Thursday 6 February 2014

Protea Hospitality Group in Namibia - no changes after acquisition

“They are not going anywhere and it will be business countrywide as usual under the Protea Hotels brand”.

This according to Arthur Gillis, CEO of the Protea Hospitality Group, who gave reassurances this week that the acquisition of Protea Hospitality Holdings by global hotel group Marriott International, will not affect employment or change the operational status quo at any Protea Hotel in Namibia and throughout the continent.

Apparently staff at a coastal Protea Hotel worried that they might be faced with retrenchments when Protea Hospitality Holdings is taken over by Marriott International in April.

“There are often misconceptions about how Protea Hotels operates.

We are a hotel management company and we manage and market hotels on behalf of owners in a management, lease or franchise agreement. We have equity in a number of hotels on the continent, but in Namibia we happen to have franchise agreements.

“What this means is the Protea Hotels management principles, systems and brand standards are applied at these hotels, but the physical assets and staff remain with the owners of the hotels,” said Gillis. “The sale of the management company therefore has no bearing on the physical assets or staff.”

He reiterated that there would be no job losses as a direct result of the sale, and that the Protea Hotels in Namibia would continue to operate normally, retaining the Protea Hotels branding.

There are 10 hotels in Namibia with which Protea Hotels has franchise agreements: Guest House Indongo, Protea Hotel Fürstenhof, Protea Hotel Walvis Bay, Protea Hotel Pelican Bay, Protea Hotel Ondangwa, Protea Hotel Zambezi River Lodge, Protea Hotel Thüringer Hof, Protea Hotel Burning Shore, Protea Hotel Long Beach Lodge, and Protea Hotel Sea View Zum Sperrgebiet.

Protea Hospitality Holdings currently has 116 hotels with 10 148 rooms in seven African countries. As part of the transaction, Protea Hospitality Holdings will create a property ownership company to retain ownership of the hotels it currently owns, entering into long-term management and lease agreements with Marriott for such hotels. The property ownership company will also retain a number of minority interests in other Protea-managed hotels.

With the Protea Hospitality Holdings acquisition, Marriott will become the largest hotel company in the Middle East and Africa region, nearly doubling its distribution there to more than 23 000 rooms.

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