‘I have a Passion for Hospitality! And I want to instill that in every Nigerian who works with me!’ – Christine Plaatjies, GM De Edge Hotel Port Harcourt/MD LAC Management Consultants
‘I have a Passion for Hospitality! And I want to instill that in every Nigerian who works with me!’ – Christine Plaatjies, GM De Edge Hotel Port Harcourt/MD LAC Management Consultants
Christine Plaatjies exudes a contagious passion for hospitality! Meeting her once is all you need to become ‘infected’ with her passion! She is the founding General Manager of the prestigious De Edge Hotel in Port Harcourt, a hotel she started in 2013 and has remained and nurtured it. The hotel won the celebrated, Hotel Managers Award for ‘Best Luxury Business Hotel Nigeria 2022’ at the Hotel Managers Conference 2022. Christine, an Expatriate from South Africa, she is the Managing Director/CEO of LAC Management Consultants. Christine has put in 34 years in the hospitality industry starting in South Africa and the last 16 years she has been in Nigeria. She started her career in Nigeria at the Protea Hotel Warri, Delta State. In this interview, She shares with Renn Offor, Publisher of 'My Africa Experience' magazine the hotel, the award it won, and her passion for staff training and improvements to make the hospitality industry more successful in Nigeria.
Enjoy the read.
Good morning Christine. It’s really nice meeting you. Kindly tell us about yourself, your background, education/training, and your sojourn that landed you as the General Manager at De Edge Hotel, Port Harcourt today. Was it deliberate that you’re in the hospitality business or by chance?
Christine: Just before I came to Nigeria, I was working with Protea Hotels and I wasn't fulfilled because I didn't make any difference there. You know, if everything is so organized, everybody knows what they're doing… And I got the opportunity to come to Warri in Nigeria... Warri of all places! Yea, in Nigeria, I started working in Warri.
Were you afraid of working in Warri as an expatriate?
Christine: Afraid? No! I mean, I didn’t even know that the city was that even that notorious! And people used to ask me. Yeah. So I know if I can work in Warri and survive, then, I can work anywhere in the world. Not only in Africa! When I came to Warri I wanted to make a difference. I knew that Nigeria wasn't big on tourism. So, I have a passion for tourism and I wanted to instill that in people. I wanted people to love working in hotels. I wanted people to enjoy working with us and that was what I wanted: to make a difference! I wanted people to love it and to say, 'Oh. I've worked with this person and she changed my perception of hospitality, about tourism. That was my main reason for coming to Nigeria.
De Edge Hotel Port Harcourt
And then from Warri, after working there for 3 to 4 years, we realized there's a need for owners to work with us. So, actually, we opened a company, me and my partner. We opened the company because we knew there was a need for it. We also added training. I joined De Edge Hotel around 2013. So, that’s how I got to where I am right now and I’m loving it. And it's been wonderful and 16 years later I’m still here!
Before you moved to Nigeria, you worked with Protest Hotels. How long have you been working within the hospitality industry?
Christine: I worked in other hotels before I started working at Protea Hotels. I have been working in hotels for about 34 years! When I started, my first job was in a hotel. So I have always worked in the hospitality industry.
Okay, thank God you are enjoying the industry here …
Christine: Yes, I am.
You were away in South Africa when the voting for the Hotel Managers Award began. And we are all surprised when we saw the voting is coming for 'Best Luxury Business Hotel in Nigeria'. Yes, the awards were promoted severally on social media platforms. We were getting nominations for De Edge Hotel...
Christine: Normally, you can only make opinions from the experience. So that means they have had some experiences that I think made them keep nominating our hotel. The Best Luxury Business Hotel.
So, what does that award mean to you as a person and the company where you work?
Christine: Of course when I saw the award, it was very emotional. I was very proud and we are so honored that people actually voted for us. But I think the reason why is because we are a corporate business hotel. We talk about corporate, that’s what we intended to be when we opened the hotel. My main focus was I wanted to be a corporate hotel. As a corporate hotel, your corporate clients are your loyal clients. Not your leisure client and our corporate clients come here and they like the environment. As far as this business is concerned, your corporate Clients are important.
