On International Women’s Day, Lagos Continental Hotel recently fulfilled its promise of offering special services to female clients. When it reopened for business last year after a seven-month shutdown induced by the coronavirus pandemic, the General Manager, Marcel Brekelmans, announced that the hotel is setting its eyes on female executives who are gradually occupying a large chunk of travellers.


Now open for business, the new female executive floor occupies the 18th floor, five floors away from the last floor in the hotel. The floor has 22 rooms — 20 standard rooms and two suites — out of the 358 rooms in the hotel.

“There is a shortage of in-bound travellers coming into the country. So we have to diversify. We have to find a niche market that other hotels don’t have. And therefore launching an all-female executive floor. A floor dedicated to female executives,” explained Brekelmans on the launch of the floor. ‘We needed do be creative.”


He added that because the female traveller look out for different amenities and facilities, that special attention has been paid to ensuring that their needs are met. The rooms have extra bed linens, beauty and body care products, extra hair dryers and clippers, essentially everything that caters to their needs. All the rooms are softened to suit the convenience of the female guests. Each room is also named after an influential African woman. The hotel plans to have a painting of these outstanding woman with a little write up about their achievements on the walls.


However, staying on this floor comes with a caveat. Males can only visit female travellers on the floor but cannot lodge alone. Even couples are prohibited from enjoying the services on this particular floor. It is strictly for female executives.

In addition to the amenities, the female guests will have female attendants to give them that sense of comfort and security. But in a case where the services can be rendered by a male attendant, the guest has an option to either be moved to another room, or the work done in her absence.


They also have access to the club lounge where they enjoy privacy and have short meetings.

“What we are trying to do is reposition the hotel,” said Brekelmans. “It is not always easy. Besides offering new services and adding new additions to amenities, facilities and our portfolio we are also targeting a different kind of clientele. Over the past two years, our hotel has been patronised by people that were looking for partying in town and this was the last watering hole with an after-party in rooms. We don’t do that anymore. This is not the kind of business I will like to have in the Lagos Continental Hotel. We are primarily a five-star upper luxury property that caters to local, regional and international travellers. This is the market that we want to focus on. Families are welcome to use our facility during the weekend. Our focus is on the business traveller.”


Now owned by 11 Plc, Brekelmans stated that the hotel is totally inclusive and hopes to be exclusive in terms of ratings. He takes pride in the hotel taking the lead in focusing on female travellers.

“Female executives are on the rise. In many companies, they occupy leadership roles.”

While he revels in this new experience, Brekelmans is hoping that the initiative will be profitable in the coming months.


https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/03/30/lagos-continental-dedicates-spectacular-floor-for-female-executives/