Guiding Hospitality. Transforming Destinations.
What We Do
Five service lines covering the life of a hospitality business, from the first drawings to the year-five accounts.
01
Hospitality Development Advisory
For investors and developers, before and during construction.
A hotel that is beautiful and operationally wrong is expensive for its whole life. A kitchen too small for the covers it must serve, a back of house with no route to the rooms, a spa where nobody walks past it — these are decided on paper and paid for every year afterwards.
We work with investors, architects, engineers and quantity surveyors while the building is still a drawing.
- Project concept development and market positioning
- Feasibility, investment appraisal and revenue projections
- Room mix, space planning and guest flow
- Back-of-house planning and operational layout review
- Construction guidance against East African Community hotel classification standards, at three, four or five star
- Accessibility compliance
We do not replace your architect. We make sure what they draw can be run.
02
Operations Management
For properties that are open, and not running the way they should.
Most operational problems are not mysteries. They are the predictable result of no written procedure, an organisational chart that grew rather than was designed, or a standard that nobody checks.
- Operational assessment of the property as it runs today
- Organisational structure and departmental design
- Standard operating procedures and departmental manuals
- Quality management and inspection systems
- Pre-opening readiness and trial operations
- Hotel classification preparation
- Operational turnaround where performance has slipped
We implement alongside your managers rather than handing over a document. A procedure nobody was trained on is not a procedure.
03
Hospitality Recruitment
Through REI Hospitality Careers, our recruitment division.
We take the brief, source from our own network and through advertising, interview every candidate ourselves, check references with previous employers and verify certificates. You receive a shortlist with our notes, and you make the hiring decision.
You keep the employment contract, payroll and day-to-day management. We take the sourcing, sifting, first-round interviewing, reference checking and scheduling.
- Executive search — general managers, executive chefs, senior leadership, confidentially where needed
- Management and departmental head recruitment
- Supervisors and operational staff
- Seasonal and volume recruitment for peak periods
- Graduate trainees and internship placement
- Pre-opening team recruitment, department by department
Candidates are never charged. Employers pay our fee. Applying, registering and being placed are free at every stage.
04
Hospitality Training
On site or online, built around your property's standards.
Training that works is specific. A course on guest service delivered against your own procedures, in your own rooms, changes behaviour. A generic customer service seminar does not.
- Customer service and guest experience
- Supervisory and leadership development
- Departmental skills — front office, housekeeping, food and beverage service, kitchen
- Operational efficiency and standards compliance
- Training for a newly recruited pre-opening team
05
Costing and Pricing
Where profitability is usually won or lost.
Plenty of busy restaurants lose money. Occupancy figures that look healthy can sit on rates that never covered the cost of the room. Both are arithmetic problems before they are anything else.
- Recipe costing and menu engineering
- Food and beverage cost control systems
- Room pricing and rate strategy
- Revenue optimisation
- Budget planning and break-even analysis
- Profitability modelling and return on investment
Pre-Opening Support
Opening a hotel is not the end of construction. It is the start of a business, and the weeks before the first guest arrives decide how the first year goes.
Pre-opening draws on all five service lines at once, which is why we treat it as a single engagement rather than five bookings.
- Recruitment of the management team and departmental staffing
- Standard operating procedures written before anyone starts
- Procurement guidance
- Staff training and trial operations
- Guest experience testing before you sell a room
- Hotel classification preparation
- Opening strategy and launch support
Common Questions
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Do you only work in Kenya?
No. REI Hospitality Kenya is based in Malindi and works throughout Kenya, and we take consultancy assignments elsewhere in Africa.
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Do you work on hotels that have not been built yet?
Yes, and that is where we are most useful. We support investors from concept and feasibility through construction planning, operational layout, recruitment and opening. An operator's eye on the drawings costs far less than rebuilding a kitchen that does not work.
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Can you write our standard operating procedures?
Yes. We prepare customised standard operating procedures and departmental manuals for every hospitality department, and we train the team on them. A procedure nobody was trained on is not a procedure.
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Do you work with restaurants as well as hotels?
Yes. Our consultancy covers restaurants, cafes, resorts, lodges, serviced apartments, conference centres and other hospitality establishments, not only hotels.
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What does it cost an employer to recruit through you?
REI Hospitality charges the employer a placement fee, agreed before we begin. Candidates are never charged anything at any stage.
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What does pre-opening support cover?
Recruitment of the management team and departmental staffing, standard operating procedures written before anyone starts, procurement guidance, staff training and trial operations, guest experience testing before you sell a room, hotel classification preparation, and opening strategy. It draws on all five of our service lines at once, which is why we treat it as a single engagement rather than five bookings.
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Can you prepare a property for hotel classification?
Yes. We prepare properties against the East African Community hotel classification standards, at three, four or five star, and we build to those standards from the drawings where a property is still being designed rather than retrofitting to them after it opens.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Most clients arrive with a symptom rather than a diagnosis. Describe what is happening and we will tell you what we think it is.
Book a consultation