For 35 years and running, Accra City Hotel has been thrilling guests with exciting offerings, and memorable stays, amid maintaining its leadership position in the Ghanaian hotel market.
In this interview, Yaw Mamphey, chief operating officer of the four-star hotel, who was until his appointment, head of sales and marketing of the hotel, speaks to Obinna Emelike on the reasons the 196-room four-star hotel, once managed by the Novotel brand, is still in business after over three decades of opening its doors to the public. He speaks about pricing, rebranding of the hotel, expansion projects, completion, and the dynamics of the industry, among others. Excerpt.
Can you trail the history of the hotel?
Accra City Hotel is among the pioneers of the hospitality industry in our capital city and Ghana at large.
We celebrated 35 years of successful operation last year. The hotel was formerly managed by Novotel, one of the brands under the Accor Hotel chain, until 8 years ago when Novotel left all the five countries it operated in Africa due to its re-strategizing plans.
With the exit of the brand, the owners decided that they had gotten to a stage where they could run the hotel on their own and no foreign brand manager again.
So, the hotel rebranded as Accra City Hotel, but the ownership remains some Ghanaian shareholding.
However, since parting ways with Novotel about eight years ago, the hotel has been doing well.
How many rooms do you have?
At present, we have 196 rooms. But after the expansion, we will have about 230 rooms, including conference and event halls.
What is your target market?
We cover a very wide segment of the market. But, we cater especially to business guests because a lot of them come to Accra and take advantage of our enabling facilities to do their business and leave.
Also, when you are in the city, you want to be in a place that is close to all the major avenues of business you are coming to do and that is what stands out.
We understand the needs of different segments of the market. For instance, the majority of Nigerian flights to Ghana are coming in the morning, so we offer early check-in and allow those who need to transact their business immediately to do so. We cater to a lot of business travellers and many guests who come to shop in Accra.
Our executive chef, Chef Lucky, is one of the top chefs in Ghana and he has won several international awards.
He and his team of culinary experts await guests at the restaurant, after a long day, to fete them with a variety of offerings; from local Ghanaian dishes to continental delights.
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Why the ongoing expansion project in the hotel?
The expansion projects in the hotel started as we parted ways with the Novotel brand.
By next year, the grand and first floors of the four-storey new building should be completed and that will add a second restaurant to the existing one. We are going to have eight additional conference rooms with the largest taking about 300 to 400 guests.
On the very top floor, we are building a 1000-capacity event hall, which will host our big events; from weddings, anniversaries, book launches, and corporate events, among others.
The expansion is necessary because Accra has come a long way and is now becoming a major international destination for the Meetings Incentives Conferences and Events (MICE) business.
So, hotels and event centres in Accra city need to get themselves ready for the imminent growth in the hospitality industry, requiring more room and conference capacities.
Of course, we are proactive and have anticipated that growth in the MICE sector and that is why we are building the four-storey event centre to handle the business coming in the future in Accra.
Apart from that, we are expanding our recreation facilities. We are adding another swimming pool, which is deeper and we have a tennis court.
What is the secret of staying afloat in business for 35 years now?
We understand what people are looking for when they come to Accra and our location is perfect.
We are in Accra’s business district, which hosts Makola, one of the largest shopping areas in Ghana. We are also close to the ministries where all government businesses in Ghana are going, we are close to entertainment, the Accra Sports Stadium, the National Theatre, and Accra Conference Centre.
So, for anyone coming to do business in Accra, Accra City Hotel is the best place to stay because we are five minutes away from all the major destinations you want to go and transact your business with.
Apart from our prime location, our rooms are quality, from standard, premium and superior room categories. These different room types meet guests’ needs beyond the comfort of the room and the facilities.
Although we are a business hotel, we are also family-friendly. We offer a conducive environment for different segments of guests including; families coming from West Africa and other parts of the world looking for quality unwinding and bonding.
How strong is your maintenance culture, considering your 35 years in business?
Of course, for a 35-year-old hotel, you need maintenance often. So, maintenance is key for us. We have over 20 staff members in the maintenance team. The last thing you will want is a guest coming in to say your place looks old or needs maintenance. If that happens, you will lose that guest and many others the guests will influence through word of mouth or bad experiences during the stay.
This drives us to ensure that our maintenance culture is paramount and for that reason, we are still relevant in the Accra market because we have many hotels that have come and gone.
