Tanzanian hotel group wins top continental award

Dar es Salaam. Best Western Plus Peninsula Hotel in Dar es Salaam has been awarded as the “Best” Best Western Hotel in Africa achieving the top title out of 21 hotels on the African continent.

 This is the second year in a row that Coral Beach Club Ltd, a homegrown Tanzanian hospitality group wins the award.

Best Western Hotels and Resorts, an international hotel chain with over 4200 hotels in over 100 countries, had to abruptly delay its annual Africa Hotelier’s Conference in March 2020 hosted in Istanbul due to the growing safety and travel restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

However, in a virtual meeting that took place recently, the brand’s managing director for International Member Services, Mr. Neville Graham, announced Best Western Plus Peninsula Hotel in Dar es Salaam as “The Best of Best Western Hotels in Africa” for its Quality Assurance and Customer Satisfaction scores based on its performance in 2019.

According to general manager, Mr Ajay Bhadouria, last year, their sister hotel, Best Western Coral Beach was awarded the best hotel in Africa by the brand.

 “It is therefore with immense pride that our team won the award this year for our second property in the city, Best Western Plus Peninsula Hotel. Best Western Plus Peninsula is a modern business hotel in Oysterbay with a cozy neighborhood, “he said.

He added: Loyalty and referrals are important for smaller boutique hotels, so we focus a lot on personalization and attention to details. In fact, our staffs know our regular customers by name.

He said that the hotel uses a cloud-based guest experience management platform, Medallia, which allows it to   review guest   survey feedback,   benchmark itself   against   hotels  globally,  and  drive improvements to the property and operations.

 He said that like many hotels in the city, Best Western Plus Peninsula Hotel had to temporarily close down when international flight restrictions were enforced due to safety precautions around COVID-19.

Mrs. Juliet Marandu, who is a senior reservations manager said during the height of the pandemic, they were forced to temporarily cease operations and shift  bookings to our sister property, Best Western Coral Beach Hotel continued serving the local community.

“However, the quiet period was not wasted, and we focused our efforts to implement new hygiene and safety procedures based on WHO, CDC, and the Government guidelines,” she said.

She said the hotel has adopted the Best Western “We Care Clean” program to reassure returning business and leisure travelers on the highest level of cleaning standards and operational best practices.

“While  COVID-19  has significantly  impacted  the  hospitality  and tourism  industry,  the  Hotel’s management team remain optimistic on the gradual resumption of international and regional travel as visitors gain more confidence in the reassuring practices being implemented by the tourism industry in Tanzania,” she said.

She added: As the hotel works to gear up its operations in the near future, it is actively promoting special hotel apartment rates, dedicated workspaces, and exclusive living arrangements with the local business and social community.