Latest reports have revealed that popular hotel brand InterContinental Hotel has terminated all its operations in Kenya and also relieved its numerous employees within Kenya, of their duties.
Many attribute this to the economic strain and losses brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The General Manager of InterContinental Nairobi; Oliver Geyer informed employees via a notice, that the establishment will be discontinuing its hotel lease in Nairobi.
The notice read, “InterContinental Hotels Corporation Limited is for operational reasons, considering a permanent closure of the Intercontinental Nairobi and winding up all its operations in the Republic of Kenya.”
According to Business Daily Africa InterContinental Nairobi had already been facing financial difficulties even before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, it was declared technically insolvent due to the fact that it could not service its debts which stood at a shocking 717 million Kenyan Shillings.
Kenya as a whole, has reportedly lost 80 billion Kenyan Shillings in the tourism sector due to the ongoing pandemic. This is roughly half of 2019’s total.
The InterContinental Hotels Corporation which is a subsidiary of Pan American World Airways in April 1967, secured a 99 year lease and has since been in charge of the management and day to day running of the 389 room InterContinental Nairobi hotel.
The Kenyan Government and Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited each own 33.83 percent of Kenya Hotel Properties (KHP). Kenya Hotel Properties (KHP) is the holding company which owns InterContinental Nairobi more commonly known as InterCon.
InterContinental Nairobi’s termination of its lease signifies that Kenya Hotel Properties (KHP) will have to look for other interested parties who would be looking to take up the Five-Star hotel which sits at a very strategic position in Kenya’s capital.
The news of the lease termination is coming just weeks after Nairobi’s iconic Fairmont Norfolk also shutdown in a rather similar manner as it also let go of its employees in a move that many blame on an alleged salary dispute brought on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The management of Fairmont Norfolk retracted its notice following legal action threats by its employees.
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