Aiden Kiprop 
PrideInn hotel has revamped its product offerings and brand perception, emphasizing premium services as part of a strategic business growth plan to adapt to evolving market dynamics.
According to the hotel’s managing director, Hasnain Noorani, the rebranding signifies a concentrated focus on four pivotal areas: Teams, customers, community, and partners.
This strategic shift prompted the closure of some budget units while introducing new premium units that resonate with the company’s updated direction.
“When PrideInn was founded in 2011, focus was on creating a budget brand that offered 4- and 5-star services. However, with time, the company entered the premium segment in response to demand in the Kenyan market for home-grown quality hospitality services,” Noorani said.
He added that the brand being left behind no longer resonates with the current target audience and the kind of services offered now.
“Our new image seeks to modernize the brand and align it with current consumer preferences.”
Since start of its operations in 2011, the hotel has grown from one hotel to eight hotels in five different counties.
It started with 28 rooms, and today boasts of running over 900 rooms with conference capacities of 15,000 people.
We started off as a budget brand but over time with the market dynamics, having learned to run a business, we’ve grown to be a preferred entity. Based on what our clients wanted, we invested heavily in training, modernizing our hotels to bring in the luxury status we have today, Noorani added in part.
“We acquired new luxury hotels, invested in all our hotels to give them the luxury feel and standards. After having invested all that money into the hotels, we decided that it was time to announce to our guests that this is what we have become.
We have had our experience for 10 years; we have learned a lot of things and we know exactly what our clientele requires and what our guests require, we know exactly what our international guests, what our local guests, our regional guests and our guests who come in for our MICE services.”
The hotel last year while acquiring Strategic City Hotel in Nairobi in its MICE sector expansion bid, said the decision to take up new hotels with Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) system approach, comes in as the tourism sector shows continued improvement in post-Covid recovery period.Noorani highlights that the hotel’s rebranding paves the way for the hospitality organization to now grow even further.
The company renovated several of its current buildings to suit worldwide luxury standards and added three new units between 2020 and 2023.PrideInn Mara Camp and PrideInn Plaza Hotel, which debuted in 2022, are among its most recent expansions.
PrideInn Azure first opened its doors in 2020.
Additionally in 2022 and 2023, respectively, the business renovated the PrideInn Diani and PrideInn Westlands Luxury Boutique Hotel.
Based on positive testing conducted within their units and market research suggesting development potential, the company also intends to expand the range of products it offers and investigate new markets in the tourism industry, including sports, wedding and culinary tourism.
Nevertheless, still in line with the strategic approach, the hotel commits to exceed customer expectation in delivering exceptional products and services in line with the vision of becoming the leading hospitality brand in Africa, and further forge human connections.
“We also want to forge connections with our staff, as our first priority, after that, we want to forge connections with the community around us: Our partners, stakeholders and respective colleagues within the industry,” Noorani said.
Mulling to deliver exceptional products, Noorani unveiled that they have created a strategic approach known as Food experience, Individualized and personalized service, Zero waste and Zero complaints (FIZZ), for the next two years to ensure maximum luxury experience offering.
PrideInn also boasts of vibrant employee base, which has increased from 15 in 2011 to over 1,000 in 2023, crediting them of immense contribution to its current success.
The business promises its clients that it will continue with its commitment to offering top-notch services under the slogan “Global Feel with Kenyan Soul.
“In addition, attention will be paid to making sure visitors have a nice night’s sleep, a hot shower, a hot and delectable breakfast, high-speed internet, and optimal security,” the hotel says.
The company’s dedication to community welfare through long-term CSR initiatives is further highlighted by its new brand identity.
This includes more contemporary projects like the Isiolo County water borehole project, which provides water to over 1,000 homes.
In addition, the hotel plans to launch new CSR initiatives in other fields and replicate the projects in other counties that are experiencing water scarcity.
“One of the key things we are doing is we have created, or we are in the process of creating something which we call the PrideInn Foundation, purely focusing on creating sustainable projects like boreholes, showcasing, teaching and educating people to farm,” Noorani said.
He further noted that the foundation could also focus on particular skills building, in a bid to impact the coming generations for sustainability, employability and the country’s general growth.
Along with the rebranding, PrideInn says it has already earmarked 10 counties where it wants to expand.
Overall, these are towards boosting the country’s tourism industry in alignment with the government’s target of at least 5.5 million tourists by 2027.
“To achieve this target, we believe as PrideInn hotels, resorts, and camps, we can play a very important role. Generally, the gateway for growing tourism is accommodation and its experiences,” Noorani said.
“Having good accommodation and conference centers is the gateway to open up any county, and we are looking at working hand in hand with the stakeholders towards the set target.”He called on other industry players to majorly focus on fostering and revitalizing various tourism experiences towards sector growth.
Noorani stressed the plans by the hotel to go big on the leisure element while targeting and reintroducing several tourism circuits within the country, ranging from totally new experiences, magical experiences and then be able to target the leisure clientele; international, domestic and regional.
