Atlanta-based U.S. Franchise Systems Inc. plans to develop its first Hawthorn Suites properties in Africa, Roy Flora, senior vice president of franchise operations, told GlobalAtlanta last week.
According to Mr. Flora, the company has signed master franchise agreements with Arusha, Tanzania-based Nyamajeje & Associates and Abuja, Nigeria-based Shelter Suites Ltd. LLC.
Hawthorn Suites, an upscale, extended-stay hotel chain, has 110 locations in the United States and single locations in Canada and Israel.
According to Mr. Flora, the agreement with Nyamajeje & Associates, which was signed last week, is for the development of Hawthorne Suites in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The number of hotels to be built in East Africa is still to be determined, he added.
Ten Hawthorne Suites hotels are scheduled to be built in Nigeria, he said, with groundbreaking already having begun for the first in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, and a second soon to be built in Lagos.
Bill Ezell, president of Plaza International LLC, a consulting firm that represents Shelter Suites in the U.S., said that local and foreign business and government officials would patronize the chain. As an example, he cited an average stay of up to 20 days for oil company officials visiting Nigeria. The cost of a suite per day will begin at $125, he said.
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