.
At the behest of our guests, we now have a loyalty programme with some pecks being enjoyed by members.
In your opinion, what is the secret to being in business this long?
The secret is “loving what we do”.
As Steve Jobs puts it “The only way to do great work is to love what you do”.
We are guided by the passion we have for what we do, the purpose for being in business, our integrity, our determination and our drive to achieve our vision of providing “affordable luxury accommodation”.
Ours is a people’s business and we have a committed, connected and dedicated team. This starts with employing the right staff, having in place a robust training programme and rewarding them generously. In the long run, these positively influence services offered by our team and over time, we have earned the trust of our guests by offering them quality personalised services.
Instituting a good cost control mechanism, which translates into savings that is ultimately passed on to our guests, is critical in remaining competitive.
The effect of all these is that our guests know that we truly care for them by anticipating and thoughtfully providing them valuable services often before they realise the need for such. At Citiheight, we try to develop emotional connections with our guests.
Finally, nobody gets it right at once but “everything can improve”. Real success comes from a focus on incremental improvement, understanding the landscape of disruption and leveraging it to one’s advantage. This may not be the quickest route to success, but it is a proven pathway to building a resilient, adaptable and successful business.
Is your brand positioned well enough as a sought-after indigenous chain?
I think so. We have guests who have been with us from the inception, and we have been able to add a lot more. We are guest-centric and continue to create happy customers.
Don’t forget that we are now in a global village and the power of the internet is unqualifiable. We have a well-designed and informative website and are in partnership with the major OTAs, like booking.com, Expedia, and trip.com, among others. We also take advantage of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. These platforms have tremendously helped in showcasing and giving us visibility to the world. Guests’ reviews are very important to us as they help keep us on our toes and offer suggestions on how to improve our services. As a brand, we cherish the concept of continuous improvement as a never-ending effort to refine our services and processes.
We have been able to embrace and deploy technology in creating unique experiences for our guests by offering creative, immersive and personalised services.
We support and promote our culture through Culturati (Sisi Oge) events and organise local tours and activities for authentic and memorable stays.
Our culinary cuts across local and continental foods.
We are competitively affordable and adopt eco-friendly practices.
Read also: IDS-Next introduces solutions to improve operational efficiencies in hospitality industry
When are you expanding beyond Lagos and Abuja?
Thank you. We have just completed an outlet in Ikoyi, Lagos and will commence operation within the next few days.
Until recently, our vision was to have a presence in all major cities of Nigeria, but we have recently tweaked this a bit and have decided to concentrate more on Lagos and Abuja. We seem to understand these two locations well enough, and it is easier to operate from there.
What have you been doing to stay afloat in business?
Visibility on social media, having a good website and providing quality services to our ever-increasing guests.
What is very critical now is cost management. The reality of today has taught us how to be economical in our purchases and prudent in their usage. We now have dedicated managers who are involved in the purchase of food items in the market. Drinks are purchased directly from manufacturers or their direct distributors.
Now, the management of power is very critical, and we have been able to reduce the quantity of power consumed in our facilities by about 15 percent in the last four months – this is a fall out of the categorisation of power consumers. Unfortunately, though, we still pay a lot more than what we used to pay despite the reduction in volume consumed.
What other challenges do you face in the business today?
Power from the grid is still not regular and it is even exorbitant.
We face multiple taxes (14 in Lagos) and guests are not ready to pay VAT, thereby resulting in the hotels paying this out of our lean income.
What do you think the government should do to help?
Provide us with an affordable and regular supply of power.
Harmonise all taxes so that we can interface with only one or two sets of government officials. In Lagos for example we pay 14 statutory taxes/levies per annum. This means that in a year you must contend with 14 teams of state officials wielding chains and ready to lock up your facility at the slightest opportunity. This is not good for our business, particularly as it gives a bad impression on our foreign guests who usually find this approach as embarrassing and barbaric.
Introduce about 5 years of tax holidays for startups in the hospitality industry to encourage more investors, thereby creating employment and generating future taxes.
Tame insecurity in the country.
Help to subsidise the cost of diesel, which we use to power our generators.
Where do you see Citiheight in the next five years?
We plan to add two more branches within the next five years so that we can continue to contribute our quota to the development of the hospitality industry and our country.
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