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Aleph Hospitality to quadruple portfolio

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Dubai-based hotel management company Aleph Hospitality has revealed plans to grow its portfolio from nine this year to 35 properties by 2025, as demand for alternative management models gains momentum.

Earlier this year, Aleph Hospitality signed a franchise agreement with Marriott International for the first Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Liberia. Located in the capital city, Monrovia, the 111-key hotel is due to become the first internationally branded hotel in the country upon opening in 2020 and will be managed by Aleph Hospitality under the Four Points by Sheraton brand.

The landmark property is ideally situated in the city’s central business district, adjacent to the United Nations mission and in close proximity to a number of government organisations and commercial offices.

The opening of the hotel will play a vital role in helping to realise the country’s tourism strategy, which aims to deliver 15 million international visitors by 2023.

The brand has nine hotels in its portfolio, including Getfam Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Best Western Plus Nairobi Westlands in Nairobi, Kenya, and the recently signed Four Points by Sheraton Monrovia in Liberia. Here, Aleph Hospitality secured a major international brand partnership for the owner thanks to its established relations and preferred terms with global hotel companies, in this case, Marriott International.

Out of its nine properties, one is operational at the moment (Getfam Hotel in Addis Ababa) and the next opening for the company will be the Best Western Plus Nairobi Westlands later this summer. Further projects are also under discussion in Uganda, Tanzania, Morocco, Nigeria and Cameroon.

Bani Haddad, founder and managing director of Aleph Hospitality, tells TTN: “African economies are growing very fast and the tourism exponent of their GDPs is growing over 5 or 6 per cent every year. The airlift within the continent is also growing at a steady pace and Addis Ababa, Nairobi and South Africa are emerging as clear aviation hubs for the continent.”

Following a strong foothold on Africa, Aleph Hospitality has turned its focus to the Middle East to manage hotels directly for owners, either on a franchise basis for branded properties or as a white-label operator for independently branded hotels.

A boom in supply coupled with challenging trading conditions is driving hotel owners to look at new ways to streamline overheads and ensure lean, profitable operations.

Haddad says: “While white-label and third-party hotel management models dominate the market in the US and Europe, until the launch of Aleph Hospitality in 2015, they simply didn’t exist in a professional manner in the Middle East and Africa.

“With owners increasingly looking for alternative ways to maximise the value of their assets during times of increased supply, the opportunity is ripe for our management models to take hold in the region.”  

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