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Oliver Kazunga
THE establishment of the Standard Hotel, which has become one of the important assets in Bulawayo’s hospitality industry, started from humble beginnings when Standard Products, a company that supplies mining   and construction industry consumables, set sights on diversifying operations.

This was way back between 1995 and 2000 when Standard Products was hosting a lot of its clients   that came into the city to do                                        business and were booked at other hotels.

Chronicle Business caught up with Standard Hotel spokesperson Albert Kadonzvo who shed more light about how they started.

“Back in the days between 1995 and 2000, we used to have a lot of guests that we booked at other hotels. As a company, we realised that by booking the guests at the hotels, we were paying a lot of money thus we decided to establish a guest house in 2000 which we later transformed into a lodge now called AfriLodge,”   he said.

Kadonzvo said AfriLodge was later commercialised after discovering that the hospitality sector was not a bad sector to venture into and there was a need to provide upmarket accommodation.

“We then expanded AfriLodge and in 2011, we started renovating two blocks of flats situated along Joshua Nkomo Street between First Avenue and Masotsha Avenue to run a hotel (The Standard Hotel), which was opened in 2013,” he said.

Kadonzvo said the hotel, whose renovations are still underway, presently has 26 functional rooms and it is envisaged that when the refurbishment exercise is complete, the rooms will add up to 44. The hotel comprises executive and family suites with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

All the rooms have king-sized beds and DStv. The hotel also has a fully stocked bar and restaurant and offers laundry facilities.

Kadonzvo said their hotel had since its opening, played an important role in providing accommodation to visitors to Bulawayo especially during such events as the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair.

In recent years, Bulawayo has faced serious accommodation challenges especially during periods when the city hosts visitors to the ZITF.

The Standard Hotel is yet to secure a rating status from the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority as renovations are yet to be complete.

“We are hopeful that as soon as renovations are complete, we will get the rating status from the ZTA. Our vision is to transform this hotel into one of the best hotels in  Bulawayo.

“All our rooms have free access to Internet facilities (Wifi) and each room has DStv. By the time we finish, we want to be the best hotel in terms of service delivery,” he said.

Commenting on the state of the hospitality industry in the country, Kadonzvo said: “The hospitality industry is still depressed. There were times before the economic slump when the hotel sector was bright; business was good. Despite slow economic activity at present, we are looking forward to seeing business coming back to normal.”

He said Zimbabwe’s tourism industry prospects were bright with the domestic tourism sector being one of the areas that hoteliers could tap into.

“As Standard Hotel, our business has managed to keep going owing largely to domestic tourism. Company executives have become our targeted clients as they have largely been booking with us. We are also looking at giving some of the companies a facility where they can pay for our services rendered to them after 30 days,” said Kadonzvo.

He said the liquidity challenge in the economy was one of the many challenges affecting the growth and development of their hotel particularly on issues to do with renovations.

“Of course, the liquidity crunch is one of the challenges that we are facing as a business. Despite the liquidity crisis, we remain focused as we expect things to happen and move on.”

Kadonzvo commended the efforts that the government was making in trying to bring more airlines into the country saying this would go a long way in boosting the hospitality industry.

Asked about his advice to people aspiring to venture into the hotel business he said: “Do what you have to do and get focused.”