The Novotel Hotel brand has debuted in Lagos with a 3-star hotel to cater for the needs of business travellers.
Novotel Festac, as the hotel is known, located in pristine areas in Festac Town, is wooing business travellers from going to Victoria Island, where most of the city’s exquisite hotels are located, to look for comfortable accommodation.

Festac Town, one of Nigeria’s most dynamic trade and business district in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic heart beat, is approximately 20 minutes drive away from the Murtala Mohammed International Airport and is also on the axis route for easy access to Apapa Wharf and other nearby industrial areas, where these business travellers may have interest.

Managed by Accor Afrique, a leading international hotel management chain, the newly refurbished Novotel Festac, which like a phoenix rose out of the ashes of the defunct Durbar and later re-christened Festac 77 Hotel, is an 8- floor edifice with 365 twin rooms, 68 connecting rooms, 5 accessible rooms for disable guests and 198 non-smoking rooms. The two executive floors have 67 executive rooms, 26 connecting executive rooms, 12 junior suites, two ministerial suites and one presidential suite. Each room in the hotel is equipped with air conditioning, mini bar, telephone, queen seize or twin bed, hair dryer, electronic key, electronic safe box, WIFI, smoke detector, sprinkler, peep hole, security chain and high speed internet connection. The exotic restaurants and bars include Garden Brasserie, Asian Restaurant, pool bar, Grill restaurant, lobby bar and a Pub. Other facilities includes main business center, 7 hectares of gardens, tennis courts, wellness center with sauna and massage, parking space for 500 cars, laundry services and boutique.

Speaking at a cocktail held at Abebe Court, Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos to introduce the hotel to the business community, Alan Wilson, General Manager of the Hotel told Business Travel Briefing that the Accor chain has succeeded in Nigeria because of its special concern for customers and its rich human resource base.

Alan who was formally the General Manager of Novotel Hotel, Port Harcourt also said he is happy that the hotel is not situated in Lagos Island which has become the hub for hotel business in Nigeria.

Alan says between today and fifteen years ago one cannot imagine the changes that have occurred in Nigeria’s hotel business. While international hotel chains seem to be battling for space in the country, he however expresses concerns about the dwindling numbers of local hotel groups.