How To Establish And Manage A Hotel Business In Nigeria

Starting a hotel business is one of the most lucrative business to delve into in Nigeria, if you take a visit to Lagos or some of the major cities in Nigeria during the weekend, you will be amazed at how hotels are springing up massively and despite the hotels around it is still not sufficient to accommodate people, with this their lies the opportunity to tap into the booming business.

To be successful in hotel business, it involves a lot of knowledge and technicalities but if managed very well it is a money spinning business. Once you are in good location, it

is very sure to be successful, you can establish in a large or small scale depending on your budget.

The tourism industry which hotel business is among in Nigeria is currently valued at more than $4 Billion, at that, there are different type of hotels which will be analyzed below; it ranks from 1 star to 5 star standard depending on the type of services being rendered. They are:

Resort Hotels

This is the type of hotel that have recreational facilities such as Beach, golf course or an island where guests can enjoy the facilities when they patronize.

Budget Hotels

This is the type of Hotel that provides cheap and affordable accommodation to guests with limited services.

Suite Hotels

This is the type of hotel that offers guest rooms that sometimes contain an attached living room and sometimes a kitchenette where guest can cook their food.

Airport Hotel

This type of hotel is located nearby to an airport to provide accommodation for travelers to pass the night before their flight.

REQUIREMENT IN STARTING HOTEL BUSINESS

Feasibility Study

Just like any other business, a hotel is not just a business you can delve into without having some prerequisite knowledge. You need a feasibility study on the location you want to site your hotel, whether you want to build your own name or be a franchise.

Structure of Ownership

There are two options in the ownership of a hotel which are:

Franchise

This is a good way in starting hotel business by joining a major chain such as Protea Hotel, Sheraton Hotel etc by starting under them using their name to operate. You will succeed quickly under this type of ownership because you will enjoy more customers due to their goodwill. This requires a huge capital as you will have to abide and maintain their high standards.

Operating Under your Own Name

This is a means of starting the hotel business using your own brand name, this is much preferable for who want to start on a medium or small scale capacity, the advantages is that you will be able to have much freedom on how you run your business.

Choose a Good Location

Siting a hotel in a good location is one of the ways to be successful and maximize profit in hotel business. You should make sure your hotel is situated in an area where there is the presence of high income earners, commercial areas and must be accessible to power supply, good road network, good water supply.

The success of your hotel business is highly dependent on the location where it is situated as this will have a huge impact on the volume and type of customers that will patronize your business.

Register your Hotel Business

Just like other legitimate business, it is important that you register your hotel business with the relevant government agencies. You will need to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to make you business a legal entity, also you need to register with the Nigeria Tourism Development Commission (NTDC) as this will give your hotel business the opportunity to be listed in their official tourism guide to give it local and international recognition.

Capital

You can get capital from your personal savings but it might require huge capital especially if you are operating on a large scale, in this scenario you can secure loan from financial institutions likes banks provided you have collateral security or look for investors who can invest into your business.

Build Your Hotel

After getting a good location and getting enough capital, the next step is to erect some structures, but you must understand that quality of your structure is one of the major selling points of your hotel business, make sure you build your hotel to standard as this will attract a lot of customers. The exterior and interior of the hotel must be well furnished in bright and catchy colours.

Get a Standby Generator

Due to erratic power supply in the country, you need to make provision for generator to power your hotel whenever Power Holding Company takes off power, guest will not visit your hotel again if there is power outage every time, meanwhile all your hotel facilities needs to run on electricity, you also need constant water supply by sinking a borehole.

Employ Staffs

This is very important as you need to employ some workers to help in the running of your business such as receptionist security guard, laundry men, bar attendant, porters etc. If you haven’t worked nor have any hotel experience before, it will be advisable to employ a good manager with adequate hotel and catering experience because hotel business is very technical and require some in-depth knowledge so that you won’t run into losses if you don’t manage it effectively.

Train Your Staff

It is also important to train your staff very well to be polite, courteous, full of smiles to your customers, if your staff are rude it may drive your customers away gradually.

You can enroll them to go for hospitality and catering courses to enhance their knowledge and skills. The foremost hospitality training institute in Nigeria is the National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism in FCT Abuja.

Advertise Your Hotel Business

Advertisement plays a vital role in the marketing and exposure of a business to large audience, it will be useless to erect a good structure and have good facilities without attracting good customers intended.

You can advertise on Radio, TV, Newspaper, Journals, Billboards, Online portals or through giving discounts to your customers such as 20% off etc. You can even create a website for your business by giving it online presence and don’t forget to use the social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc adverts to give it a professional lift.

Make Profit

When the necessary structures and facilities are in place and adequate knowledge are available, then you are on a smooth ride to making millions of Naira from your hotel business.

You can invest your money in hotel business and make profits now as it is a very wise investment to embark upon.