CATHEDRAL PEAK HOTEL: 87 Years at the Foot of the Mountains
Those behind Cathedral Peak Hotel, in uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, know a thing or two about longevity. The business has been running successfully for 87 years, supporting a community, and achieving all targets in a tough market. Operations Manager Byron van der Riet tells Enterprise Africa about continuing the legacy through an ongoing focus on sustainability and quality.
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Interview with Byron van der Riet, Operations Manager
There is one hotel in the world that sits closer to the foot of the Drakensberg than any other, and Cathedral Peak Hotel has occupied that position since December 1939. 87 years later, the property remains privately owned, family run, and the only hotel of its kind located within the boundaries of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site. For Operations Manager Byron van der Riet, the third generation of his family to lead the business, that uniqueness is the foundation on which everything else is built.
“We are the only privately owned hotel situated within the Drakensberg World Heritage site,” he confirms. “We offer a more immersive and authentic experience of being in the mountains because there is no other property as close to the foot of the mountains as we are — that is what makes us very unique and that is what keeps us very proud.”
The local terrain is some of the world’s most spectacular. Here, nature is uninterrupted and everywhere. Plant and animal life is abundant, unpredictable weather provides all of the extremes, and a deep sense of history is on display with San rock art showcasing South African heritage like almost nowhere else. Building a tourism business to sit sustainably within this wild solitude is an ongoing challenge and opportunity.
Cathedral Peak Hotel was started by van der Riet’s grandfather, Albert, before being run by his father William, and the family connection has been integral to how the business operates. “I joined the business as soon as I finished my schooling,” van der Riet explains. He trained at hotel school, gained a diploma in the field, and then went out into the world — working in different establishments across South Africa and abroad before returning 12 years ago to take up a role in the hotel’s food and beverage division. That experience reshaped how he approaches the family business today.
“I worked in London in a hotel and in the USA in a country club — these experiences added so much,” he says. “Working with different people from different backgrounds and learning different ways of doing things gives you a new respect for people. You are always adapting and evolving, and my experience abroad undoubtedly helped me to advance what we do here in South Africa.”
That international grounding now informs an operation managed by van der Riet across multiple departments, with his father remaining closely involved as owner. A loose succession plan is beginning to emerge with a tried and tested model in place. For now, the business is performing strongly. “So far this year, we are meeting all of our project occupancy targets,” van der Riet confirms — a notable achievement for a property whose remote, mountainous location places it well outside the well-trodden tourist circuits of South Africa’s major cities.
That remoteness is, paradoxically, the hotel’s greatest asset. The Drakensberg — uKhahlamba in Zulu, meaning the Barrier of Spears — is regularly cited as one of Southern Africa’s most dramatic landscapes, a recognised UNESCO World Heritage Site for the past 28 years. Guests are drawn to hiking in wilderness – an experience increasingly difficult to find, globally. Many praise the dramatic basalt cliffs, the alpine meadows, and the sense of scale that the mountains deliver to visitors prepared to leave the cities behind. Cathedral Peak Hotel sits at the literal foot of that landscape, offering a base from which guests can access trails, waterfalls and viewpoints unavailable to those staying further afield.
POWER FROM THE MOUNTAIN
The hotel’s sustainability programme, intensified over the past two years, reflects an understanding that operating inside a World Heritage Site carries responsibilities that extend well beyond guest satisfaction.
“We have been on a drive in the past two years to be more sustainable and reducing our carbon footprint,” van der Riet explains. The most striking element of that drive is a hydroelectric power plant, generating electricity from the river system that runs past the property — a renewable energy source drawn directly from the landscape the hotel exists to showcase. “We now generate some of our own electricity through various means including from the system in the Mlambonja river,” he says.
The region’s sunshine has been tapped, supplemented by battery storage for backup capacity. “We have installed a large amount of solar generation, and we have put in batteries to ensure we have flexibility,” van der Riet says. “It’s all about improving our sustainability by using greener energy sources.”
For a property in a remote mountain location, where grid reliability cannot always be assumed, the combination of hydro, solar and battery storage delivers operational resilience as well as environmental credibility — a practical answer to a genuine infrastructure challenge as much as a values-driven choice.
The supply chain that supports the hotel’s daily operations is shaped by the same geography that makes the destination special. “Supply chain is complex for us because of our location,” van der Riet acknowledges. “Our distance from major cities means that supplying to us is quite the logistical undertaking.”
The hotel’s response has been to root its sourcing as locally as possible. The Champagne Valley, immediately adjacent, supplies fresh produce. Bothas Hill Butchery provides meat. “In the past, we had a truck that would drive to the larger towns and cities and collect produce but now we have suppliers who deliver to us anytime of the week, which is fantastic,” van der Riet says.
That local-first approach is as much about relationships as logistics. “Competitive pricing and personal service is important for us,” van der Riet emphasises. “We like to be able to contact a person and talk to them rather than being another number. It’s also good to know that businesses that supply to us also support local staff and enterprise.”
In a region where economic opportunity is scarce, every supplier relationship the hotel maintains has a multiplying effect on the wider community.
A COMMUNITY ANCHOR
Around 90% of Cathedral Peak’s 150 permanent employees are drawn from the surrounding area, making the hotel one of the most significant sources of formal employment in a part of KwaZulu-Natal where alternatives are limited. Through the Pack for a Purpose programme, the hotel donates materials to local schools and crèches, supporting education in communities that, without the hotel’s presence, would have considerably fewer resources to draw on. “We are not just a hotel — we are part of the community, and it is our responsibility to give back,” van der Riet says.
That sense of responsibility extends to how van der Riet frames the hotel’s purpose. “We want to continue the success of the business long into the future, not just as a family-owned business but as a community asset that supports staff and other local businesses,” he says.
“As the only hotel in the world heritage site, there are not many opportunities for the community, and we see it as our responsibility to provide an experience for guests to have the privilege to stay in such a beautiful place while benefiting and sustaining everyone in the area. It’s a responsibility we carry happily.”
The wider context for that responsibility is significant. South Africa’s travel and tourism sector supported a record 1.9 million jobs in 2025, surpassing 2019 levels for the first time and accounting for 11.3% of all employment in the country, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. By 2035, the sector could add a further 620,000 jobs, reaching 2.6 million and contributing R911.7 billion to the national economy. Much of that growth depends on businesses willing to operate, invest and employ in the parts of South Africa that international visitors rarely associate with the country’s major attractions — rural, mountainous regions where tourism is not simply an industry but a foundation for the local economy. Research on rural tourism in South Africa has consistently emphasised that supporting destinations beyond the major cities is one of the most direct ways travellers can contribute to economic development in underserved communities.
Cathedral Peak Hotel is precisely that kind of business. 87 years of continuous family ownership, a hydroelectric plant drawing power from the same river that shapes the valley, a workforce drawn from the surrounding villages, and a supply chain built on relationships with neighbouring producers — together, these elements highlight a hotel and tourism ecosystem that has never separated its own success from the success of the community around it. As South Africa’s tourism sector pushes toward record employment and renewed international relevance, businesses like Cathedral Peak demonstrate what that growth can look like when it reaches beyond the cities and into the mountains where it is needed most.