PROTEA Hotel's Kruger Gate Lodge opened, as planned, on August 1, confirms marketing director, Allan Duke. Some R15m-worth of damage was done to the hotel during regional flooding in February shortly after its acquisition by the group. "We are sitting with a good run-up to Christmas," said Duke, adding that the hotel - which has always been popular - had benefited considerably by "the world continually asking when it would be reopening". "The refurbishment went very well. Protea has opened a lot of new properties throughout Africa over the past five years and we have therefore learned a lot about doing things right." Duke commented that certain landscaping projects still needed time to become mature, "but with the summer rains coming, things should be back to becoming lush very quickly". (Elizabeth Sheridan)
