WHY PEOPLE VISIT HOTELS

I remember in my days as a younger person (even though I’m still very young), hotels were rarely found in every location. However, today it is a different story entirely as in every nooks and crannies of the country (especially Lagos, Asaba and Portharcourt) there stands a hotel of one kind or the other. Sometimes, depending on the length of the street, one can even find at least five to six hotels on one street alone. 


The acquisition and restructure of small hotels by top shots in the society is on the rise. However, one of the mind boggling issues is the fact that these hotels are always booked/busy all through the week hence the question arises, who are the high patronisers of these hotels? What has given the rise to the proliferation of these hotels? 

Mr Eben Omiemie of Brandvilleq Communications assert that hotels have become a very lucrative business as a lot of hoteliers have a reason to go to bed with a smile on their faces every day/week knowing fully well that some income have gone into their accounts in the course of the day/week. He went on to say that people use hotels for different reasons both good and bad. Good in the sense that for example when a businessman travels out of his permanent location to another for an official meeting and hence would need a place to stay for the night or while he’s there. He also went  further to say that however, it could be for a bad reason for the same business man to tell his family that he’s going on a business trip consequently would be staying at a hotel whereas he’s just having a getaway with his mistress so as to sow some of his wild oats *winks*. He however concluded that good or bad, the hotel business still remains a very lucrative business as he is a great deal envious of his friends in the business. In his own words, “some of the hoteliers have even gone a bit further by setting up event halls within or next to the hotel premises as well, if I have some good money and an opportunity, I won’t even give it a second thought before I invest in it” he ended with a laugh.

A good friend of mine who I would refer to as Tola (real name withheld) agrees with Mr Eben above that indeed, hotels are patronised for positive and negative reasons. However she differs a bit as she went on to add that the percentage of the negative reasons sometimes supersede the positive reasons. She gave an account of a friend and colleague of hers who cringes at the thought and mention of a hotel due to some terrible experiences in the past. Conversely, Tola however said she always looks forward to the time spent in a particular hotel whenever her family go on vacation. She said she is always enthralled with the environment and overwhelmed by the pampering treatment she receives from the well trained staff which makes her at times wish the vacation never ends.

Nonetheless, in all of the aforementioned, Mr Ajoh, a manager in one of the existing airlines in Nigeria holds a separate view. He supports the spring up of more hotel accommodation in nearly every part of Nigeria and the world at large. He stressed that it is a welcoming development trend that should be embraced with good intention. The availability of hotels most times according to him saves him the pressure of having to welcome or entertain a visiting member of family/friend who is from out of town. This he said saves him the opportunity of not getting into any bad books with that member family/friend at the end of the day.

On one of my trips, I got talking with a fellow passenger who was seated next to me. During the 45mins – 1hr flight from Lagos to Abuja, we got talking and eventually ended up on a topic relating to hotels.  He stressed out his opinion that hoteliers go into the business for various reasons and other several motives behind those reasons ranging from moral to immoral intentions depending on who the hotelier is. He went further however to say that as a writer/author of books, one of the recent development in the society that he’s impressed about is the availability of different types of hotels at your disposal; it depends on your class, taste and of course money all of which influence your choice of hotel and most of all the purpose of patronage at any point in time. He is impressed because according to him “93% of the time I spend in hotels enable me develop my books especially when I’m about to finish up for publishing. It keeps me away from all the family or friends disturbances. Even though I know this may sound crazy, I’m actually happier in a quiet hotel room all alone once in a while than when I’m home with my family”. Hmm, different strokes for different folks one would say there.

One of the biggest hotel brand that is today known as ‘the Marriot’ was started by Mr Willard Marriott who saw a need and decided to fill it. The need was to provide accommodation for travellers to get rest and get refreshed instead of just sitting at the railways while waiting for their trains to arrive. The motive then, was for a good cause and as the years rolled by, the business grew from a nine-stool root beer stand to become what it is today. So also, many other hotels that started small have become big brands today in this contemporary period. With the increase of these hoteliers they too may or may not have had such good motives.

In conclusion, my two cents (which I hope is a lot) on this issue is that hotel business as part of the hospitality industry has come to stay and would keep evolving as long as there is patronage and of course as long as people keep travelling for leisure, pleasure or business or even events and hence require accommodation, there will continually be patronage. However it is all left to the hoteliers and patronisers whether they are into it for positive or negative reasons. Peace!! 

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