The Nation Newspaper

Tag: hotel

  • ‘Shut Benue hotel not owned by Akume’

    The HAF Hotel shut by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) last week for tax default was not owned by Senator George Akume, his aide said yesterday.

    FIRS, in a statement last week, attributed the ownership of the hotel to the former Benue State governor.

    But a statement yesterday by Mrs Becky Orpin, special adviser to Senator Akume, said: “We wish to make it clear that HAF Haven Hotel is not owned by Senator Akume but by Hope Alive Foundation (HAF), an independent action-oriented Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). It was incorporated in 2002 with a board of directors.

    “Senator Akume, given his humanitarian disposition to the disadvantaged, only identifies with the ideals for which HAF was incorporated.

    “Hope Alive Foundation is a charitable non-profit foundation that takes care of widows, orphans and the physically-challenged in Benue State. It feeds and provides homes and workable skills to the underprivileged, and awards scholarships to indigent students.

    “Unlike most foundations that rely on donations, HAF funds its humanitarian activities through revenue generated from such ventures as HAF Haven Hotel. Therefore, the hotel is definitively not the property of Senator Akume but of HAF.

    “Apart from taking care of the underserved in Benue, HAF Haven Hotel is a law abiding corporate body that diligently adheres to tax regulations. We have not defaulted on payments as we have always endeavoured to make minimum payments.

    “For instance, between 2011 to 2014, HAF Haven Hotel has paid a cumulative N1.1 million in taxes and N745,000, full payment, for the year 2014/15.

    “Currently, HAF Haven Hotel has a minor dispute with FIRS over tax assessments carried out on the hotel. Our auditors detected duplications in the assessments and the tax comptroller in Makurdi was alerted.

    “Unfortunately, the issues raised were yet to be resolved when the FIRS team from the headquarters  swooped in and summarily closed down the hotel, without listening to HAF’s petition.

    “However, the hotel will work with FIRS to resolve this issue professionally. We believe that reason will prevail and the hotel will be reopened.

  • Local hotel brands yet to upgrade, says expert

    MANY hotels are yet to deplore technology to enhance customer service delivery, SlimTrader’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/founder, Femi Akinde, has said.

    He spoke at the inaugural empowerment programme with the  theme: ‘Positioning your hotel for greater sales’, organised by the e-commerce company, in Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Akinde said there was need for managers to ensure effortless hotel transactions.

    “The forum will continue to feature an insightful lineup of presentations and panel discussions ranging from what it takes hotels in Nigeria to create visibility to specific target groups to new ways for the Nigerian hospitality sector to extend its reach to a bigger local and international audience,” he said.

    “The mission of SlimTrader is to facilitate effortless transactions for businesses across Sub-Sahara Africa. In working with hotels, we discovered that they face serious challenges in securing reservations to offline payments.

    “We found out that there are lots of hotels that find it difficult to run their operation in terms of technology. They hire consultants to research all the available options and to propose one.”

    Over 500 participants attended the event.

  • Police conduct autopsy on dead married woman found in hotel

    The police in Edo State has conducted autopsy on the remains of one Yvonne Omoarebokhae, a married woman who was found dead in a hotel room after allegedly having a fling with one Apostle Psalm Okpe.

    Apostle Okpe has since been arrested and is helping police with investigations.

    A church in Benin City, Canaan Land Deliverance Ministry where Apostle Okpe was supposed to participate in a programme, has dropped the name of Apostle Okpe as one of the invited guest pastors.

    The autopsy on Yvonne, a gospel singer, was done on last Saturday.

    A family member who pleaded anonymity said results of the autopsy would be out soon.

    He debunked reports on social media that autopsy report showed that late Yvonne died of cardiac arrest.

    The family member accused friends of Apsotle Okpe of spreading the cardiac arrest reports.

    Late Yvonne made friend with Apostle Okpe on Facebook and after weeks of chatting, Apostle Okpe invited her to perform in some of his programme in Warri, Sapele and Benin.

    She went to Warri with Apostle Okpe on April 7 and was found dead in a hotel room the next day.

    Police Commissioner, Chris Ezike, who confirmed the report said only a post mortem, would determine the actual cause of death.

  • I neither built nor own hotel, says governor

    I neither built nor own hotel, says governor

    Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has denied any link with the management, ownership or building of Whitefield Hotel, Ilorin.

    In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, Governor Ahmed described as false, mischievous and evil, a publication by saharareports.com that he built the hotel.

    He said he remained committed to fulfilling his covenant with the people and would not be distracted by Saharareporters’ deliberate and malicious falsehood.

  • SlimTrader launches Hotel PC-POS, makes Interswitch partner

    Hotels across Nigeria are set to enjoy a reprieve from some of the major accounting and reconciliation challenges they face with the roll out of a new innovative ‘Personal Computer-Point of Sale’ (PC-POS) feature on SlimTrader’s ‘MoBiashara for Hotels’ (MFH) platform.

    Many hotels across Nigeria are faced with the challenge of accurately consolidating payments made on their hotel Point of Sale (POS) terminals with hotel records and room inventory, resorting to manual reconciliation. With SlimTrader’s new PC-POS solution all POS terminals and PCs within a hotel can be networked.

