The 171-room City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers Mall in Nairobi has opened its first phase of rooms and expects to be fully open by the end of February.
Situated adjacent to the Two Rivers Mall in Runda, East Africa’s largest shopping mall and mixed-use development, the hotel is owned and operated by the Johannesburg-headquartered City Lodge Hotel Group. It is the group’s third hotel in Nairobi and its 59th hotel in Southern and East Africa.
The four-storey hotel comprises two 20-seater boardrooms, two eight-seater meeting rooms, a swimming pool, a fitness room, a #Cafe for breakfasts lunches and light meals, a sundowner bar service, wireless internet, free parking and 24-hour reception services. One in every 50 rooms has been adapted to meet the needs of guests with reduced physical abilities. All bedrooms have en-suite shower facilities, with selected rooms providing baths as well.
The first 40 rooms opened on January 15, another 44 rooms will be available by the beginning of February and the hotel will be fully open by the end of February.
“We are extremely excited about the prospects for this hotel which is the biggest we have developed outside of South Africa,” said Clifford Ross, City Lodge’s chief executive.
“It is situated in an important growth node of Nairobi and will ideally complement our other hotels in the city and give impetus to our targeted East African expansion programme.”
While the group’s main focus will be on meeting the needs of business travellers, it will also focus on providing accommodation and associated services for leisure travellers visiting Kenya and East Africa.
The City Lodge Hotel Group owns and operates the Fairview Hotel and Town Lodge, Upper Hill in Nairobi. It is also developing the 147-room City Lodge Hotel Dar es Salaam in Tanzania which is expected to open in early 2018. It recently opened the 147-room Town Lodge Windhoek in Namibia’s capital city and expects to open the 148-room City Lodge Hotel Maputo in Mozambique’s capital in the second quarter of 2018.
City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers is within easy access of the local United Nations headquarters, the Nairobi CBD, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the Karura Forest and various other attractions and facilities.
The hotel’s general manager is Miriam Obegi, who started her hospitality career at the Fairview Hotel in 1998 as a credit controller. After completing a range of courses and qualifications, she rose to the position of assistant general manager at the Fairview Hotel before moving to City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers.
“It is a great honour for me as a Kenyan to be the opening general manager for the City Lodge Hotel at Two Rivers and I am really looking forward to the challenge. Working with a team of local staff members, I am positive that we will together build a strong niche for the hotel in the Nairobi hospitality sector,” she said.
Founded in South Africa in 1985, the City Lodge Hotel Group comprises the Fairview Hotel, Courtyard Hotel, City Lodge Hotel, Town Lodge and Road Lodge brands. It has 54 hotels in South Africa, three in Kenya and one each in Botswana and Namibia.
