Interview with a Top Business Boutique Hotel Operator in Nigeria – Fahrenheit Hospitality

Interview with Anthony Shishler, Managing Director of Fahrenheit Hospitality

What is your assessment of the hospitality industry in Lagos?

My perception of what is happening in the industry is that it is growing incredibly fast. It is almost growing too fast for the infrastructure to handle. I think that the population is demanding better quality hotels and the industry is starting to facilitate that. It is still prone to the mass market; there is still a huge void in the market for lifestyle and boutique properties or lifestyle spaces with entertainment and accommodation and that is pretty much where we fit in. The industry as a whole within Lagos is going to continue to grow. Last year the total growth of what has been happening with tourism only went up by about 5.5% and that is nothing compared to what the growth capacity really is. The capacity of what is available hasn’t reached saturation point. Shortly, probably in the next year or two, we should get to saturation point but then short lets and different models of hospitality will then start to come through.

What is your position in the market?

For our positioning at the moment, we are looking at diversifying our portfolio into estate management, short let management, service department management, resource management as well as beach management. The reason that we have diversified is that we have seen a trend within Nigeria whereby the localised travel that has probably been third or fourth within the total travel is now starting to creep up. That means that people don’t have the amounts of income that they used to be able to spend abroad but there is a larger disposable income within the borders of Nigeria and there aren’t the quality facilities for them to spend it on. That is where we are headed now.

Maison Fahrenheit is our flagship property; it is a 30 bedroom, purely boutique business and hotel. It has the Rue 80 rooftop which is incredibly busy and is creating a huge following.

Tell us more about Maison Fahrenheit.

Maison Fahrenheit is our flagship property; it is a 30 bedroom, purely boutique business and hotel. It has the Rue 80 rooftop which is incredibly busy and is creating a huge following. Each part of this hotel is a revenue stream. Most boutique hotels have between four and five revenue streams; we have eleven revenue streams so this is an incredibly clever and well maximised design making sure people don’t spend their hard earned money outside the walls of the property. We give them as much opportunity to spend within the property as we can.

How would you define the key tenets of Fahrenheit Hospitality?

I think Fahrenheit Hospitality is a purely business boutique hotel operator so we manage third party assets plus our own assets. With our new management plans that are coming through the pipeline, this is going to evolve enormously. This particular property has exploded onto the market and has created an enormous following and so has our sister hotel Fahrenheit Loft and the other brands that we manage: Morning Side, AUSTUS SUN and TOC. We have a full range as a portfolio within the group. This particular property is a bit of a hidden gem, people often don’t know that we have accommodations attached to the hotel as well as conferencing and meeting rooms. There is a huge amount once you start to unravel and unfold all of the different spaces within the properties and that goes for all of the properties that we manage.

What is your vision for Fahrenheit Hospitality?

We intend to have one major Fahrenheit brand hotel in each capital city within Nigeria. That is our ultimate goal. Our vision for the short term to midterm is definitely to grow the brand of properties right across all of the major cities such as Port Harcourt and Abuja and we shall see where we go from there. We also want to start developing our third stream businesses which is the Fahrenheit college, our global purchasing systems and our hotel supplies company. So we have quite a range of products that are coming on line as well as our loyalty card program. It is an endless stream of projects that will come into fruition.

How long have you been with the company? What is your background?

My background is rather colourful. This is my 19th country doing asset management and hotel management so I am a little bit lost in the world!! I like strange parts of the world. I call this the last frontier for hospitality, purely because it has not been saturated yet with all of the major brands. Tourism really hasn’t exploded yet but it definitely will once safety and security comes up. My background is in hospitality for the last 23 years. I have been in every aspect of hospitality from day to day, to finance to operations, planning, construction…

How long have you been in Nigeria?

I have been in Nigeria for 2 years and 8 months.

What insight do you have about Nigeria for the international audience?

Nigeria is an exploding market. I think once you move past the black curtain that hangs over Nigeria with all of the media and all of the political instability, the threats from Niger and everything else, there is a beautiful emerging market coming through. I think that is only going to go from strength to strength. I think that people need to look at Nigeria as a hugely potential investment return market purely because of the fact that anything you do here from infrastructure to power supply to development asset management is a needed market. There is a very well educated local base but it is the guidance opportunities that are endless.

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