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The pool area of the Hyatt Regency, Cape Town.
- Cape Town’s first Hyatt hotel is located in the historic Bo-Kaap neighborhood.
- The private family business Millat Properties, which owns the hotel, has renovated the 137 rooms and common areas.
- For the design team it was a great opportunity to think about design in a different way in a “post-Covid-19 world”.
Cape Town has its first Hyatt Regency hotel.
Located in the historic Bo-Kaap neighborhood on the edge of Mother City’s central business district, the building was previously managed by Hilton. The only other Hyatt hotel in South Africa is in Joburg.
The privately owned family-owned company Millat Properties, which owns the hotel, has renovated the 137 rooms, as well as the public areas, in close collaboration with the Hyatt team and international interior designers LW Design Group.
Hamza Farooqui, CEO of Millat Properties, says that opening on time, as promised, despite the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 is testament to the hard work of everyone involved.
“With Hyatt Regency Cape Town now operational in its iconic location, we look forward to advancing other opportunities benefiting South Africa and internationally. We are very excited to bring such a large international brand, which knows the hotel business well, to Cape Town.” , said.
“SA is a long-distance destination and by bringing this international brand to the city, we have done everything we can to contribute to the tourism industry. Now we need the government to provide political support, for example, to facilitate obtaining visas. for SA – to help create demand. Tourism is a key driver of SA’s economy and SA has to compete with other countries to attract tourists. Even if the coronavirus situation normalizes, we must all work harder in the tourism industry. tourism “.
He says that the focus will also be on offering good value for money for domestic tourists, both for leisure and business.
“SA is a beautiful country and I am cautiously optimistic. A global brand like Hyatt coming to Cape Town says a lot about the image of the city in the tourism industry,” he says.
Peter Fulton, president of the Hyatt group responsible for the African region among others, says that for business travelers the hotel provides easy access to the financial district and the Cape Town International Convention Center, while its location in the colorful Bo-Kaap neighborhood makes for a great hotel. base also for leisure travelers.
“This is one of the quickest opportunities we’ve had. We are thrilled to be working with an owner who knows the hotel business and knows how to operate in the country,” says Fulton.
Fulton explains that hospitality is a very long-term business.
“Yes, it is a difficult time now, but people will start traveling again and business will return. We are confident of the hotel’s long-term success. Hyatt is well known for its individual approach to food and beverage and leadership team culture.” , said.
“We operate as a partner, not just a manager and we make long-term deals, not short-term. An agreement like this is relatively strategic for us at SA. Going into Cape Town adds more diversity to our distribution. The markets sources that we hope to leverage with our distribution network include Europe and the Middle East and, to a lesser extent, the Americas. ”
Yunus Hoosen, head of investment promotion at the Department of Commerce, Industry and Competition, sees the opening of the hotel as providing a boost to the hospitality and tourism sectors. He says they are important drivers for SA’s economic recovery and job creation.
Pooja Shah-Mulani, LW’s design director, who coordinated the hotel’s redesign, says this was her first project in Africa.
“We were tasked with creating a fresh new look that was simple, refined yet comfortable. Given the blazingly fast response time and a ‘post-Covid open’, it was a great opportunity to think about design in a different way.” explains Shah-Mulani.