Our rooms are not too big but comfortable. And when a business client comes here from Abuja or wherever they come from, our business clients know they're not going to have people all over the place, no loud music, no too many people in the swimming pool… you know… They know that you just want to do their work, come from work sitting in a room, go on their laptops, do their work, go to sleep, and have good food. They don’t have to worry about going outside for food because our food is excellent and I think that is the reason why a lot of clients, corporate, and business people are the ones who voted for us as a luxury business hotel because we are more corporate orientated than anything else.
What is the guiding principle of your hotel?
Christine: We have very high standards of service. We want to maintain an excellent standard of service delivery while also at affordable rates because our rates are very affordable, mostly for corporate clients. In spite of the high cost of maintenance and cleaning, we maintain our facility so when you step into our rooms, it's like you stepped in that room for the first time, like nobody has used that room before and I think when people say that, I say, “Yeah, that's the idea they should have’! I mean, we are now from 2014 to now we are going to 8 years old now and if you go into our hotel, you're not going to say that we are 8 years old. And I think that is why most people will come back and they were like, “Wow, you guys are really looking after your hotel!”
And that's what stands our hotel out from other hotels because you see other hotels around and they beautiful but because of mismanagement and things like that after six months, after a year, you would be like, ‘Oh how old has this hotel been?’ And you feel sad. It doesn't matter if you have the most beautiful furniture, the most modern furniture and you're coming there and it's tattered… I mean, you know what I’m saying when you go to places and, you know, the owners have spent so much money on bringing furniture from Italy or design and stuff but maintenance is poor.
So, you’ve been in this Hotel for 8 years! When you started this hotel, did you perceive you were going to stay this long in this hotel in this City? And why do you love this hotel?
Christine: This Hotel is my baby and it’s going to be my baby forever! But I didn't know I was going to stay this long!
Okay, why do I love this hotel? Yeah, the hotel standard! Yes, the hotel standard did not drop. I have good and capable hands that give me good support. Where I can be for longer away, I don't have to worry.
My managers love working here. And there are no ways that they're going to let this hotel go down or disappoint me or themselves… They are proud to work here. There are some managers that came with me from other places that followed me here, even though I’m very strict and they'd probably call me 'Nice’. I love my staff. But I have a love-and-hate relationship with the staff.
They love me one moment and the next moment they hate me. And that is how the work is supposed to be because yes, I do discipline them on the one side and then I reward them on the other one.
So one of the most important things in any business is if you don't keep your staff happy, you’re not going to be happy. So looking after my staff, making sure that they are well compensated for the job that they're doing, making sure that the small things that they achieve are celebrated, making sure the bonus is paid, making sure that I do buy gifts for them … Those are the things I do for them. That is, I think one needs to have a good motivation system… motivation for my staff. Yeah, good motivation.
The hotel business environment is harsh after Covid-19. Right now we are grappling with running costs and diesel, how do you cope? If you want to cut costs, other problems could arise that could even millions. So, how are you keeping up?
Christine: (Laughs). Covid-19 was good to us! It was only when they asked us to shut down that we complied. Then the quarantine. We did very well during COVID-19! Now we're having very high operational costs! Even people no longer fly as much as they do before because of the cost of flying! Extremely expensive flights. So you come here and go back and spend about 250,000. Yes. Yes. So it's really been affecting business. I see the drop in the number of customers but I pray that this is not going to continue because you know they say nothing lasts forever, not the good, not the bad… Okay, we are hopeful…
Now this work is stressful! How do you relax and reduce your stress from getting so much into you?
I used to do the long hours and all those things but I've graduated from those! Like I said, I have a partner and I have managers who know what they're supposed to do. Yes, we do stress and I tell you that the stress we go through is mostly financial; that is making sure you pay the vendors. So at night time when I'm in my bed, I can't sleep because I’m calculating: Okay, this month we have to do this. You know, payment of salaries. I never owe salaries. That’s one of our reputations, paying salaries and never skipping and never being late. I still have the record of that, you know. (Laughing). Yeah, I don't play with my staff salary. So, at night, like I said, the stress is mostly making sure that you prioritize what is a priority, so you can sleep.
You know, I relax. Sometimes, I go to Lagos if I want to. You know, just a relaxing weekend, we go to Lagos and we just stay in Lagos. I like Eko Hotel & Suites. When I stay there, no need to go! Lagos traffic! Everything is within the hotel.
