EXCLUSIVE: HotelOga and Savana Sunrise merge together to take on the world

The hospitality industry in Africa is posed for a major disruption, with changing global trends and new challenges surfacing up every day, survival is key in this competitive industry hence partnerships is the new normal.

Main rivals Savanna Sunrise from Kenya and HotelOga based in Nigeria have signed an agreement to merge, effectively creating an African giant in Hospitality Marketing Technology.

Announcing the merger HotelOga CEO and founder, Marek Zmysłowski said he was delighted by the merger which will further cement their presence in Africa.

“We are so happy to join forces with Savanna Sunrise. This merger will enable us to become the leading company in our sector. Our next goals include: unifying operations within the group and strengthening our dominant position in Africa. We are also preparing our expansion to certain markets in Asia and Eastern Europe,where we can take implement our learnings from Africa.”

On his part DzHåvar Bauck welcomed the development saying their sights were now firmly set on the global frontier and emerging markets.

“With this merger, we are writing a new chapter in the evolution of the hospitality sector in Africa. From the position we are building, we are now well poised to expand our footprint to Frontier and Emerging Markets globally. The challenges facing the hospitality sector across these markets are very similar, and we are eagerly preparing to tap into the immense opportunities that exist.”

The merger will see Marek Zmysłowski take the role of the CEO of newly established entity, and Håvar Bauck assume the Executive Chairman.

The group will retain both brands initially, until a unified marketing strategy is rolled out in the near future.

HotelOga was founded by 29-years old Polish entrepreneur Zmysłowski, and currently boosts more than 500 hotels on its customer portfolio in the Nigerian market.

Also read : USA edges out United Kingdom as Kenya's top tourist source market

Savanna Sunrise is a travel and hospitality marketing group, launched in Kenya

In 2014 by Endre Opdal and Havar Bauck (experienced hoteliers and managers).

Both companies stand to reap big from this symbiotic relationship with each company bringing on the table market research and trends of each individual market.

The ultimate winner in this merger is the Clients of course who will now be spoilt for choice with a wide variety of destinations to choose from. Savanna for instance has more than 400 hotel partners across Eastern and Central Africa region.

With a simple click of a button, a client sun bathing at watamu can book a business trip to Lagos without much hassle.

Another advantage the merger comes with is improved chances of survival, Both East African and West African markets are extremely volatile, a travel advisory can quickly spell doom to a once flourishing Industry. Insecurity challenges continue to affect both markets but at least now they have each other to draw strength from.

As they set to take on the world the merger will ensure they effectively deal with the threat of Multinational companies penetrating into their market share and therefore compete on the international scale.

The icing on the cake is the technological aspect of the whole deal, the world is shifting towards tech and soon everything will be done online.

The hospitality industry has no option but fully digitalize its operations and booking and Savanna Sunrise and HotelOga are leading the way.

HotelOga was recognized by global players like Google and awarded expedia for its innovative ways. With already inked partnerships with Expedia, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, HotelBeds, CTrip etc. the group without doubt will be the most preferred business partner for any new Online Travel company with Africa on their agenda.

In this age of ‘Go big or go Home’, the move is certainly going to change the game forever.