Safari Hotels

You’re Always Welcome.

Business View Oceania interviews Ben Trotter, COO and CFO of Safari Hotels, for our Construction View.

Established in 2020, Safari Hotels is a New Zealand-owned hotel and property management provider, operating as a division of parent company Safari Group. The team at Safari Hotels identifies their mission as, “… to create exciting and beautiful hotel developments in some of New Zealand’s most exciting and beautiful locations.”. The company proudly stands by its people and the values they represent, as they work to create genuine relationships that stand the testament of time.

Safari Hotels currently manages five properties in their portfolio across New Zealand. Ramada Newmarket is situated in one of Auckland’s most popular shopping destinations. The hotel features 93 modern rooms and apartments of varied size and is located a stone’s throw from local shopping, dining, transport, and entertainment facilities. Ramada Newmarket also serves as a flexible conference venue, with high-quality catering, audio-visual, aesthetic, and hosting capabilities. Ramada Christchurch has attracted an abundance of travellers looking for convenient, central, and highly functional city apartments since opening its doors in 2015. With 44 rooms and apartments, all with free, uncapped WIFI and a private kitchen and laundry, Ramada Christchurch is effortlessly outfitted for the purposeful traveller. LQ Hotel Queenstown offers exemplary service for corporate and leisure travellers alike. The property boasts free WIFI, and amenities including a 24-hour gym, complimentary parking, an on-site café, and unmatched views of the famous Remarkables Mountain Range. Located in Paihia, Bay of Islands, Edgewater Palms Apartments is certainly a destination location. Guests are treated to a true tropical experience, enjoying wildlife encounters, waterfront rooms, an infinity pool, world-class restaurant, and tour services that provide valuable local insight into everything the Paihia region has to offer.

Finally, Safari Hotels’ flagship property in New Zealand is Ramada Queenstown Central. Situated perfectly in for adventurists, thrill seekers, and nature enthusiasts alike, the property showcases stunning views of Lake Wakatipu, the Remarkables Mountain Range, the Queenstown Golf Course, Walter Peak, and other beautiful areas of Queenstown’s Central Otago region. It features hotel and apartment-style rooms with free, uncapped WIFI, and provides guests with access to enviable gym, parking, conference, restaurant, and events facilities.

Ben Trotter is COO and CFO at Safari Hotels. “Safari Hotels began two years ago as a division of our parent company, Safari Group, which has existed as a hotel property developer in New Zealand for the past 25 years. While Safari Group builds hotels in key locations and sells rooms to individual investors, Safari Hotels was set up to run the hotel entity under our own brand alongside the hotel brand, whether that be Ramada, Wyndham, etc. Our model is very unique, as are the buildings we bring to the market. These are apartment style hotels, so the rooms have full kitchens, in-rooms laundries, the works. It allows travellers more privacy and autonomy over their day, and it’s often more cost effective for them, particularly if they are corporate travellers or families.”

The Safari Hotels team is headquartered alongside Safari Group, in their Auckland Safari House offices. As a seasonal employee base, the team can fluctuate from between 60 to 80 staff throughout the year to support travel trends. Given that Sarai Hotels’ demographic is so diverse, including leisure, corporate, and families travelling domestically and overseas, Mr. Trotter says having a core set of values for staff to focus on is incredibly important. “We service a wide range of travellers, and they have an even wider range of needs. We set up our team with appropriate training and centre them around our big three values to make sure they are supported in their work, which has helped us immensely amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The hotel sector has experienced a staffing crisis over the last two years, which is pretty much our entire operations at Safari Hotels. So the fact that we have managed to retain a really amazing key staff base is phenomenal.” Safari Hotels identifies their values as: Team Effort (we always work together as a family), Love What We Do (we are passionate about what we do), and You’re Always Welcome (any time and every time).

Mr. Trotter shares Safari Hotels’ experience of the COV ID-19 pandemic and explains its effects on the future of their industry. “We have certainly felt the impact of COVID, given that we were established just before it became a global pandemic. The number one challenge for us has been New Zealand’s international borders remaining closed. Like many of our neighbours throughout the Pacific, we haven’t had a clear roadmap as to when the border might reopen, so planning ahead has been difficult. Essentially, 50% of our market was taken away from us overnight.” Safari Hotels’ properties have remained open and full functioning throughout the pandemic to service domestic travel.

A major part of Safari Hotels’ success, Mr. Trotter explains, comes as a result of their industry partnerships. The company works closely with hotel franchise partners Wyndham, servicing their brands Ramada, Wyndham Gardens, and more recently, Tryp. “The great thing about Wyndham is they have a number of different brands established for a company to utilise should they meet the criteria. We also work with a number of industry bodies including the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) and Hotel Council Aotearoa (HCA). The support of bodies like TIA and HCA has been absolutely vital to tourism and hospitality sectors amid the pandemic, especially when it comes to distributing information, advocating for better government policy and support, and just generally bringing everyone together.” There are three major projects currently underway for Safari Hotels. First on the agenda is a new Tryp hotel in Wellington, due to open August 2022, which will introduce the Tryp brand to New Zealand market. Next is two LQ hotels set to open in late 2023, located in Ellerslie and Parnell, Auckland, which will develop Safari Hotels’ LQ brand portfolio and increase coverage across Auckland.

Safari Hotels takes a long-term approach to hotel construction and management. Their future looks bright, Mr. Trotter concludes. “We are keen to broaden our horizons even further and expand into Australia using the same business model. We are already in the process of identifying key destinations and speaking to key players in those areas, but there is still quite a lot of work to be done in the regulatory planning space. We aim to get there within the next two years and have a portfolio of five to eight properties in Australia within the next five years. It’s very important that we continue to plan for the long-term future despite the difficulties of the last few years and focus on opportunities for growth.”

AT A GLANCE

Safari Hotels

What: Investor-focused hotel development throughout New Zealand

Where: Safari Hotels is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand

Website: https://safarihotels.co.nz/

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