Despite the different strategies adopted by hoteliers to lure guests, many of the facilities are manned by untrained staff

As competition becomes keener, hotels in Abuja are daily coming out with new tricks to stay ahead of competitors. While some provide complimentary breakfasts, some provide free computer and internet services, though some still charge guests a fee to access internet facilities.

In addition to complimentary breakfasts, some hotels also offer lodgers complimentary toothpaste, toothbrush and drinks.

There is also what they call weekend rates. Due to the fact that guests are fewer during weekends, some hotels reduce their rates by as much as half. Most people visit Abuja for businesses, especially with government, and since official transactions take place between Mondays and Friday, hotels are left with lesser guests to contend with during the weekends. To attract as many guests as possible, some hoteliers slash their rates at weekends in addition to providing free breakfast and internet facilities.

A particular hotel in the Central Area District sells drinks at rock bottom prices, thereby boosting sales. In the evenings, it converts its car park into an open air bar, turning it to a big party. There is always an impressive turn out of fun seekers who come in to buy cheap drinks every evening. A member of the staff of the hotel told our correspondent that what they realise from selling of drinks have overshot their earnings from lodgers.

Though, owners of hotels in the nation’s capital invest so much in facilities, they hardly invest in their workers. Many members of their staff are untrained and inexperienced. They are also impatient and sometimes abusive.

“They attend to you as if they are doing you a favour and expect you to personally motivate them before they can serve you better,” Kingsley Okechukwu, a Lagos based business man complained after checking out from a hotel.

The mode of employing hotel workers in Abuja certainly points to the kind of service to expect. It is a common sight to find a queue of applicants waiting to be interviewed in front of a hotel.

Another hotel in the Central Business District is notorious for employing young school leavers only to sack them six months after. Investigation by our correspondent on why this hotelier adopts such demeaning way of treating his workers reveals that he is afraid of organised labour, therefore, he employs them as casuals. He is afraid that if the workers stay too long, they can organise themselves into a group and start agitate for better conditions of service.

Mr. Kola Olaniyan who works with Amnesty International in London said that the last time he stayed in a big hotel in Wuse 2, the workers were so discourteous.

“In a hospitality industry, we expect people to be kind and helpful, but what I got was shocking. This is not how to promote tourism. I am a Nigerian and can understand, but foreigners will not,” Olaniyan said in a telephone interview from London.

Olaniyan said that at the reception of a particular hotel, he observed that rooms were being hoarded because the rooms would suddenly be available once you were ready to play ball.

“Because corruption has become a national malaise, you expect to see it in hotels,” he said.

Another visitor to Abuja, Mrs. Osai Ejigho, a Programme Officer at the Alliance for Africa, a non governmental organisation based in Lagos, said that hotels in Abuja are overpriced.

“I think Abuja hotels are overpriced - whether they are budget hotels or five stars. This is because, for the amount you pay, I think the service is average. I personally think Nigerian hotels are very expensive,” she said.

She also complained about poor customer service. According to her, “Staff of hotels are very poor at customer service that when you meet very good service you are surprised!”

“Facilities can be better. In some hotels, bathrooms especially, may have cracks in the walls, stained bath sinks and bath tubs. The room itself is usually clean, but then you may get stained sheets, and poor lighting. If you complain, you just get ‘sorry’. In most cases, the outside environment is spotless, which makes me wonder whether it is a ploy to attract customers only to discover that the rooms are not as clean as the outside, once you have checked in. Generally, I think the problem is a poor maintenance culture,” she added.

Getting value for money in Abuja hotels can be particularly tricky. This is because there is no comprehensive guide to check before making a decision.

The Nigeria Hotel Guide, published by the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), is grossly inadequate and not exhaustive. For instance, only 132 hotels are listed in Abuja in the latest guide published by the corporation, notwithstanding the fact that there is twice that number of hotels in the Federal Capital Territory. The guide will also not show you what facilities are available in which hotel. So guests will have to rely on shared experience.

Writing on the necessity for the guide, the Director General of the NTDC, Chief Olusegun Runsewe said, “This book (guide) is borne out of our determination to ensure that tourists and potential lodgers in Nigeria hotels are given the relevant information that would enable them take well-informed decisions on where to get value for their money.”

The claim to give relevant information is not established in the publication. Apart from providing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the hotels listed therein, there is no other information that a potential lodger can rely on to make an informed choice.

The guide is bereft of information on whether a hotel has swimming pools, internet and recreational facilities.

A guest, Mr. Olugbenga Thomas, an elderly man told our correspondent that he had paid for room in a hotel in Central Area and was given a room on the fourth floor, only to discover that there was no lift.

At a recent interaction with the Media in Abuja, Runsewe identified proliferation of sub-standard and inefficient hotels, other hospitality establishments which did not meet the minimum requirement for practice, as one of the problems militating against the development of the hospitality industry in Nigeria. It will interest him to know that such sub-standard hotels still operate in Abuja. 

JJYOU:

In addition to complimentary breakfasts, some hotels also offer lodgers complimentary toothpaste, toothbrush and drinks.

tpia:

Nigerians do seem to have a problem with customer service. It's like they dont believe in it and dont want to understand what it means.

Some Nigerian stores abroad tend to have this same issue of bad customer service. I hope most of them have improved sha. Nigerians working in non-Nigerian workplaces  have to practice it however, because they can get in trouble if they dont.

MrCrackles:

Shouldnt toothpaste be a standard as part of a room rate?

Na wa ooo!

JJYOU:

chewing sticks should be the standard

Nigerians do seem to have a problem with customer service. It's like they dont believe in it and dont want to understand what it means.

Some Nigerian stores abroad tend to have this same issue of bad customer service. I hope most of them have improved sha. Nigerians working in non-Nigerian workplaces  have to practice it however, because they can get in trouble if they dont.

why should have customer service when they have juju or prayer to attract people. some treat you like they are doing you a favour for opening the store at all.
Quote from: MrCrackles on Yesterday at 12:30:21 PM
Shouldnt toothpaste be a standard as part of a room rate?

Na wa ooo!

 chewing sticks should be the standard

ROFLMBAO  

Oh my God, chewing stick keh,

Na wa oo, anyway I have used that stick so many times while in Naija that it became a standard (at least for me) so it wouldnt be too bad if we re-invent our own "hospitality standard".

I only hope that the hotels create a dentistry clinic on each floor of their hotel to attend to cases of "bleeding tooth gums complaints".  

Busy_body:

If it is okay with you JJyou, why don't we use this thread as a starting point to review hotels in Nigeria then, like Tripadvisors that allows users to rate hotels they have been to I believe in people power, and once they start realising that negative reviews is harming their business, hopefully they would sit up At least I can hope

Who wants to start then?

Busy_body:

If it is okay with you JJyou, why don't we use this thread as a starting point to review hotels in Nigeria then, like Tripadvisors that allows users to rate hotels they have been to I believe in people power, and once they start realising that negative reviews is harming their business, hopefully they would sit up At least I can hope

Who wants to start then?

MrCrackles:

I agree with you Busy but we may need to change the title of the thread to comply with posting on topic.

JJYOU what do you think?

JJYOU:

heading changed