First Foray into Rest of Africa for City Lodge

 The City Lodge Hotels group has announced its first foray into the rest of Africa, through the development of a 106-room Town Lodge in Gaborone, Botswana.

 It is expected that the hotel – which is based on a land and building lease agreement – will open in December 2012, at a total development cost of around R61 million. Earthworks have already begun on the project.

 The City Lodge group has been investigating African expansion opportunities for several years, but this is its first announcement that a new hotel will be built outside of its South African base, where it already has 52 hotels offering 6,440 rooms across the Courtyard, City Lodge, Town Lodge and Road Lodge brands. Town Lodge is essentially the group’s 2-star brand.

 The group is continuing to analyse opportunities that exist in several Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and is also looking into possibilities for its brands in East and West Africa.