US business science and SA enthusiasm is a potent cocktail for Protea Hotels

By Alec Hogg

In 2014, when $48bn market cap Marriott International paid R2bn for South Africa's Protea Hotels, the US group's global CEO Arne Sorenson visited the country to share his enthusiasm. Suitably impressed after our in-studio interview, I anticipated big changes at the tired local company. Four years later, it's clear those expectations were justified.

During the past week I've overnighted at three different Marriott/Protea hotels and the upgrade from the old Protea is obvious. Staff are friendly and engaged; the rooms, beds and pillows among the best I've experienced anywhere. Where Protea always felt grubby and cheap, under Marriott the energy has moved to the other end of hospitality's spectrum.

Especially at the superb Crystal Towers in Cape Town where I paid a similar price for a far superior experience to Durban's Elangeni. In decades of business travel, this is also the first time an alcohol-free sparkling wine option was offered at check-in followed by a complimentary shirt-pressing service.

Local IS lekker mostly because of skilled, friendly and generally enthusiastic staff. But the Protea experience shows how SA businesses can be elevated through exposure to processes that come standard in world class organisations. And now that SA's economic governance has normalised, expect a lot more where Marriott came from.