What values does your business pride itself on?
The business is all about acquiring and managing establishments that add a lifetime’s worth of value to our guests. We have three core Protea Principles on which our structure is based. That is, respecting human dignity, searching for excellence and offering the best care and service we possibly can.
How do you manage client expectations through marketing your brand?
Although we have different types of hotels in our portfolio, each with a different set of requirements, one thing that remains constant throughout is that our success is equal to our results, less the expectations. This means that in order for us to see ourselves as a successful entity, we need the results of our brand to beat the expectations a customer has of it. We make a point of dealing with our customers directly and profiling them very carefully to ensure that we are offering a product with unique value in the marketplace and one that meets the needs and wants of our customers.
How do you feel about the new Consumer Protection Act?
With regards the new Consumer Protection act, my biggest concern is that as a result of the economic recession worldwide, disposable income has become more strictly controlled and so price becomes everything. You don’t want everything to fall on a price point or be rated on price only. Price has value and value needs to be processed on the value of the product service of that price point. Competitive prices aimed at the leisure market create a demand in that area. It is not in our service culture to compete at this level and even though we do offer good rates across the board, we are in search of excellence and will offer that added value.
What are the growth plans for the company?
We are most definitely an African company and our expertise is in Africa. Part of our growth synopsis in South Africa at this stage is stabilisation in occupancy and profitability. We plan to expand in East London, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and add one or two more hotels in the Pretoria region, north of Johannesburg. The reason for this is because we see an opportunity for growth in these areas.