At a time when what dominates business news in Sierra Leone are companies cutting staff or closing down, Raddisson Blu Hotel is one of the few making the news for stubbornly remaining open for business despite the ravaging Ebola epidemic.One of American hotel company Radisson hotels’ more than 420 locations in 73 countries, Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko located in Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown is the first internally branded hotel in the city, it is also one refusing to shut down or cut staff because of the Ebola outbreak.
Sierra Leone is in the midst of a dangerous fight against Ebola and more than ever needs it true friends, Hotel General Manager Nuno Neyes told popular Sierra Leonean newspaper Awoko in an exclusive interview, Raddisson Blu is such true friend, he claimed.
“The hotel is open as usual to all customers and we have commitments towards our owners, the government, NASSIT and Radisson Blu to keep our standards to the best level possible”, Neyes declared. “We keep good service that we offer to our guests and we keep all our staff, none has been made redundant, as it is up to us to manage our internal cost saving plan, because we will never release any of our staff until the war is over”, he added.
Just in case anyone was felt Nuno Neyes was delivering mere rhetoric, the GM reveals that he has brought his family to stay with him during this period, joking that people called him crazy for doing that. But Nuno argues that in this crisis time, Sierra Leone needed most its real value people to join hands with the government to defeat the outbreak, and he states his confident that the story will change.
However, what is visibly changing at the moment is the fortunes of Raddisson Blu Mammy Yoko; the manger confessed that the ebola outbreak had left the hotel working under a crisis management scenario but is adamant that his management will face the new reality.[eap_ad_2]
Part of the way to face the new reality is to reduce rates at the hotel by 40%, which will happen at the end of the month. With infra-red thermometers too arrived to check staff and guests as well as disinfectants, Nuno assured that the hotel has taken all the preventions and precautions for all their workers and guests. He added that the hotel did a three week training to sensitize its staff on how to prevent the spread to and within the hotel.
These measures have not stopped the hotel from losing revenue to the crisis, the GM admits, something that he said he says he has extensively discussed with the owners who accept his plans and agree that the hotel will work till end of the year in order to see how they can maximize their resources and reduce losses. Nevertheless Nuno is adamant that the hotel will pull through thanks to his very committed staff.
And their current sacrifice will yield greater rewards in the nearest future, Nuno believes; “after going through these trying times we will come out of it and be the real Five Star Hotel with the name Radisson Blu in every body’s lips”, he declares.
But before the future happens, the hotel is carrying on with trying to maximize business in the present which Nuno says the hotel hotel is doing by launching many new pleasurable opportunities for guests as well as the assurance of safety and standards that the hotel continues to offer. These selling points, the GM asserts, keep attracting guests significant among which are expatriates from major international organizations related to WHO, Red Cross, USAID, NGOs and from the American Embassy.
Raddison Blu Mammy Yoko is also itself a selling point for Sierra Leone, showing that the Ebola outbreak, as grave as it has been, has not grounded the West African country still recovering from past crises. Life and business continues in the country, and will, just like Raddisson anticipates, rise again. (VENTURES AFRICA)[eap_ad_3]
