Ebalunode: Hospitality Business in Nigeria Expanding, But New Entrants Face Challenges

Peter Ebalunode and  his siblings, operate Randekhi Royal Hotel, Benin City, Edo State. As the Executive Director of  Operations, alongside Queenel Ebalunode, the Executive Director of Finance, he oversees the day-to-day running of the establishment, which spans two decades, offering hospitality services to the city and its environs. Ebalunode shares more about the hotel, the hospitality needs, and challenges within the city. Ferdinand  Ekechukwu brings excerpts:

Can you tell us about Randekhi Royal Hotel and your journey into hospitality business, what inspired it?

Randekhi Royal Hotel was birthed and open for business on December 4th 2004. It is wholly owned by Chief and Chief (Mrs.) Andrew Ebalunode. They had started a business called Albekhi Stores and this grew to become an elite fabric behemoth that was at a time supplying Main Market, Onitsha in the late 90’s. By the 2000’s there became a need to diversify and they saw that there was a dearth of standard hotels in Bénin City at the time. Thus they ventured into the hospitality business under the Randekhi emblem. At the time of opening, it was 60 rooms. As at today, it is 180 rooms.

How would you describe the kind of services you offer?

Randekhi Royal Hotel offers a myriad of hospitality services from hotel rooms, halls for meetings, hall paraphernalia (projectors, screens, boards,others), bars, restaurants, swimming pools, gyms and others. We have 2 wings catering to different pockets. We have the classic wing which is very affordable and the Gold wing which offers more premium options that are a bit priced but still affordable.

What makes the Hotel unique compared to competitors?

Our comparative advantages include but are not limited to, the volume of rooms we have, the proximity to the airport, the proximity to the administrative and financial hubs in Bénin City, and our experience over time to understand and know the varying and growing tastes of the Benin hospitality needs.

What is your vision for the next five years, especially within Benin City’s hospitality space?

Within the Bénin City market, we hope to maintain and even grow our market share as we now have a lot of international and local competition within the space. Nigeria is growing and we hope to grow with our country.

What would you say has made you survive the years and what’s your proudest achievement with Randekhi Hotel?

We are proud of our resilience over the years. We just clocked 21 years in the business with some of our earlier guests growing and proud that they associated with us. For years, we have been the biggest hotel in Edo state since we achieved 180 rooms. Those are proud moments.

What advice would you give to new hotel entrepreneurs in Nigeria?

Should I encourage my competitors (laughs out loud)? Well what we can say is that the business landscape is improving and they should be ready for the challenges that come within the terrain of the hospitality business.