Trademark Urban Business Hotel in Nairobi: The Evolution of Simplicity

Shaileen Shah, General Manager of Trademark Hotel, presents the 215-room urban business hotel, inspired by the cultural and creative renaissance in Nairobi, Kenya.

“With Trademark, it was the evolution of simplicity. How do we make “simple” interesting? For example, right in front of me is Africa’s longest sofa. There is a story behind that as well. The artwork around the hotel has a story of people and reality. It is not about just plonking a piece of art on the wall and saying it makes the space look good. There is a story behind that, too. At the restaurant, everything is about local wood, supporting local talent, keeping things rustic. We do not want our guests to come here and admire a disco ball. We want them to admire the people. We want them to feel at home. If your living room looks like this, we want you to feel like you are in your living room and not anyone else’s. For the food you eat, we want you to feel the same comfort of home rather than something that is glammed up on a plate but does not taste very good. It is all about keeping it very simple yet it has its own elegance to it. When you leave from here you are able to say you were at this hotel called the Trademark and it made you feel good, even if you cannot pinpoint one thing. That is what we were after here. When we look at Tribe, it is completely different. It is the epitome of artifacts. It has the African essence to it. It has the elegance of saying come to me because I am your tribe. I am trying to show you what I am about. It has an unapologetic feel where you walk in and you see something out of the ordinary. It says I am not supposed to say I am sorry. I want you to be a part of me because I want you. Whereas, at Trademark, we took a completely different twist and said that we want to feel you. We have two very distinctive properties. They are on two different sides of a mall, and you might wonder what the difference is. It is probably the only mall in Africa where you can walk into it and feel like you are in a playground, not a mall. There is everything from 250 shops to 42 restaurant options, a bowling alley, a trampoline park, a children’s play area, a hospital outpatient service, two spas. Where else do you need to be? When you have a business traveler coming to your hotel for a whole week, what do they do after work? We do not confine our guests to have to eat in our restaurant. They can go out and experience what we have. The uniqueness is that you have that freedom”, says Shaileen Shah.

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