Business travellers get new home in Sankara Hotel

Business travellers to Kenya have found a new home—Sankara Hotel in Nairobi, which opened its doors to tap into the growing hospitality market.

For the owners, the Sh2.8 billion hotel apart from its name, has nothing else in common with the charismatic left-leaning former leader of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara.

It just fitted with what they are offering guests— a hospitable environment.

In Sanskrit, a language in India, the name means a cause of tranquillity, a component the investors hope will lure visitors to the hotel.

“We set out to put up a contemporary vibrant hotel that caters for the modern traveller,” said Mr Rohan Patel, the director of corporate development at Sankara Hotel Group Kenya.

The high-end hotel owned by a private investment group that consists of family members who had the land for years is located in one of Nairobi’s growing commercial and retail centres, Westlands.

Sankara has set itself as an ideal home for business travellers, corporate meetings and an entertainment venue for the domestic market.

The hotel is coming into the market at a time when to accommodation in Nairobi is scarce, impeding the growth of tourism in the city.

Nairobi has become a major conferencing hub and this has demanded more beds.

Sankara Hotel Group Kenya has added 156 new rooms in the market.

“As the region opens up, Nairobi will continue growing. Our location and the under supply of rooms in the market is on our side,” said Mr Raymond Bragg, the properties general manager.

Other investors are also moving to address this scarcity with the Crowne Plaza in Upper Hill having opened its doors earlier this year while Simba Group puts up a hotel along Waiyaki Way.

Global hotel groups have also been eyeing the market in a bid to be part of the growing tourism sector in East African region.

Sankara, which sits on 1.6 acres of land, is adjacent to Jacaranda Hotel which mainly caters for corporate meetings and conferences in the city.

For Mr Bragg, there is room for these hotels as each bring in a new concepts and helps grow the market further.