Perfecto La Vila Hotel seeks fare share of hospitality market

After 13 months of working on the facility, Perfecto La Villa Hotel & Suites has finally opened its doors to customers and tourists, who are seeking a comfortable accommodation in Lagos. The Deputy Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Nkem Okeke, performed the formal opening ceremony, which held last Sunday in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos.

Speaking before he performed the official tape cutting, Dr. Okeke commended the CEO of the hospitality company for delivering a standard facility for travelers and tourists.

“I’ve gone round and I can tell you that this is a fantastic hotel. However, it’s both fortunate and unfortunate that the hotel is located in Lagos and not Anambra. I’m using this opportunity to encourage the CEO to also consider building something like this in Anambra; we have enabling environment for that,” he said.

The new hotels boats of twin room, with connecting door; double room with single bed and double bed; suite; executive suite and superior room. Facilities in the hotel include free wi fi; restaurant, bar lounge; roof top lounge and a private bar; board room sitting 20 persons; banquet setting 200-300 persons; unisex salon; spa; gym and indoor overflowing swimming pool. There’s also a super mart, ample parking space, 24 hours service, 24 hours power supply and tight security.

Speaking at the event, the Chairman/CEO of the hotel Timothy Ekene Okpara said opening the facility is a dream come true.“It’s my pleasure that I can achieve this. But I’m not too surprised because I’m always a determined person; whatever I set my mind out to do, I go all out for it and ensure that I achieve it and in record time too. I started with a small business and since then, I have achieved a lot in the business world; I’m into petroleum and gas, real estate and others. But today, I’m adding hospitality to my investment portfolio,” he said.

On what influenced the nature of the hotel, especially the perfect finishing, he said, “It’s not always about the money, but your perception and taste. I don’t have the money as such, but I have good taste and eyes for perfection and distinction in whatever I do. I want whatever I do to be perfect and that is what informed the name of the hotel and all that you see here today. Even my mall, Perfect Mall, which is adjacent the hotel, is governed by the same thought and philosophy. My product registration name is Perfecto, which means that everything I do must be perfect or excellent, no matter how small it is.”

The idea of setting up the hotel actually came while the Anambra-born businessman was on a trip to Europe.“My nature is that anywhere I go, I must learn or take something new away from the place. The first time I travelled to Europe was in 2007 and I was in Catalan, Spain; the hotel I stayed in was very beautiful and I admired it quite a lot. Then I told myself that I would like to a build a hotel like this of my own in Nigeria. Since then, the dream stayed with me until I had the opportune to actualise it today. Today is even my birthday; so, I am quite happy and delighted. As you can see, all family members, my business partners from Turkey and friends are all here today to celebrate with me and that is something of joy and to be grateful to God for.”

Though his target was to complete the project within one year, the work eventually ended in 13 moths. “It didn’t quite take a long time to build because when I was going to start the project, I gave myself one year to complete. But a lot of the people that I spoke to said it wasn’t realistic; insisted that I will make it possible and achieve it. However, at the end of the day, I was able to complete the project in 13 months; this was because of some changes and delay here and there by the workers and other factors.”

On the request by Dr Okeke to have similar hotel in Anambra, he said, “I will build one in Anambra; that is a promise and it will even by bigger than this present one. It will be achievable within a couple of months,” he assured.

In a chart with Victor Edosomwan, the Managing Director of Vocwan Limited, a hospitality and wellness consultancy firm that supervised the project, he said, “I came in when the hotel has already gone up to about 20 per cent of the construction; the pillar works and some of the block works have been done. I discovered at the time that a lot of mistakes have been done and using my expertise, I was able to bring about some changes based on the kind of hotel he wanted to build.”

He continued: “I was able to make it business and also a leisure hotel. I had to create a meeting room for him and the general out lay of the rooms were done properly and the kitchen area. There is a customer and staff navigation, which most of these architects don’t understand. You have to ensure that the kitchen and restaurant and all other areas are properly laid out. If you go round the hotel, you will see that there is a roof top bar because as consultant, you have to create a lot of centres for profits especially looking at this area, Amuwo Odofin, where a lot of food and beverages is done.”

On the measure put in place to ensure the facility is maintained, he said, “As a consultant, it is always a challenge for us and we try to advise the owners that everything about hotel is maintenance; sustaining it, to keep it going. Hotel is supposed to be a lifetime investment where even your grandchildren can benefit from; the only way that you can do that is through innovative, creativity and maintenance.The hotel should take the initiative to maintain the facility and as a consultant to this hotel, I can assure you that one of the conditions that I give for me to be involved in any hotel is that the maintenance has to been there.”