Travel Lodge expands to Kasane and Ghanzi
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday September 18, 2015 15:10
The three-star lodge’s first franchise, Kasane Travel Lodge is expected to be complete in three months and will have 150 rooms, a restaurant, pool, bar and 200-seater conference centre. The lodge will be open for business by early next year.
The group also has plans to start the construction of another 54-roomed lodge in Ghanzi once an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been approved. The lodge is intended to serve the same market as the Gaborone and Kasane lodges.
In an interview with BusinessWeek, ODE head of new projects, Justin Jose said they have been working on developing the second phase of the Gaborone lodge, which included the construction of a conference facility, 31 additional rooms as well as an in-house gym.
“The conference facility can accommodate 800 delegates and has a main conference hall seating of up to 600 people. The facility also has three boardrooms, which can accommodate more than 200 people,” said Jose.
He added that the development of the second phase was augmented by the feedback they got from their guests who wanted Travel Lodge to be a one-stop-shop with conferencing and accommodation.
“We then conducted a feasibility study and realised that there is room for a ‘no frill, no thrill’ facility in Gaborone,” he said.
According to Jose, the lodge would also serve as a multi-purpose facility where clients could host exhibitions, conferences, launches, gala dinners and live entertainment events.
At the completion of this second phase, the lodge will now have 116 rooms, conference centre, a gym and an entertainment area, which will have a swimming pool.
Travel Lodge general manager, Cameroon Thompson said since they started operations in Botswana three years ago, they have consistently maintained an occupancy rate of 75 percent and have created a market of their own.
To address water shortages, he said they have a storage tank care, which has the capacity to take care of the lodge’s requirements for five days without any inwards supply.
“We advocate judicious use of water for guests staying more than one night, we advise them to leave towels and linen for washing if they really think so,” he said.