According to the 2018 Pipeline report released by W Hospitality Group, 20 major international hotel brands are expected to open in Kenya over the next five years.
According to the report, an additional 3 444 rooms are expected to be built by 2023, with the hotel size averaging 172 rooms.
Kenya has 80% of its rooms onsite, mostly in Nairobi, where there are 1 424 rooms in nine hotels set to open in 2018, and 14 hotels are expected to open next year.
As for hotels in the pipeline, The Best Western Group tops the charts, with six properties currently under construction. One of the hotels is in Naivasha and the rest are in Nairobi, under its Best Western, BW Premier Collection, Best Western Plus and Executive Residency by Best Western Brands.
The Radisson Hotel Group has two operational properties already in Nairobi, with a third expected to open its doors next year.
“With our new brand segmentation, we have the potential to operate more than 10 hotels within cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Lagos, providing real scale and operational synergies, while cities such as Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Abidjan, Dar es Salaam, Durban and Dakar have the potential for more than five hotels under our various hotel brands,” said Andrew McLachlan, Radisson Hotel Group Senior Vice-President for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Furthermore, the group is also planning to open three new brands in Kenya, Red Radisson, Radisson and Radisson Collection.
“We are also looking into operating a beach resort on the coast as well as bring Park Inn by Radisson hotels to Mombasa and Kisimu,” said Radisson in response to questions from Business Daily.
CityBlue, Marriott, Radisson, Dusit, Accor, Wyndham, Swiss International and Sarovar are also planning to expand their presence in the country, the majority of them in the capital, Nairobi.
Wyndham will debut in Amboseli, while Swiss International Hotels & Resorts CEO, Hans Kennedy, says the group opened an area office in Nairobi (in 2017), to better harness the opportunities in Africa. The chain is focusing on expansion in East Africa, but is also keen to grow its presence in West Africa.
According to Kennedy, the benefits of having an office on the continent are already being realised. Swiss International Hotels & Resorts has since signed an agreement to develop and operate two lifestyle resorts, the Swiss International Resort Mount Kenya and the Royal Swiss Empuku in Uganda, both set for completion in 2019.
