Namibia welcomes City Lodges

Namibia welcomes City LodgesTown Lodge Windhoek to open in July Windhoek was chosen as one of the new strategic locations for the South African hotel group’s expansion into the continent. OGONE TLHAGE



The South African hotel group City Lodges expects to open its first Namibian hotel in Windhoek’s Kleine Kuppe area in July.

“Having a hotel in Windhoek is part of our group’s targeted expansion strategy into selected parts of East Africa and southern Africa,” chairman Bulelani Ngcuka and chief executive officer Clifford Ross say in the group’s report for 2016.

“We are also opening new hotels in the next year or so in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam with Maputo also on our expansion radar. Town Lodge Windhoek will be the 58th hotel in our group. We are hoping to complete the hotel by the end of May this year. It will have 150 rooms.

“Expansion of our South African and broader African footprint took a significant step forward in 2015/2016 with the opening of two new hotels in South Africa – Road Lodge Pietermaritzburg and City Lodge Hotel Newtown, and the commencement of construction on the169-room City Lodge Hotel Two Rivers in Nairobi, Kenya, the 147-room City Lodge Hotel Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and the 151-room Town Lodge Windhoek, Namibia.

“In Windhoek, handover of the completed basement above which our 150-room Town Lodge Windhoek is being built took place at the end of July. This hotel is expected to open in July 2017. Final approvals are still being sought for the development of the 148-room City Lodge Hotel Maputo in Mozambique. It is hoped that construction will commence in the current quarter for completion in the first quarter of 2018,” the two said.

“Our group remains on the lookout for suitable development opportunities in South Africa, southern Africa and east Africa.”

Information obtained from City Lodges’ website indicates that there are currently 12 hotels with a total 1 503 rooms.