What have you done differently to remain relevant today?
For us, it is customer service. Hotel is a customer service business. We are here to serve and once you lose track of the fact that you are here to serve, you will start going down.
It is the customers that have made the hotel what it is today and we want a repeat business; a client coming, feeling good and wanting to come back again.
We have chain hotels surrounding us, but the volume of business we are getting is comparable to the new hotels in the city.
So, customer service is our top priority and it is about making a guest feel good no matter what and providing their needs at all times.
For instance, if we have a good number of Nigerian clients, the buffer selection will have some Nigerian dishes. Our kitchen has also adapted to the taste buds of different clients from different countries. The above is why we go out of our way to present dishes from different areas, reflecting the in-house guests.
During the Nigerian Independence anniversary last year, we cooked lots of Nigerian food for that whole week in our restaurant, courtesy of our Ghanaian chefs.
So, customer service and maintenance culture have been the key to our survival for 35 years of operation.
How do you respond to the competition among hotels in Accra?
We need more hotels in Accra city than we currently have. Yes, because the more high-standard hotels we have, from five-star, four-star and three-star, the more we will be able to hold a lot of international events, which require more room and conference capacities.
So, we need more room capacity in the city. For me, I love competition and more hotels coming on board does not mean that we will have no business. We need more hotels to woo international events such as sporting, entertainment, MICE, ECOWAS, AU events, among others.
So, having more hotels in Accra will not be bad business for us because we actually lack capacity currently.
Even in the face of the ‘competition’, our strategic location, being in the middle of government business, entertainment business and commercial business, is an advantage.
What is most important is that we are not stagnant. We have been operating for over 35 years now, and it is all about meeting the needs of our customers and that is what has made us evolve and provide essential services.
We listen to our guests and provide what they want.
That is also the reason we are expanding and building a conference centre. The additional facilities are the needs of our guests right now.
Read also: ‘The harsh economic reality is a blessing in disguise for hotels that know their onions’
Most guests complain that Accra hotels are overpriced. Why?
Prices in city hotels in Accra as compared to other parts of Africa, you could say yes, it is on the high side. But comparatively for hotels within Accra, our rates are very competitive.
Notwithstanding, there are a lot of factors that go into rates being what they are in Accra. These could be taxes, tariffs, high utility costs, everything having to be imported, and all these plays into the price ratio of hotel pricing in Accra.
Yes, compared to a good number of hotels in other parts of Africa, hotel prices in Accra are high, but within Accra, our prices are very competitive. That is where our regulators play a major role and some of these concerns have been brought to their attention, they are being discussed to see ways to mitigate the challenges and to help bring down some of the taxes and utility prices.
If we want cheaper rooms, regulators should work to bring down taxes and utility rates that impact the price ratio of hotel pricing in Accra and Africa at large.
These could be taxes, tariffs, high utility costs, everything having to be imported, and all these plays into the price ratio of hotel pricing in Accra.
What is the place of tour operators in the hotel business?
Tour operators are integral to the hotel business. We value them because they are the ones who know and understand the clients in various market segments and countries.
Most importantly, tour operators bring a huge volume of business into Accra and to our hotel in particular.
We do special offers for them, which are juicy and you will not find them anywhere.
At any given time, we are looking out for them to engage and keep them for the huge volume they bring.
When are you completing the expansion projects?
With the ongoing expansion project, the largest hall takes over 1000 guests. It should be completed in the next two years. Aside from this, there are syndicate rooms; some taking 300, 200 guests and smaller ones for board meetings.
In all, the capacity for events in the hotel is pushing over 3000 guests in multiple syndicate conference rooms.
Where do you see the hotel in the next five years?
The next five years will be a win-win for Accra City Hotel because once this conference centre is completed, we are expected to make huge international bookings to Accra, be it for business, leisure, students or corporate organisations.
We are building ourselves to be very broad and dynamic. We are not stagnant in one category. We have a conference centre, accommodation, a place for relaxation, great food, a swimming pool, and tennis, we are all round and that is the future Accra City Hotel sees and occupies.
Notwithstanding, we have great hotels around us and most of the time, we work in collaboration with them because the business coming into the city is much bigger than Accra City Hotel. We need to work in collaboration to handle all the businesses coming to Accra.
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