How to start a hotel business in Nigeria

A hotel is a sanctuary for the tired traveller. It’s a place where guests can lodge, feel comfortable, and can relax whenever they enter their room. In this post, you will learn how to start a hotel business in Nigeria.

How profitable is a hotel business in Nigeria?

The hotel business is a very profitable one in Nigeria. Both the youths and the middle-aged love to flex, spend heavily, spoil their friends, and have merry. And as a professional in the hotel business, this means more profit for you.

How much money does a hotel make in one night in Nigeria?

Let’s do the calculation. Let’s assume you build a very affordable hotel (the usual economical ones where all classes of the society can lodge). Most hotels like yours will charge between ₦3,500 to ₦5,000 per night. Now let’s assume you charge ₦4,000.

If you’re starting small, your hotel may have 10 active rooms. That means you’ll be earning (₦4,000 × 10) a minimum of ₦40,000 per night. That’s over ₦1.2 million in a month. But that’s only for the room. Include meals, drinks, and others, then you could be getting to over ₦2 million

How to make more money in the hotel business

If your hotel has a bar, nightclub, or both, you will earn an extra profit on the drinks bought by guests. You can also make more money if you have a swimming pool, offer golf courses, tennis courts, and luxury spas.

The more extra services you render, the more you’ll earn as monthly revenue. The hotel business is very profitable in Nigeria.

This isn’t so hard to see, as many of them now exist not only in commercial parts of the town but also in residential areas like neighbourhoods and communities.

How to start a hotel business in Nigeria

Follow these steps to start a hotel business in Nigeria:

1. Make some research and start with a hotel business plan

If you’re on this webpage reading this article, that means you probably have an idea and you want to start a hotel business in Nigeria. However, it’s still an idea and nothing more.

The first step is to turn this business idea into a business plan. This plan will highlight everything you need not only to start but also to run the hotel.

You should do some research on your target market and study the potential customers. You should plan what type of people will be attracted to your hotel and lodge in for the night.

What services would they love? Are they heavy spenders or economical customers?

2. Choose a type of hotel to specialize

All hotels have the same aim. However, each one renders its services with slight or sharp differences in quality and customer service. That small difference is what separates them.

• Boutique hotels are usually small, but they have unique features
• Family hotels target the entire household. They usually have large rooms, extra beds, swimming pools and other things that call for a thrilling experience
• Budget hotels have low standards (especially their rooms and service). However, this is compensated for by its affordability
• Luxury hotels are the four and five-star hotels that we all hear about. They have high price tags and are definitely expensive! It’s worth it though since they all have room service, spas, a concierge, bar, club, golfing space, swimming pools, and other VIP services

3. Sort out the ownership and adopt a business structure

You can operate your hotel business as a sole proprietor. You can also form a partnership or cooperative business.

Usually, the best way to protect yourself (as an owner) is to form a Limited Liability Company (LLC). This makes the legal system recognize your hotel as a business entity and is separate from your personal properties.

Although no business owner(s) wish misfortune on themselves, being a business entity will protect your personal assets from being sold or seized to settle a bad debt.

4. Are you building or buying?

It’s time to start making the big decisions. Here you’ll decide if you want to buy a hotel, repurpose an existing building or build yours from scratch.

Purchasing an existing hotel is a wise option if you’re looking to save time and money. You already know that the hotel is successful right from the start, so you’ll have no trouble getting customers.

However, buying a hotel means you’ll have to renovate some things while also making a few changes to the management staff.

5. Register your hotel business in Nigeria

The body concerned with business registration in Nigeria is the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). After registering your hotel business, you should do some other things to avoid legal hassles in the future.

Start by obtaining the necessary hotel permits and licenses. Although you can start your hotel and obtain some of these permits, later on, you should find the time and money to do it right on time.

6. Fund your hotel business

Now it’s time to get investments. Note that you should have started working on this before now. You can use your personal savings, get funds from partners or take a business loan.

If your hotel is a legal entity (like an LLC), you can submit business proposals to angel investors, venture capitalists, business accelerators and incubators.

Suggested for you: How to get money for your new business in Nigeria

7. Hire your hotel staff

This process is pretty straightforward. Calculate how many employees you’ll need to keep your business running. Announce a vacancy and hire only people you trust.

8. Market your hotel business

It’s time to share the good news with people that use hotel services. Marketing is an ongoing activity, so you should advertise from time to time. 

You should use traditional and digital marketing channels like the TV, local radio, fliers and posters, large banners, social media, PPC and many other channels.

If your hotel is not localized, you should list it on many hotel listing sites and directories. This includes:

• Airbnb
• Agoda
• Trip Advisor
• Hotels.com
• Booking.com
• Google Business Profile

Conclusion

If you’re the type of person that loves to help others and is very hospitable, a hotel business would be a perfect fit for you.

Note that your reputation as a hotel will largely determine your profit. And the reputation is influenced by the satisfaction of the guests that stay there.

We’re in the digital world, which means that anyone can make both positive and negative reviews about any business, just by pressing their phones.

The best hotels realize this and do everything they can to make sure that no guest has a negative experience. Satisfied guests will be very happy, so they can’t help but leave a positive review.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for general informational purposes only. It is not business advice and should not be treated as such.