PREMIER HOTELS & RESORTS: Comfortably the Best: Premier Secures Improvement, Expansion and Growth 

Over 30 years in the industry, Premier Hotels & Resorts has become the go-to expert in developing and managing hotels, conference centres and restaurants. “From humble beginnings in the Eastern Cape, to becoming one of South Africa’s leading, independent hotel groups, Premier Hotels & Resorts now offers special hotel and resort properties throughout the country, leaving an awe-inspiring mark in every province in which it lands,” the group outlines.

“We are proud to employ over 1500 passionate staff members who deliver a superior customer experience. Guests are invited to not only experience the luxurious and modern facilities within each hotel, but to take advantage of the surroundings in which they are located.

“At Premier, on offer is genuine, caring hospitality from a world-class, proudly South African Hotel Group. We are the destination of choice offering professional, personalised, flexible hospitality and service to the discerning business and leisure market.”

INVEST AND REFURB

South Africa is blessed with some of the most abundant and astonishing tourism hotspots the world over. Key to its seductive appeal for rafts of would-be travellers is an extensive variety of breath-taking holidays, experiences and activities throughout the year, underpinned by excellent tourist infrastructure, but arguably its crowning glory is a huge choice of accommodation in such an extensive range of distinctive settings.

Most of South Africa’s prime destinations are now brought to life with Premier’s commitment to providing guests with its trademark combination of unparalleled experience, friendly service and, perhaps more critically than ever, veritable value for money. Whether it is the soaring peaks of the Drakensberg Mountains, the bustling, cosmopolitan life of Gauteng or the spectacular coastlines of Cape Town and Kwa-Zulu Natal that is sought, everything is catered for, as the group succinctly abridges.

“The Premier Hotels & Resorts Group has successfully developed numerous new properties in South Africa, and has the expertise to provide you with a complete hospitality management solution.”

David Shevil, Group Head of Marketing explains how concerted and pandemic-defying efforts in recent months and years have brought about this all-encompassing coverage. “The group has grown significantly over the last two or three years, specifically during Covid, when we both bought and renovated quite a number of hotels which set us up superbly for the post-pandemic environment,” he explains.

“As a result, we have a suite of revamped and new hotels to offer to the market in South Africa, including in many new areas within the country. While most hotel groups were scaling back during the worst of Covid, Premier was looking to upgrade, grow and improve its footprint.” As Shevil reveals, what served Premier equally well as seeking new properties during the shutdown was investing resources both financial and temporal into its existing places.

“The key for us was to ensure that, while a hotel wasn’t functioning, it was refurbished, fully cleaned and all maintenance was taken care of. It was really an opportunity for various staff to be redeployed in other areas and become integral to the upkeep and maintenance of the hotel, undertaking all the repairs that are that much harder to do when guests are in situ.”

PREMIER THOHOYANDOU

A sod-turning, ground-breaking, ceremony in Thohoyandou, Limpopo was held in April by black female-owned construction firm African Century Group, to mark the building of the 25th hotel in the Premier armoury. Situated in the far northern part of Limpopo Province in the Vhembe District that borders Zimbabwe, just a stone’s throw from Kruger National Park’s Punda Maria gate, Premier Hotel Thohoyandou will be a major milestone in the tourism sector and will, in turn, serve as a catalyst for the many economic developments currently planned for the region.

Drawing inspiration from its OR Tambo hotel, the 4-star development on the north-eastern edge of the town will be a modern build with a customary touch of African flair, and house 120 rooms with extensive facilities.

“A project of this magnitude is critical in creating job opportunities,” underlined Samuel Nassimov, MD of Premier Hotels & Resorts. “During the construction phase, the project will employ in the region of 480 jobs from unskilled local construction labour through to highly skilled artisans and project managers. When the hotel officially opens, it will also employ 85 permanent workers and some 30 to 40 contract and part-time staff.

“When we were approached by the African Century Group, we never thought twice. After listening to the vision of the owner, Mrs Tsakani Masia, we were convinced that in her, we had found a partner equal to the task. We could never have settled for a better partner than the African Century Group, and more exciting is the fact that the group is local and is fit for a big stage such as this.”

EXPAND, GROW, EVOLVE

The bounce-back from Covid has been extremely marked, Shevil confirms, with clients and travellers from all sectors returning in their multitudes to fully profit from Premier’s hard work. “Certainly locally people have begun to travel again in a big way, be it for leisure or business,” he notes.

“Corporate and government and business travelling has also increased significantly, as people return to in-person meetings and hosting workshops and symposiums and their online alternatives are slowly phased back out.

“People are tired of being at home and are wanting to travel again, and especially here in South Africa where would-be travellers are desperate to explore what it has to offer from a destination perspective. Equally, we are seeing a lot of international tourists coming back, in a lot of cases because travelling into South Africa is, comparatively, relatively cheap. Tourists tend to have a far stronger currency when they come here. This all augurs really positively for how the summer will shape up.”

Premier has been working extremely hard both behind the scenes and from a social digital perspective in order to target the broadest range of clientele, Shevil relays; Premier is very much back in business and ready to welcome one and all. “We have done a serious amount of work to publicise ourselves and get people back in our properties,” he remarks. “This year has been very positive for us, in which we have exceeded our targets month-on-month, and we are now targeting a return to pre-Covid revenue as we have historically been trending very much in the right direction.

“The management team is certainly not sitting on its hands when it comes to acquiring and sourcing new hotel opportunities,” he rounds off. “This year has been primarily about stability, which has been greatly aided by the overall influence of our acquisitions. Through further opportunities in South Africa, Africa and internationally we are now looking to expand, grow and evolve even further.”