    This was revealed at the official  launch of the solution last month  by SlimTrader, Sub-Sahara Africa’s leading turn-key ecommerce solution provider for businesses. It was at the launch that Interswitch  was disclosed as the partner for the solution. Interswitch, it was also revealed, has adapted its POS terminals to work seamlessly with the solution.

    The new feature allows hotels to link their hotel computers to POS terminals, such that hotel room payments are immediately reflected in the hotel’s computer and online records. When hotels, which subscribed to SlimTrader’s MFH solution generate reservations on their hotel PCs, the transaction is sent to the hotels POS terminals for the customer to effect payment. Once this is done, the records are automatically reconciled, thereby enabling hotels to manage their inventory more efficiently.

    Reservations can be made in both local and international currencies and paid for with local or international cards. The system also allows for payment flexibility, accepting cash and payment via other platforms.

    With this integration to the platform, ‘MoBiashara for Hotels (MFH)’ is now positioned to be the ‘one stop solution’ with which hotels get all their personal computers networked with their Point of Sale terminals; with a Property Management System (PMS) to manage check-ins, check-outs and general hotel inventory.

    In addition, the hotels have access to a channel manager that integrates with online travel agencies (OTAs) such as hotelnownow.com or TripAdvisor and so on.

    Speaking on the decision to develop this new feature, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SlimTrader, Mr. Femi Akinde said: “At SlimTrader, our vision is ‘to facilitate effortless transactions for businesses across Sub-Sahara Africa’.

  • 16 injured in Dubai hotel fire

    16 injured in Dubai hotel fire

    Fire last night ripped through a five star Address Downtown hotel just yards from where tens of thousands were preparing to see the New Year in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

    The flames ran up at least 40 storeys of the exclusive hotel

    The hotel is just across a lake from the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building

    It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze

    Dubai is a haven for rich Nigerians. It is the place where most of them spend holidays. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is currently holidaying in the city.

    Burning debris rained down from the building as firetrucks raced to the scene. No one was killed, according to the authorities but 16 people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.

    Ali Al Mutawa, of Dubai’s Civil Defence, told 7Days UAE: “We have controlled 65 per cent of the fire in the hotel and no casualties have been seen so far after evacuating the hotel.’

    The fire, which is only on the outside of the building,started on the 20th floor.

    Tom Stroud, 35, an eyewitness who is on holiday in Dubai, said: “There was no bang or bomb-like sound; we just looked over and saw an inferno.

    “It gathered speed extremely quickly.”

    “It’s gotten so much bigger in five minutes. It’s gone from just a small fire at the foot of the building and now it’s shooting up the middle and the top.’

    The hotel is just moments from where the city was about to celebrate the start of 2016.

    The city was planning on three spectacular displays, beginning at the Burj Khalifa, which organisers said was fitted with 400,000 LED lights. They said 1.6 tons of fireworks would be used in the display.

    The Downtown is just across a lake from the Burj Khalifa, facing each other.

    Many people will have been in their rooms, ready and waiting for the spectacular display to begin

     From there, the fireworks were to light up the sky around the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab and later down near the Dubai Marina.

    It was the second blaze at a Dubai skyscraper last year, after the Marina Torch tower was engulfed in flames in the early hours of February 21.

    Hundreds of people were evacuated from one of the world’s tallest residential buildings, as a large blaze ripped through multiple floors of the tower.

    After firefighters extinguished the blaze, residents could see the external cladding on the corners of the building was charred black and mangled for dozens of floors.

  • Okowa’s defence lawyer loses N44.6m in Delta hotel

    Okowa’s defence lawyer loses N44.6m in Delta hotel

    •Complainant refuses to show up at police station, says commissioner
    •Tribunal delivers verdict today

    A senior counsel in the defence team of Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has lost $200,000 in a popular hotel in Asaba, the Delta State capital, it was learnt at the weekend.

    It was gathered that the black market value of the stolen money was about N44.6 million.

    But the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Baba Alkali Usman, confirmed to The Nation that $100,000 was stolen.

    It was unclear what the money was meant.

    The three-man panel of the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal led by Justice Nasir Gunmi is set to deliver judgment today in the two petitions by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) challenging the declaration of Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the April 11, 2015 governorship election by the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    The defence lawyers to the governor were lodged at the hotel adjacent to the tribunal throughout the duration of the election petition.

    The lead lawyers in the defence team are: Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN) representing Okowa (the first respondent); Mr. A.T. Kehinde (SAN) for  the PDP  and Damien Dodo (SAN) for the third respondent (INEC).

    It was learnt that the money was stolen from Chalet 111 in the hotel, where one of the lawyers resided.

    It was learnt that four suspects – two females and two males – were arrested and detained by the police over the theft.

    Of the four, a female believed to be the girlfriend of one of the suspects was also arrested.

    The suspects are Uchechukwu, Florence , Favour and  Chidozie.

    It was learnt that the suspects were granted N180,000 bail.

    One of the male suspect paid N80,000. Another suspect coughed out N50, 000.