In recent years, what are some of the improvements that your hotel has done?
We have made several new upgrades as you can see for yourself! These grasses, we didn't have these before but now we do. Of course, we’ve laid carpets and rugs on all the floors! We changed all the curtains to blinds throughout all the rooms. We’ve done all the renewal of all wallpapers in the public areas, also upstairs and then we did soft furnishing in the rooms. We did a lot of renovations over the past year. We still just want to do our conference hall; that’s the next project we take for next year.
So what do you think is the biggest challenge in the hotel industry in Nigeria and if you have the opportunity to advise, what will you be advising hotel owners and managers of hotels?
Christine: What I would say is that the biggest challenge for Nigerian hospitality is staff challenges! In Port Harcourt here, staff turn go around the hotels! The staff gets fired and they go to another hotel. Then the issue of training. And you see this from hotel to hotel. People are fired in one hotel, and the same people would go to another hotel! They still jump from there. That is the biggest challenge I have with the industry. I will also tell you the solution and the effect.
I'm not going to say good, quality staff because it costs a lot of training to create and build that. You have to train them. You have to motivate them. You spend a lot investing in staff training and we do because we do training and it is something that we have to continue to do, staff training, on a daily basis.
But besides that, and I said it a few years ago that if the government or a private entity, for instance, opens hotel schools based in Port Harcourt, in Abuja or Lagos, for example, because the staff that we have here are staff that went to train at the University for things that are not relevant with hotels, but because they couldn't find a job in that sector, they think the quickest way is to get a job in the hospitality industry because the industry is always in need of employing people as staff. So they come to the hotel working, not because they want to but because they have to! So the attitude and the passion for working here are not there. The consequences are that we have challenges with service because of staff attitude, staff mentality, and other things.
So if we open these hotel schools like we have all over the world, we have them in South Africa, where you go for three years and you study to become a hotel manager in the field. They can start as a Chef in the kitchen; they could start as an F&B Manager, they can start as Front Office Manager... The hotel pays for the training. When they finish, they come and work for us!
The hotel you work in pay for those training. I can say, okay, fine, 5 of my staff are going to the hotel school and we pay. They work here. They still go to school and take breaks to write their exams. They do the training and when they finish with that three years, then they come back and continue to work for the hotel. The whole intention of their being there for that three years is to become a hotel manager. One day they can be managers in the hotel. We train them, pay for the training and when they finish training, they come back and work for us.
Benefits number one, you get loyalty. Number two, you will have passion because that is what they started the training for. And that is the solution that they should bring to the hotel.
You speak of Hotel Training Institutions…
Yes, they should bring up hotel training schools, yea, international hotel schools…
They should open up hotel schools with international standards… Employ people to lecture! I mean, I can go there, I can be a Professor or a lecturer. They have General Managers as lecturers, it will be lecturers so you don't need to have to pay salaries to us. We are already earning a salary... This is the field where I have the expertise! That is a solution. I think if they do that, that would be brilliant. I know a few years ago, the governor of Cross River, in calabash, wanted to do something like that because they even talked to me about it… Yes, I am more than willing to do lectures, you know, on customer service, that kind of thing, how to run a hotel… that stuff…
So, if there’s a hotel school in Port Harcourt now and they need you to run some courses, would you accept?
Yes! I will like to be a facilitator for them! I will give my passion for free. Because I wish I can instill the passion for the hospitality I have into every single person that I meet and work with. Sometimes it's not possible. Sometimes you get frustrated! At a time I left and went back to Cape Town and I was like, I'm done with Nigeria because it's like I was afraid that they were going remove the passion out of me by the frustration that I was going through then. But they did not succeed!
Sorry to hear about that. Alright, is it a pleasure talking with you on this interview. Tell me some special offerings of your hotel...
Yeah, every Friday we have ‘South African Buffett’! Starting from 6.00pm every Friday. And then you have some of our products like barbecue. And every last Friday of the month, we do an ‘African Night! So on that day, every single dish on this buffet is African food. We even have the 'Palm Wine’.
And then we have the ‘Best Barbecue Fish' in town! The best! People come from far to order those barbecue fish. Yes, the best one because it's very portable. Thank you so much.
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