Mangalis Hotels Group, a hospitality group born in Africa three years ago with an objective of developing and managing new brands in the continent, has unveiled its latest economy brand – Yaas Hotels. Senior executives of the Hotel group announced this today at the margins of the ongoing Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) 2014 in Addis Abeba. The group has already launched two brands last year: the upscale segment Noom and the midscale segment Seen making its pipeline to 16 in 13 countries all over the continent.
According to Mangalis Hotels Group, Yaas Hotels will be using a new technology dubbed’ Plug and Play Solution’, which will enable it to complete the building of a hotel in less than a year. According to Oliver Jacquin, Chief Executive Officer of Mangalis Hotel Group, the solution with modular construction benefits “ensures better construction quality management and takes 80 per cent of in site construction operations.”
The Barcelona based Hotel Group hopes to take advantage of an enormous amount of market opportunity the continent is offering with a very low hotel penetration index. In West Africa, for instance, where some of the company’s hotels are based, the penetration is less than 6 per cent. Meanwhile in Europe (including Russia) and the USA the numbers are much higher with 26 and 70 per cent respectively. However the group feels there is a gap between the current market offers and an increasing demand from the new incoming travelers.
“What we are witnessing in Africa guided us to define our business model and hotel brands to cater for all types of travelers, international and regional, senior and young professionals, coming mainly on a business trip or just for a quick getaway” says Jacquin. At Mangalis “complementing our existing hotels’ brands we have created Yaas Hotels to deliver for the economy segment.”
The first flagship Noom Hotel Conakry in Guinea is set to open in the first quarter of 2015. The second quarter of the same year will see additional hotels opening under Noom and Seen brands.
Cover Photo: Oliver Jacquin, Chief Executive Officer of Mangalis Hotel Group
Photo: Addis Standard
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