Kisumu to welcome Best Western hotel

Artistic impression of proposed Best Western Hotel that will be constructed next to Kisumu International Airport. 28/04/15. [PHOTO: TITUS MUNALA/STANDARD]

Kisumu, Kenya: Best Western International, the world’s biggest hotel chain with more than 4,000 hotels in over 100 countries will invest in a facility in Kisumu County.

The international four-star hotel is set to be built on the grounds of the Kisumu International Airport.

Best Western CEO Kaushik Manek says plans to put up the first ever multi-million shilling globally branded hotel in the lake side city are underway.

This facility will resemble Best Western Premier Hotel in Nairobi’s Hurlingham estate.

“We have already designed the facility and are currently discussing the concepts. If all goes well, we will take a year and a half to do the construction,” said the CEO.

This follows the call by Kenya Airports Authority for private organizations to invest in the area, which has a vast piece of land.

Speaking on behalf of Best Western CEO, Atelier Senior Architect Urbanos Mutua said they have already come up with a model of how the facility will look like but are yet to do a quotation to ascertain how much it is going to cost.

“We are yet to do a quotation of the cost after receiving official KAA approval. We intend to construct a hotel with a bed capacity of 150,” he said. The ground breaking is expected to be done before the end of this year.

“The good thing about Best Western is that they have over 4,000 hotels worldwide and it is still expanding. Another thing is that they do referral business and so by the time a tourist is coming to Kenya, they can book the hotel both in Nairobi and Kisumu,” Mutua said.

He says the facility will attract many tourists because of its proximity to the airport and Kisumu town.

“People will want to spend the night next to the airport where they will not have to board a vehicle to take their flight,” he says.

“By collaborating with the county government, we should be able to expand most of these facilities,” said KAA Acting Managing Director Yatich Kangugo.

“Our policy is to change the business model. Traditionally, we depended on aeronautical operations, from where we got 20 per cent of our finances from business. Our focus now is development and business rather than aeronautics,” he said.

He added: “We want to open up Kisumu City for investors. When we come back next year, we should talk of 10-15 investors. If we can reposition Kisumu, then aircraft from Congo, Rwanda and other countries can come for maintenance here.”