Swimming pool shortage ruins business for hotels

Kenya: When a caravan of tourists travelling from Tanzania decided to make a three-day stopover at a popular hotel in Migori, they had one major expectation: finding a hotel with a swimming pool and other exciting recreational facilities.

They were looking for an ideal place where they could enjoy whiling the holiday away. It was a big blow to the hotel owners when the disappointed guests were forced to cancel their planned stay at the hotel and started looking for another place where their expectations would be met.

The 30 foreign tourists moved to another place where they found more exciting holiday suites.

After missing that opportunity, the hotel’s management decided to install at least one or two leisure facilities so that they don’t miss out on such business opportunities in future.

Prohibitive cost

According to Festus Okoth, a real estate developer in Migori County, county hotels are deterred from putting up swimming pools or other recreational facilities by lack of space and prohibitive construction costs.

“Investing in a swimming pool is a costly venture and requires space. It may also not bring the desired financial returns,” says Okoth.

He says locals, who form the bulk of the clientele of the hotel industry, do not appreciate swimming as a recreational activity.

Swimming is less popular in hotel pools than in natural water bodies like rivers and lakes. “Our people don’t consider it economical to spend money to whirl in the pond,” he says.

Yet for most hotels, recreational facilities are now the key to staying ahead of competition. Swimming pools, lawn games, kiddie parks, pitches and other recreational facilities are now “must haves” for hotels in counties across the country, if they are to beat others in the game.

But very few countryside hotels have such facilities. Swimming pools, for instance, continue to be the preserve of five-star hotels and tourist resorts in big towns and cities.

For example, from the border town of Sirare in Migori County, one has to travel a long distance to find a hotel with a swimming pool. Fortunately, the first swimming pool in the entire region is now under construction at Florence Hotel in Migori Town.

General Manager Robert Atalitsa, says holiday makers visiting the facility will start using the pool during this Christmas holiday.

This will be the only such facility in a radius of more than 200 kilometres. Even in the country’s major cities, swimming pools are preserve of a few hotels that pride themselves on offering excellent holiday services.

According to Dennis Ochieng, a marketing manager with Grabo County Dream Hotel in Migori, investment in recreational facilities is limited by the environment and clientele base.

However, he says because of rising competition in the hospitality industry in the counties, there is a compelling reason for the investors to start new ventures that will help them stand out from competitors.

“We are in a very competitive field and each and every time there are new entrants in the industry,” he notes, adding, “Competition usually gets stiffer, forcing hotel investors to think outside the box.”

Grabo Hotel

Grabo is one of the biggest hotels in Migori Town with a bed capacity of more than 50 and conference facilities. Ochieng says they are planning to put up recreational facilities, including a swimming pool, so as to maintain the top spot in the area’s hotel industry.

However, the cost of constructing a recreational pool is high. Seth Odoyo, a structural engineer based in Rongo, Migori County, says the cost of building a swimming pool ranges from Sh2.5 million for the smallest family-size pool to Sh5 million for a standard pool.

Many investors have found it difficult to expand because the land on which their hotels are set up is so limited that planning for a recreational facility is complicated, according to Jairus Otieno, an expert in real estate development.

It may therefore be more convenient to build a sauna than construct a swimming pool.