The iconic Fairmount Mount Kenya Safari Club hotel in Nyeri has reopened its doors after closing for two years due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to its General Manager Mehdi Morad, the hotel is now fully operational with over 100 workers, most of whom were laid off during the pandemic.
"We closed the doors in April 2020 and we maintained all our employees until October and then that's when we were forced to do a redundancy because we did not know yet when we would reopen it," Mehdi said.
He said they are looking forward to recovering from the huge losses they incurred during the pandemic as well as reviving the business.
"We are prepared to start all over again and we are looking forward to making business better than before," he added.
Fairmount Safari Club revamped
During the period, the management took advantage of the closure to revamp the hotel that hosts 66 of the critically endangered species of Mountain Bongo in their conservancy.
"As you walk around, you will see little nods to the past, a little fabric here and there. There is more contemporary art, more contemporary fabrics and extras," Tania Combos, who is the designer of the hotel, said.
With the Safari Club's opening, the management now hopes to source 75 percent of its market locally and 25 percent from the foreign market.
"The type of guests we are having have had massive savings during the Covid period. All our international guests and the resident guests were so much looking forward to the reopening," Mehdi added.
