CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Dubai-based white-label management firm Aleph Hospitality has signed a deal with African Hotel Development to manage 26 hotels in 14 African countries under the Onomo brand family.
The agreement is the largest management portfolio deal in African history, according to executives from both companies, who confirmed the deal at the Future Hospitality Summit Africa.
African Hotel Development is a lifestyle hotel group, real estate developer and owns the Onomo brand. Twenty of its hotels are in the midscale segment under brand Onomo, but its portfolio has focused on growth in upscale and premium hotels via Onomo Allure and Le Square by Onomo Collection. African Hotel Development has five hotels in its development pipeline due to open before the end of the year.
Bani Haddad, founder and managing director of Aleph Hospitality, said the deal is a major milestone.
“We said when we started this company that we would operate 50 hotels by the end of 2025, and we have done that with this deal,” he said.
Aleph has 18 hotels in operation and five in its pipeline, including Kigali, Rwanda; Zanzibar and Saudi Arabia.
Neil George, partner and executive director at Aleph Hospitality, said it was also a milestone for Aleph’s investors and its model in Africa and the Middle East.
“It is the largest transition from management to franchising ever in the continent, and it includes three hotels in Cape Town,” George said. “We will invest in a regional office in Cape Town, in Nairobi, in Casablanca and in Abidjan. It is not remote-controlled management, which we have an allergy for.”
Haddad said Aleph's increased number of regional offices and presence in African markets will mean even more deals and management throughout the continent.
Haddad said Aleph already has presence in East Africa and Morocco, but the deal with African Hotel Development will make Aleph “go full blast; providing real value for owners, and for that we need to be on the ground.”
One of Aleph's hotels in development in Kigali — Rwanda's capital city — will open in a few weeks, George said.
“Then before the end of the year, we are to open one a month,” George said.