    The last two suspects, who were unable to pay the bail sum, were held until their relatives paid N50,000.

    The suspects were kept at the Police ‘A’ Division for three weeks before they were transferred to the state police headquarters, where they spent another three weeks.

    A source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that the girlfriend to one of the suspects was apprehended on the ground that the money might have been hidden in her house.

    The Nation gathered that subsequent search on the lady’s home by the police did not produce any incriminating evidence.

    It was gathered that the management of the hotel, unsatisfied with the conduct of the investigation by the police, petitioned the state police commissioner, who ordered a transfer of the matter to the State Criminal Investigating Department (SCID).

    The suspects were released last Thursday.

    The police commissioner confirmed that $100,000 was stolen at the hotel, adding that the hotel’s chief security officer lodged a complaint to the police.

    He said the police were constrained to act because the lawyer refused to formally lodge a complaint, adding that the police had to release the suspects.

    Alkali debunked the claim that the police received N180,000 as bail, stressing that bail was free and that his men would not indulge in such criminal activity.

    His words: ‘We have received a case of stolen money from Grand Hotel by the chief security officer of the hotel, who reported that one of his guests lost the sum of $100,000.We incidented the matter at the Police ‘A’ Division and requested that those who worked overnight and those who had the keys to the chalet and those on night duty on that day appear at the police station.

    “We visited the scene of the incident. When we did not see the complainant, we had to release those four persons pending when the complainant will come and formally lodge a complaint.

    “But the CSO petitioned the Police ‘A’ Division and the matter was transferred to the State Criminal investigation Department. We released the four suspects when the complainant still failed to turn up. We held four suspects .Two of them – members of staff of the hotel, but the other two are not members of staff. The only connection is that one of them is the boyfriend to one of the suspects.

    “On the issue of paying N180, 000 as bail, as far as I am concerned, the officer in charge says he does not know anything about it.”

  • Oba Otudeko reopens Radison Blu Hotel

    Oba Otudeko reopens Radison Blu Hotel

    The wait is finally over. Those who are eager to see water-front Radison Blu Anchorage Hotel, Victoria Island, back in business can heave a sigh of relief. The outfit has reopened for business after an extensive renovation of its facilities, which was done as part of the management’s commitment to retaining standard and remaining the first choice for business and pleasure.

    It will be recalled that in February, this year, the Oba Otudeko-owned hotel was shut to allow for upgrading of its facilities. Otudeko remains on the list of Nigeria’s richest men. He is also the chairman of Honeywell and some other profitable companies in Nigeria.

  • Hotel boss, five others in detention over alleged murder

    Hotel boss, five others in detention over alleged murder

    The Sokoto state Police command has confirmed the arrest of six persons in connection with the alleged killing of a Police Inspector, Mr. Nura Hashimu.

    They are:  the Managing Director and five other members of staff of a four-star hotel in Sokoto.

    Confirming the arrest of the hotel’s Managing Director and five others Monday in Sokoto, spokesman of the Police Mr. Al-Mustapha Sani said that, the late Hashimu was the son of a late Police Commissioner, Mr Hashimu Yauri.

    He said the deceased died after he was reportedly beaten to a state of coma by the staff of the hotel on 1st Aug.

    According to the police spokesman,” The deceased had reportedly lodged in the hotel for about five days preceding the incident.

    ” The late officer was asked to leave the hotel after repeated complaints by some of his neighbours in the hotel that he his room was always rowdy,” he stated.

    Sani further explained that ” He had earlier parked his belongings and put them in a commercial tricycle and left the hotel, but he later returned angrily.”

    According to him, the deceased had a misunderstanding with the Managing Director of the hotel after he went back.

    This, Sani, averred resulted in an ensuing fight between the duo, sequel to slaps and counter-slaps.

    ” It was at this juncture that the security men of the hotel immediately pounced on the deceased and gave him  serious beatings.

    ” The late Officer was subsequently rushed to the Specialist Hospital, Sokoto where he was confirmed dead,” he added.

    Sani further said that the corpse of the deceased was later taken to the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching hospital, Sokoto for a post- mortem to confirm the actual cause of his death.

    However, Sani said the suspects were being detained at the state police command for further investigations.

  • Hotel, tourism conference to host 30 countries

    Preparations are gearing up towards the Nigerian Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference.

    The event, which is meant to bring key players in the hospitality and tourism sector together as an avenue to promote Nigerian tourism potentials, is the brainchild of Jonel hospitality, an integrated and comprehensive hospitality consulting company.

    The conference, according to Jonel Hospitality Managing partner, Brian Efa, is meant to be a focal point as the government strives towards the diversification of its economy.

    He made the statement at a briefing in Lagos, adding that more than 200 industry professionals from 30 countries are expected to attend.  “The event is meant to be a networking hub and would serve as expos of investment opportunities in the hospitality sector with a mind of creating employment for the youth.

    “And there will also be a significant increase in participants from the Middle East and North Africa. This clearly demonstrates the regional appeal of the event and reflects the heightened activity in hotel investment through the country,” Efa said.