Sarova Hotels Restaurants: Sarova Hotels and Resorts, a respected hotel chain in the country, has ventured into the restaurant business. This had been necessitated due to the effect COVID-19 had had on the hotel chain.
Already the hotel chain has opened two restaurants in the city. Chiso- At Urban Eatery in Westlands will focus on Japanese, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, and Chinese food.
The other restaurant called the Kitchen will offer a variety of Western, African, and Indian food.
The two hotels that were opened on Tuesday, are targeting the city’s middle class to remain afloat at a time the country is seeing fewer foreign visitors due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged nations.
The number of tourists fell by over two thirds in the month between January –October 2020.
The country only received about 500,000 in the first 10 months down from 1.7 million received during the same period last year. This translates to Sh109 billion in revenue loss in the hospitality industry.
Already major hotel chains such as the Stanley and Sarova continue to hurt from low arrivals in major national parks in the country. More so, parks such as Lake Nakuru continue to be under record volume of water.
Jimi Kariuki, Sarova managing director said, “Taking our cuisine brands out of our hotels and making them stand-alone restaurants is our latest new development. This has been a very challenging year for the hospitality industry. But despite this, we at Sarova have seen this as an opportunity to innovate and to be creative through ‘exporting’ our cuisine experiences outside of our hotels.”
He added, “We feel the market has become quite sophisticated in terms of cuisines and that’s why we decided to venture outside the hotel. Urban Eatery is a trendy dining space, which offers different kitchens that offer different cuisines. Sarova has taken up two of the kitchens which will be branded.”
Sarova hotels enter into a market that boasting other major restaurants such as Java, Urban Burger, Artcaffe, and Nyama Mama.
It is expected that the Sarova Hotels restaurants will inject some competition business, as it will be charging up to 15% less than it charges at the hotels.
