Transcorp Hotels Plc is the leading hospitality brand in Nigeria, the owner of the luxurious Transcorp Hilton Abuja, and the Transcorp Hotel in Calabar and the pioneering business behind Aura, a new hospitality app that offers accommodation experiences across Nigeria and expanding into Africa.
“It allows customers, on their app and mobile, to book any accommodation experience they want in Nigeria, with opportunities opening up across Africa,” says Dupe Olusola, Transcorp Hotels’ CEO.
The quality of Transcorp’s hotels has been well recognised, with the Transcorp Hilton Abuja recently winning the world travel award, Africa’s Best Business Hotel for the eighth year in a row.
“It’s due to a combination of all the things we have done over the last few years,” Olusola tells us. “We continue to be innovative and dynamic, and the business has gone through a few transitions.”
Indeed, Transcorp Hilton Abuja began life as a leading business hotel, before diversifying into the local leisure segment.
“We are Nigeria’s leading hotel in all categories,” Olusola says proudly. “We were recently also awarded the Seven Star Hospitality Award. It’s about investing in our team, ensuring everyone is committed to the same objective.”
Transcorp Hotels Plc is the leading hospitality brand in Nigeria, the owner of the luxurious Transcorp Hilton Abuja, and the Transcorp Hotel in Calabar and the pioneering business behind Aura, a new hospitality app that offers accommodation experiences across Nigeria and expanding into Africa.
The key to Transcorp’s approach is that the experience starts from the minute their guests drive into the hotel, the entire experience is seamless.
“We constantly innovate,” Olusola tells us. “During Covid, we had a clean stay process in place to ensure we double-checked every room. Our cleanliness was top standard, and we communicated with guests regularly to bring everyone up to speed for cleanliness and security purposes.”
Strategy and Focus
Covid also led to Transcorp Hotels taking stock of, and restructuring its own finances.
“We had foreign-denominated loans and one of the first things we did during the pandemic was to renegotiate all our loans and get better terms and interest rates for the facilities we have,” Olusola recalls.
Of course, Covid is only one of the significant challenges Transcorp Hotels, and the hospitality industry as a whole have faced in recent years.
“Economic issues continue to be a challenge. The world is going through a phase where we are dealing with inflation, possible recession, supply chain challenges and for us, we are also dealing
with currency foreign exchange issues as well,” Olusola admits. “Operational business is expensive and we are focused on running our business efficiently. Additionally, because we are in an election year, there have been challenges around security. But we ensure that for every challenge and risk we face, we approach it with a risk assessment framework and mindset so that measures are in place to mitigate those challenges.”
For now, Transcorp Hotels remains strategic and focused on its goals.
“We know that these things move in cycles. There are times when it’s low and times when it’s high. We ensure we can ride the wave and the cycle,” says Olusola. “We have started to look inwards a lot more and be a lot more strategically focused. We are looking for partners that are local so that we can manage expenses and operational costs to stay on top of it.”
Transcorp Hotels remains a dynamic business that avoids dependence on any one customer base. While it has traditionally been a business- and government-focused hotel, it is now focusing on the domestic leisure sector.
“It means that regardless of what is happening we have a customer base we can continue to serve,” Olusola explains. “Liquidity is a bit tight for most of our customers, so we have put in place a lot of attractive packages to ensure it is affordable to people staying with us for ‘Busiure’- business and leisure – or for people who cannot travel outside of the country the way they normally would have. We tap into local opportunities and local incentives and alternative opportunities for the business.”
Transcorp’s digital platform, Aura, is a key element in that strategy. It is part of an asset-light strategy which means Transcorp does not need to invest in brick-and-mortar as it expands and diversifies.
Pushing Performance
But while there are business solutions that do not necessarily require bricks and mortar, people remain an essential part of any hospitality industry enterprise.
“We are a leading employer of labour in Nigeria,” Olusola says. “We are a key contributor to development in Nigeria, contributing to the labour market and tourism in Nigeria. We are key players for growth in this economy.”
Indeed, aside from any macroeconomic factors, Olusola says the biggest challenge she faces is ensuring the company’s workforce of over 1,000 people stays at the top of its game.
“We want to make sure that they fully understand what excellent hospitality means. We constantly train people but when you have such a huge workforce, it continues to be a challenge to fill vacancies with the best people,” Olusola says.
To do this, Transcorp Hotels uses a combination of internal resources such as online learning and on-site training, as well as bringing in leading organisations such as Cornell Hospitality.
“We are constantly providing back-to-basics training for all of our staff,” Olusola points out. “In retaining our performance rating and review it continues to be important that we have a cycle of ensuring people are reviewed, and feedback and rewards are given.”
Expansion
With a great reputation, a strong team and a bold strategy behind it, Transcorp Hotels’ goals for the future are clear.
“Expansion, expansion, expan-sion. That is the key focus for us,” Olusola says. “We are upping our game in terms of customer engagement, customer excellence and customer experience and journey as a whole.”
The company’s immediate focus is on the development and delivery of an events centre in Abuja, a five-star event centre that will cater to a 500-person event space. The new facility is due for delivery in December this year. There are also plans for upcoming projects in Lagos at a prime location with over 14,000 square metres of land for a hotel with recreation facilities and conference centres. But even this is only part of a plan to expand across Africa.
“People are beginning to look more inwards to Africa to see what we can offer in terms of experiences,” Olusola says. “We are hopeful and optimistic that we will see more opportunities in Nigeria and for the business as a whole.”
