AVERAGE hotel occupancy at Pote Hotel in Zvishavane has been hovering arouand 70% since the beginning of the year attributed to sporting and other leisure activities taking place in the small but vibrant mining town, an official has said.
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The hotel was established in 2012 initially as a lodge before being upgraded to one-star hotel status in September 2013.
In an interview with Southern Eye Business yesterday, Pote Hotel manager Victor Mavingire said business was brisk during the first half of the year despite economic challenges besetting the country.
“The first half was good for us in terms of business as witnessed by our occupancy which was ranging between 70% and 75%.
Yes, there are issues of liquidity crunch and people not having disposable income, but we managed to pull through and this is giving us courage,” Mavingire said.
“This was largely due to sports activities taking place in the town and other activities and we are expecting the trend to continue.”
He said they had completed building 12 more rooms.
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The owners want to build at least 100 more rooms to meet demand.
He said a massive expansion project started in June this year and they had built a bigger restaurant, bar and a casino facility.
The hotel is located less than a kilometre from the Zvishavane central business district, a mining hub within the Midlands province famed for its platinum, gold, chrome and diamond deposits.
The hotel has a 300-seater conference room and an upmarket restaurant.
Mavingire said they were facing challenges from a new breed of players that had penetrated the industry, whose aim was just to make “quick bucks”.
He said the new entrants in the industry were charging ridiculously low prices for products Mavingire said were far below the set standards.
