There’ll be no Imo economy without hotel sector, just petrol stations – Says GM, G-Towers Hotel 

Excerpts:  

Could you walk us through the story of Global Towers Hotel and Tourism Limited?

Global Towers Hotel and Tourism Limited, popularly called G-Towers  is a -3 star hotel that is unique from others. It is a hotel with a whole lot of facilities, including for tourism. Our facilities include an Olympic size swimming pool, a multipurpose gym, mini-mart, lounge, barbecue and cocktail section and other ancillary equipment and services that make a guest comfortable.

The hotel has one of the largest and cleanest premises in the commercial area in New Owerri, what other things make this hotel tick? 

G-Towers is among hotels in Owerri specially designed to meet the needs of the customer.  It is also among the best hotels you  can talk of in Owerri. It started selling and being busy from day one and has continued to sell and be busy,  and it is doing very well,  it has continued to thrive.

How many rooms are there in this hotel? 

G-Towers Hotel has 60 rooms, well furnished, well equipped with internet installations and facilities. It has a big size event hall, a club, a beautiful and one of the best enticing lounges, among others.

As a seasoned hotel administrator and manager, could you tell us the challenges you face and challenges managers in this sector face while trying to discharge their duties?

I would say that I don’t have challenges. I have my own management techniques because I am an expert in the hotel management business. Before I joined G- Towers, I had managed many hotels and I have always achieved results.

I believe in my capacity and so I joined G-Towers.  I started by upgrading a whole  lot of things and we began to render quality services and so by God’s grace,  we are doing very, very well.

But when you talk about the challenges on the business level almost every hotel in Owerri  faces competition.  But we,  in G-Towers Hotel and Tourism Limited, Owerri,  are not facing such challenges of competition because we have our unique standard operating procedure (SOP).

ONAJI BARTHOLOMEW ENENCHE is the general manager of Global Towers Hotel and Tourism, a 3-Star hotel popularly called G-Towers situated along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, Imo State. It is not just a hotel, but a full tourism attraction, offering value for all you pay for. Its quick,  quality services and avowed policy to maintain its corporate social responsibility (CSR) to its host community stand it out. He sat down with Business A.M.’s SABY ELEMBA for this interview. 

Why is this so? 

This is because  no other standard hotel in Owerri has the kind of standard operating procedure we have  and we are always doing and living above board. When it comes to competition,  it is really not our challenge.

If you say competition is not a challenge for you, are there general challenges you face as a business or a hotel operating in Owerri?

Now, every other hotel like ours  faces a general challenge like insecurity. There is a high level of insecurity in Imo State. Most of the customers and guests  who come from outside to patronise the hotels in Owerri are no longer coming. Now everybody believes that when you come into Owerri you will be kidnapped, abducted  and will be killed. So, we  are managing with the customers we have in Owerri, so that one is a general issue.

Then the other one is the high cost of diesel and electricity tariff, which also cuts across the board. The high price of diesel is affecting the business because the money we get  ends up in buying diesel. The other one, hike in electricity tariff. They did it without informing us about it. You buy a prepaid unit of N100,000 and use it for  two or three days and it is finished. It is quite high. These are a few of the serious general challenges we are facing.

What is the quality of your staff, and how do you recruit them? And some who are supposed to be trained, how do you train them, internal arrangements or external?

The managing director has a peculiar attitude toward the staff. I must confess, he is a free man, a man that cherishes his staff.

Some people believe in hiring and firing anyhow,  because they own the  company. How does this apply in G-Towers? 

In G-Towers, the owner does not believe in hiring and firing. But for some owners, the moment they recruit the staff,  the next thing you’ll hear is they have been fired. It is only in G-Towers that you can see the hotel staff working for over 10 years. It’s only in G- Towers that you have the  hotel staff working and schooling.  It is  in G-Towers Hotel that you see staff working and doing other businesses to help themselves. That shows that the owner of the hotel is progressive in nature.

We don’t have the problem of turning over our staff.  We treat our staff very well. They are paid, they are encouraged to develop themselves. We try to see what we can do to make them happy because if the hotel is growing and the staff are not growing then the owner is not progressive. But the owner of G-Towers is a progressive. Their business is growing and any other thing about the business must grow.

Would you say the staff are fully motivated and are effectively doing  the job? 

Yes, they are very effective in their work. The fact is that most of the hotel owners do not believe in training but in G-Towers we believe in training and retraining and when you train your staff they will do well. Our staff are doing well.

What is your method of training staff; is it internal or by external arrangement? 

We train them internally here. We also make arrangements for instructors or people to come here and train them,  we do not send them out.

How about foods and drinks offered to guests and customers?

Just like I told you, we have our standard operating procedure  and we believe in quality services. It is a place where you will be and you will have value for all the things you are paying for. You see people who are lodging in other hotels still come to G-Towers  to eat. Our cuisine is doing very well and as a result, those who lodge here eat here as well.

How much do you think the hotel and hospitality sector has contributed to  the economic development of Imo State? 

I will say 100 percent. I will say 100 percent because just imagine the number of hotels in Imo State and none has employed less than 20 staff. And these staff were taken out of the streets instead allowing them to be roaming  the streets.

And not only that, the revenue that the government generates from the hotel sector is quite high. We pay consumption tax, which we have been complaining about and nothing is being done about it. But we are paying and also paying other levies imposed on the hotels. Quite alright, the hotel sector has been contributing hugely to the economy of the state.

And apart from that, even the social services rendered to the host communities by some hotels.

G-Towers renders social services to its host community in the form of our corporate social responsibility (CSR). We extended water to our host community, Nekede, even when we are grading our roads. All these things and more are what Imo State is benefiting.

What do you think would have been the condition of Imo State without the contribution of the hotel sector? 

I will say there will be no economy in the state because there is no industry apart from petrol filling stations. The mainstay of the economy of Imo State is the hotel and hospitality sector. I believe if there were no functioning hotel industry, Imo State would have been in serious economic problems.