BusinessDay 22 Oct 2017

C002D5556
40 BD SUNDAY
Travel
Sunday 22 October 2017
‘We do not take the Nigerian market for granted’
With three hotels, the Oak Plaza Hotel Group is pushing the frontiers of indigenous hospitality brand in Ghana. The group is also extending
its campaign across the West African region and beyond to woo tourists and businesses from the region to experience its exciting
offerings, and spend money within the region. In one of such strategic marketing campaigns at the Akwaaba African Travel Market, which
held in Lagos last September, Semira Anku, sales & marketing manager, Oak Plaza Hotel-East Airport, Accra, speaks to Obinna Emelike
on the hotel group’s innovations, new developments, exciting product/facility offering, clientele among other issues. Excerpts
How focused
are you on
building an
indigenous
brand with
Oak Plaza Hotel?
We are excited with the
success of Oak Plaza Hotel.
So far, it has been tremendous.
Visitors and Ghanaians
all know the Oak
Plaza Hotel brand. A few
years ago, we resolved to
build an indigenous brand
rather than relying on a
franchise brand because
our management believes
that as Africans, we can do
it. We are looking forward
to people buying the Oak
Plaza Hotel brand even in
Nigeria, Benin Republic and
all other places we hope to
expand to. So far, the efforts
at doing our own thing have
been fruitful. Currently, we
won Best Three-Star Hotel
award continuously for two
years in Accra. This year,
we are yet to see who will
win it, it has been very good,
and the feedback is good.
But there are more rooms
for improvement because if
you are fighting with a giant
then you have to be ready.
But we believe that as part
of our mission, we want to
expand in Africa and then
gradually we can go into the
international market as well.
Does your sustained marketing
campaign in Nigeria
suggest how big the clientele
from the country is?
The Nigerian market is
very important to our hotel
business because we get a
lot of business from Nigeria.
We do not take the Nigerian
market for granted because
we get about 47 percent of
our clients from Nigeria. The
figure is quite high. This is
made possible with the help
of everybody. We have good
working relationship with
Nigerians and the media
has been very helpful. But
I think everybody has been
highly supportive. We have
corporate clients and those
who do business with us as
well from Ghana. Obviously,
the high patronage and repeat
visits by our Nigerian
clients are because we take
very good care of them. For
instance, after the Akwaaba
Semia Anku, marketing and sales manager, Oak Plaza Hotel Accra 2
fair in Lagos, I am going for
sales scores. I do not just
come for the fairs and leave;
I am going to be visiting a
lot of companies before going
back to Ghana. It is part
of the efforts from us at the
sales department to build the
market.
What category of guests
are your Nigerian clients?
We get both business and
leisure guests from Nigeria.
However, we get more of the
business because we get a lot
of corporate clients who do
business with us. I was just
looking at a list of Nigerians
that come to us and I see a lot
of companies. We do a lot of
business and we do leisure
as well. But it also depends
on the season. For instance,
Christmas is coming and
obviously Oak Plaza has a
special rate for families who
want to come and do Christmas.
So, you will see a lot of
families coming in during
this time and even during
Easter period.
For guests who desire to
know, what is the rating of
Oak Plaza Hotel?
Oak Plaza Hotel is a threestar
hotel, but we pride ourselves
in giving four and
five-star services. When you
go online you can review us
on TripAdvisor and others
platforms. On these platforms,
you will read things
like very clean rooms, and
friendly staff. When you
come to Oak Plaza you will
feel that touch of personalized
offering and that is
what keeps us going because
everybody now claims to be
nice.
As well, this personal
touch is what you do not
get in the bigger brands.
They are big, they do not do
personalised service, but we
have people who even wake
up in the morning as early
as 6am just to speak to our
clients to ask them, are you
okay?, did you sleep well?,
do you need anything or do
you have anything I need
to do for you?, and all that.
So, that personal life style
we give in our hotel, which
other brands do not have, is
the reason why we get a lot
of clients.
How big is the Oak Plaza
brand in Ghana?
We are big and growing
even bigger. At present, we
have three properties in
Ghana. But very soon, the
hotel is likely moving into
building more apartments,
and that is why we have the
first apartment, which is the
Oak Plaza Suites; which is
more of the luxurious apartments.
So that is the focus
now. We are going to help
improve the current hotel
and gradually expand into
building of apartments.
We opened East Legon in
2003 and we opened East
Airport in 2009. For the Oak
Plaza Suite, we are officially
going to do the soft opening
soon. Oak Plaza Suite should
be available for everybody
from the end of September
upwards.
We have 82 rooms in our
East Airport hotel, 12 rooms
in our East Legon hotel and
20 rooms in Oak Plaza Suite,
which is the luxurious apartment
though some of them
are one-bedroom suites, and
two-bedroom suites.
Is Nigeria the niche market
you are trying to capture
now?
Yes, off course. We have
some clients who come on a
very long stay. But we provide
everything that adds to
the experience of our long
staying guests because if
you are in the hotel and you
cannot have a kitchenette
where you can cook, boil
or do little little things for
yourself, it will be boring.
So if you have a client
staying for a long time, you
rather suggest they go into
apartments or residences.
But that does not mean we
focus our attention on our
long staying guests, we have
guest who stay with us for
three months, four months,
because we have that homely
feel.
Of course, our staff relate
with you in a very homely
way. As a result of that,
some guests are happy to
stay with us for a long time.
We even have clients staying
with us for six months,
eight months and all that,
but they are happy.