Victoria Falls hotel to undergo facelift

Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) has started the refurbishment of its Kadoma and Victoria Falls hotels, as it renews its tourism product. The exercise is expected to cost $1,5 million.

In emailed responses, RTG chief executive officer Tendai Madziwanyika said the group expected to complete the refurbishment of both hotels by year-end, saying work on Kadoma Hotel and Conference Centre began in the first quarter of 2016.

“The project includes new flooring, with the carpets replaced with tiling, new beds and bedroom furniture, bathroom tiling, new curtaining and linen, installation of solar geysers, a new reception counter, and repainting of the hotel interior and exterior,” he said.

“For Victoria Falls Rainbow Hotel the refurbishment will include new bedroom furniture, tiling
of bedrooms and bathrooms, new bathrooms, repainting of the hotel interior and exterior and upgrades of the conference rooms.”

He said the hotels would remain open to guests during the period of refurbishment without any distractions.

Madziwanyika said apart from the two projects, the hospitality group would continually upgrade all of its hotels to meet and exceed guests’ expectations which include the installation of two new customised elevators at the Rainbow Towers Hotel by July 2016.

“In line with this imperative we continue to conduct improvements of the product in all our
hotels. Of note will be the installation of two new customised lifts at the Rainbow Towers Hotel
by July 2016. We have opened a brand new venue on the Roof Top of the New Ambassador Hotel,” he said.

“This venue called the ‘The Breeze on the Roof Top’ offers an open air and pleasant environment for banqueting or conferencing activities. We also opened an executive bar on the ground floor called ‘The Fortress at 88’. At Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel we are completing installation of new air conditioning units for all bedrooms, public areas and restaurants,” he said.

Commenting on RTG Virtual, Madziwanyika said the product achieved gross revenues of $750 000 (value of the business channelled to RTG Virtual Partners), of which RTG earned in excess of $70 000 in net commission.

He, however, said the group was targeting to close the year at 51% group occupancy and revenue per available room of $36.

“We anticipate continued growth in our foreign business segment, which as you know grew by 6% in 2015. We believe it will continue to ameliorate the difficult domestic liquidity situation to assure growth in our revenues going forward,” Madziwanyika said.

RTG recorded flat revenue performance for the year ended 2015 as compared to the same period in 2014, closing the year on $30,6 million.

Despite the flat performance RTG registered growth in occupancy and foreign business.

Occupancy grew by 4% to 50% from 48%, while foreign business revenues grew to $9,28 million from $8,75 million recorded in the corresponding period prior year.

Source: Victoria Falls hotels undergo $1,5m facelift (11/04/16)