Travelodge bets on winter
KASANE: Having struggled to generate a profit since 2019, Travelodge Kasane has been amongst the runt piglets of the Travelodge Group, surviving off the profitability of its sister companies.
However, the company expects this year’s winter to bring in a massive performance boost. Ending the last financial year with only roughly 20% occupancy, the Kasane branch of Travelodge seemed to be in dire straits.
This was an inevitable consequence of both global and domestic travel restrictions isolating the business from its core target market. With the easement of travel restrictions and suddenly increased activity in the Chobe region with businesses being packed to capacity, some for the first time in multiple years, Travelodge expects to end this winter season with no less than an average 70% capacity.
This business change would transform one of the runt piglets of the Travelodge Group into one of its roaring lions charging along with Travelodge Gaborone and Room50two. Travelodge Kasane gGeneral manager, Todd Chivese expressed that this winter season will likely be one of the biggest revenue generation periods for this financial year along with the festive season. “We’re seeing a lot of planes flying in, and that means more people are looking to sleep. We’ve primed ourselves to be the top choice for everyone coming into Kasane,” he said.
“We haven’t been making a profit, in fact, we relied on our sister companies to keep us running. We remained hopeful though and made sure we kept full staff to maintain the premises and keep it from being dilapidated, but it’s paying off.”
He expressed that the hotel, like all other accommodation services in the Chobe region, suffered due to travel restrictions although he feels the decision to close the borders was appropriate.
“Although we did suffer, the government decided to be cautious about opening our borders and I feel they took the right steps in the right direction. The President has been doing a fantastic job to market us in the international markets to make sure we recover, there’s no doubt about that,” he noted.
Chivese added that the lifting of the restrictions is now seeing a massive change in the amount of tourism that the region is experiencing and as a direct result the amount of business the hotel receives. He said the hotel has used this opportunity to consider its strategy and position in the market. “While we aren’t a riverfront property, we use that fact to our advantage with very competitive room rates and a beautifully unique architectural design to attract our customers,” he said.
Chivese also noted that with the resurgence of domestic travel, Travelodge Kasane is now benefiting from its name recognition again with local tourists coming into Kasane knowing they will receive similar if not better experience from the Kasane branch of Travelodge as they would in Gaborone.
“While we’re very confident of this year’s performance we would also love to see increased interest in hosting conferences. We would like to go back to the 2016 era when physical conferences were big,” he added.
As the host of the annual Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB) conference, the hotel has engaged several interested stakeholders from government entities, banks, and corporates to retain an interest in maintaining the hotel as a go-to choice for conferencing.