Nigeria at it again: Disrespects South Africa and Opens first 6 STAR hotel on the African Continent in Abuja

 

With 28 years of his "hands on" expertise, a successful international experience in hotel management, Mr. Paul Murry currently heads the about-to-be launched and the first-of-its-kind 6-star luxury hotel in, not only Nigeria, but the African continent. In this interview with Aminu Imam and Ibrahim Kabiru Sule, the Briton explains why he set up AES Luxury Apartments & Executive Suites, which boasts of visible opulence, maximum luxury, highly affordable rates and a highly trained staff, in a choice location within Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. Excerpts:

Frontal view of ACE apartments, Abuja

The hotel industry has long been patronised by large businesses, particularly in Lagos, the commercial capital; what informed your decision to introduce a 6-star hotel in Abuja?
Abuja is the business centre-hub of Nigeria and AES Apartments decided on putting the first 6- star luxury hotel property here. Seeing is believing; The finishing is like Nigeria hasn't seen before. It's actually like a hotel or apartment block out of Dubai, and we feel that it's a positive move in the right direction being the first 6-star hotel in the African continent and at the rates we are going to charge, which is going to be an affordable price. The apartment varies from N30, 000 up to N95, 000 for our Executive Suites. And we feel that Abuja is crying out for the opulence of what we are going to be able to achieve.
Most of the foreign visitors come to Nigeria for investment purposes. Are you trying to take advantage in that area?
We will be open for all type of business and our recreation facilities, as you have seen; the size of the pool, the entertaining area, our conference room which can take up to 300 people and so that we have the leisure market. Also our swimming pools are very children- friendly and yes, we are apartments, primarily more than hotel, so we have companies that will book rooms for long time at a very affordable price; but there are definitely gaps in the market, in the apartment market, for quality. There isn't anything in Abuja and so therefore we will be attracting the corporate and the business clients and for leisure.
When is the official opening date of the hotel and are you sure you can beat the deadline in view of finishing touches that is still going on?
Saturday, the 1st of June; and we will be ready by that date. The pool will be ready. I have on site at the moment 40, 000 staff that are undergoing training and my mates are doing all the touching up and fixing and we are nearly complete. So, we got some breathing spaces. But obviously the training is the target.
Having talked about the affordable prices of your hotel, are you fixing these prices based on the fact that it's the first 6-star hotel in Africa, as you just said, or is that going to be maintained even after the official launching?
No, we are going to maintain these prices. These are not opening prices; actually, we have soft opening right now and we are actually selling an apartment at N21, 000, which is until the first of June. That is the opening offer, which is available from 1st of May to 1st of June; But from the 1st of June, our rates would be between N30, 000 to N95, 000.
You said this is the first 6-star hotel in African continent, most 5-star hotels in the country are lacking in human resource capacity; how important are you taking the issue of capacity building of your staff?
First of all, this apartment will have a staff capacity of 100, for now; It's just under 80 apartments, so we are going to be giving one and a quarter staff member to each apartment. We have already started intensive training since last month and have given a hundred new jobs in Abuja. I have taken some people, who hitherto had very little experience in some of this kind of job; in some of the house-cleaning jobs. Sometimes, when you have this kind of hotel apartment blocks, you need to train them the way to treat people in this kind of opulent building.
Security issue is one of the main concerns now, especially in the North. How adequate is Ace Apartments in this regard?
Yes; we have been very adequate with regards to security. First of all, wall, the surrounding wall of the property is very high and has an electric fence; Secondly, we have the expertise of the halogen security and also, we have private military security outfit. But they are not in their uniforms with machine guns; they are much more covert. They are not on site now. But they will be around from the first of June. And of course, the ordinary checking procedures; there is only one entrance and as usual, the procedures of checking the car will happen as always.
The cost?
18 million dollars.
Most hotels, particularly in Lagos tend to recoup their investments within 7 to 8 years. When do you intend to recoup this investment?
We anticipate our return of our investment in about 7 years.
Is there anything that informed your decision to locate the hotel in this part of Abuja, which is outside the business centre of the city?
I think the positioning of the hotel is a very special one, for a few reasons. One, it is directly on the way to Abuja airport. It's exactly half way to and fro, in either direction. That is the first thing; Secondly, Jabi, if you look around. the constructions are on-going, there are beautiful houses, housing estates, there are universities etc. What is also important is that it is very peaceful, with beautiful gardens, surroundings, no annoying car horns, noise and the hustle and bustle of the city. You only take 15 minutes maximum drive from the centre of Abuja and again, 15 minutes from the airport. That is a location (where) you have beautiful surroundings.
We do have shops in the apartment; there are two parking shops, a supermarket; we also have a clinic, a gymnasium, in addition to the pool area, and the conference rooms, which can cater for private functions of up to 300 people, both indoors or out.
Do you intend to open similar hotel in other states in the country?
Yes, I'm the group General Manager of the company and we are already planning the next one in Lagos, in Festac; That will start in January, next year.
In view of the low rates of your prices, how are you going to assure customers of maximum comforts, luxury?
I have selected the crème-de la crème that Abuja can offer, with regards to my heads of department and through them we continue to train them; the most important thing is that we are going to set standards on very good salary, because we are going to pay the best salaries in Abuja. My minimum salary is N38, 000. So you are talking about the cleaner; He is going to get N38, 000. My supervisors get N150, 000. So with that in mind, they are going to be more proud of being here and when we introduced the service job, we instituted it in a way that it will be based on performance and the amount of business they attract, which they are going to have a percentage. If the attendance is full, they are going to have 100%. We are actually making our staff part of the business. Most hotels pay 50% of the service job; we will be paying between 50% and 100% of the service job, which is obviously on their performance and how busy the hotel is.
So you know I think with that in mind, people are going to be working for a very long time, they are going to be putting their very best, they are going to be dedicated, and they are already motivated by paying them good salaries. And I think this is going to make a good difference to the quality of service and consistency.