By Obinna Emelike
Copyright businessday
With over six hotels, a few more in the pipeline and stylish restaurants, Joel Ogunnaike Street in GRA Ikeja, Lagos, is now a melting pot for hospitality offerings.
Yet, on that stretch of street that plays host to some top global hotel brands, The Safron Hotel still stands tall.
Despite the fast-rising skyline of the exclusive GRA neighbourhood, the 54-room boutique hotel is very conspicuous.
Since its opening on May 21, 2021, Saffron Hotel has pursued and improved on its personalised offerings, leaving the guests with home-away-from-home experiences, boosted by world-class leisure facilities.
Three years down the line, the boutique hotel has carved a niche for itself in its specialty; personal services, which has also sustained its position as a big player on Joel Ogunnaike Street’s hospitality hub.
The unique thing about the hotel is that it was opened on schedule, while the majority of the work was done during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
As Oluwatobiloba Fatusin, business development manager of the hotel, puts it, “It was a year that was very slow. It was like a setback for some people. That was when this building was completed.
“Then, people were scared, people were dying, it was very scary, but the owner of this hotel did not care.
“There is a saying that you have to be almost insane to achieve great success. You have to have a certain level of madness to succeed,” she noted.
For her, it was the courage of the chairman of the hotel, despite the huge risk posed by the pandemic then that saw to the success of the hotel today.
Reviewing the hotel facilities, Oluwatobiloba, a graduate of University of Houston, United States of America, said that The Safron Hotel is truly boutique with 54 exclusively furnished rooms and suites, across four categories: classic, deluxe room, superior, executive and a penthouse.
Yet, she insisted that the hotel’s beautiful lobby is an experience on its own, amid adjoining front office and a bar.
She noted that the bar, which offers cocktails, mocktails, live football match screenings, morning coffee among other entertainment, is a boot to the beautiful lobby.
“Here, you can bond with your family and with your significant other. We have pastries as well. We make some of the best smoothies and chicken pies in GRA Ikeja,” she noted.
The lobby offerings continue with quick business meetings, as guests can work with their laptops with high-top chairs provided.
Moving further down the hotel hallway, entertainment is heightened with a grand piano.
“This is one of our best-selling points because people book photo shoots at The Safran Hotel when they are getting married because of that piano and the beautiful ambience.
“When you open the piano, it gives this classy and very vintage look. Women that are getting married like to wear their wedding dresses and have their husbands behind the piano while they pose”.
Another exciting offering, according to her, is the hotel’s restaurant, which can seat 40 guests at a time. It is open for buffets, in-dining and a la carte menu as well.
She emphasized on the buffet services, saying that it is for guests that are celebrating something special: birthday, valentine, among others, usually for a minimum of 25 people.
For the in-dining and a la carte, guests can walk in with their ticket cards or make reservations.
The Saffron experience continues at the poolside, which is known for its romantic proposals.
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“Yes. In our poolside, we have bonded so many people together. Many women have said, “I do,” she said, while explaining that it was recently renovated with a bit more space.
Also, three years down the line, the hotel has some new additions to its facilities.
One of the facilities is the Rooftop offering, with a new elevator that takes guests directly to the rooftop.
“Now the in-house elevator will be strictly for only in-house guests, which is going to improve our security.
“So, if you are going to the rooftop or to the Whisky Hall for an event, there is an external elevator that you can take. The in-house guests going to the restaurant or the bar use the hotel elevator.
“It gives our guests an increased sense of security, knowing that external people cannot have access to them,” she explained.
Despite being a boutique hotel, The Safron is also home for business travellers and corporate engagements with its world-class conference facilities.
Its conference room at the bottom floor seats 30 people, there is a 10-seater boardroom for executive meetings, while the Rooftop and Whisky Hall cater to a larger number of people.
The Whisky Hall is a 60-seater and the hotel’s largest hall for events like weddings, while the Rooftop offers options with its lower deck and upper decks.
Though the lower deck seats 50 guests, Oluwatobiloba insisted that the excitement is heightened in the 40-seater upper deck, which offers a 360 view of GRA Ikeja and glam ambience at night.
“It is like a bird’s eye view of Ikeja. Again, if you want to do a romantic proposal, that upper deck is also the most suitable for that and for baby showers, bridal showers, and birthday parties”.
More also, and following repeated requests by the guests, the hotel plans to launch a spa offering soon.
Health and fitness buffs are taken care of with the just renovated gym offering among other things strength training and aerobics classes, all handled by an instructor, with over two decades experience in personal training, from the nearby Police College Ikeja.
Beyond the services and facilities, Oluwatobiloba offers more reasons to experience the boutique hotel.
“What we sell here is privacy and security,” she insisted.
“It is very hard for people to get in if they are not authorised or don’t have a reason to be here”.
The emphasis on guests’ privacy and security, according to her, is a reason many are returning their visits to the hotel.
“It is not easy to tell who is here when they are here. That is why a lot of people come to The Safron Hotel. You can be here and people won’t know. You can be well-known and they still won’t know you are here. It is a home to governors, diplomats, foreign leaders.
“You can even have a governor here right now and you will have no clue,” she noted.
In her conclusion, Oluwatobiloba, who left a plum job in the United States of America to take a position at The Safron Hotel, assured that lack of maintenance, which is usually a big challenge in the hospitality sector here, is sorted out in the boutique hotel.
She is bringing to bear her experience as a supervisor at a USA management company, in her work at The Safron Hotel.
Also, her experience in other companies where she worked sometimes 8-10 hours a day with 30 minutes break, and sometimes 88 hours every two weeks, all combined to equip her for her current role in Nigeria.
“So, all these harsh conditions were training me for Nigeria,” she said.
With competences across property maintenance, service, and a combination of business skills, marketing and sales, Oluwatobiloba assured that the hotel is in good hands, and poised for more impact years to come in the Nigerian hospitality industry.
