Hotel Verde has launched a hotel management group, with a view to taking the green concept of its Cape Town hotel on to the continent.

Touted as Africa's first sustainable hotel management group, Verde Hotels will focus on the development and management of sustainable hotels and also offer consulting on sustainable hotel practices, environmental impact assessments and assistance with retro fitting.

Speaking at the launch of Verde Hotels at WTM Africa this week, Samantha Annandale, General Manager of Hotel Verde, said: “We built Africa’s greenest hotel. We’ve accomplished that. What now? What next?”

“We realised that if you are going to build a hotel as a hotel chain you should only be building green hotels. That’s the future,” said Annandale, adding that hotel operators that continue to build hotels the way they have in the past will be left behind. “We are proposing that we will be the first truly green sustainable hotel management company within South Africa and Africa.”

Annandale argued that the time had come for a management company to rethink the hospitality. “We’ve got the model. We know it works,” she said. According to her, Hotel Verde has managed to achieve savings and lower operating costs because the hotel is built and run in a sustainable way. She argued that, while building a sustainable property is more expensive, the cost savings make this back, and more.

For example, Annandale said Hotel Verde had spent an additional R20.2 million, or 10%, of its overall investment of R187 million to ensure the hotel was built sustainably. She said the utility costs per room night of a conventional hotel were roughly R97.28, compared with Hotel Verde’s R29.52. “Work that out over 365 days a year over 10 years.”

According to Annandale, Verde Hotels is looking for opportunities in Africa. “Our aim is to build every country’s greenest hotel,” she said, adding that, given the continent’s energy challenges, there was a critical need for sustainable hotels.