A United Kingdom (UK) based entrepreneur, and Chief Executive Officer of Supreme Apartments in Ibadan, Adebayo Akintunde Oshuntoki has described Supreme Apartments as a new innovation that will further promote hospitality business in Ibadan.
In an exclusive interview with Journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State Capital, Oshuntoki said the new establishment, Supreme Apartments located at Joyce B area in the city of Ibadan is distinct and unique in the hospitality industry, adding that it is aimed to bring a new lease of taste and comfort in the hospitality industry to people of the state.
Excerpts:
What informed the idea of Supreme Apartments in Ibadan?
Thank you. As an entrepreneur based in United Kingdom, I love traveling and I have seen beautiful hotels around the world. The idea came up that I should do something like the hotels I have seen. I remember traveling to United Arab Emirates (Dubai) where I stayed in different beautiful hotels, that really inspired me. Sometimes, a female Pastor of a Church, though now late, once told me that I should not go into hotels but Apartments. She said Apartments are in vogue this time around. And as a matter of fact, I have stayed in a couple of Apartments in Lagos. From there I engaged the service of an Architect to actualize Supreme Apartments here in Joyce B’ area near Kankanfo Inn, in Ibadan.
We are actually planning to get another piece of land to put up another Apartment here in Ibadan. Apartment is not hotel but they provide same services of accommodation to customers.
Who are your target customers?
When it comes to services like this you do not have particular target customers, but any customer who can afford the accomodation. Our Apartments are affordable and of high and quality standard, because we made it of International standard.
Everything, including switches and sockets, fittings generally are imported and of the highest quality you can find anywhere in the world, the gym and every other facilities are of international standard. Only the furniture, some of them are made in Nigeria, and they are beautiful and of international standards. Anyone can afford our Apartment because it is of quality standard.
Considering the average level economy and local nature of Ibadan and the state, how do you intend to promote and sustain Supreme Apartments?
Ibadan is not local in nature, it is a state capital with good economic activities, I can tell you that there is money in Ibadan. Ibadan has very rich and highly social people, some residents live abroad and in Lagos, they still come back home for business, social activities and even to spend weekends. We intend to do a lot of advertisment on Radio, online, Television and in many other media.
The reason we haven’t gone too far in terms of publicity is because there is construction work still going on in the Apartment structure. We have commissioned the gym and restaurant and we are about to open the kitchen. We are engaging professional chefs , and not ordinary Cooks because most times we can have foreigners in the Apartment so we can meet up with their demands food wise.
Hospitality business in Nigeria is highly competitive, how do you intend to make a difference and stand out in the industry?
There is no business that doesn’t have competition in any part of the world, but the quality you put into the services you provide matters. We want to be different in every sense of service we provide to our customers. We also want to be different in the kind of staff we have too, our staff will be highly trained to meet up with the kind of quality service we provide.
Our security will be top notch as well, we are conscious of effective security for the Apartment because the safety of our customers matter to us. We have three security guards for the night and two for the day. And when we start fully, we are going to have an excellent security network.
We are going to train our staff to e have good customer relations such that will make our services unique and stand out because we want our customers to have the feeling of home away from home.
The issue of security in the country calls for concern, how would you encourage government at all levels to put in place good security architecture for the country and states in particular?
The issue of security is a collective effort, that is why we have put in place good security measures for Supreme Apartments. The Apartment is open to receive business people, politicians, government representatives and people who can afford it. The Apartment is not going to accommodate political rally or programmes, it is strictly going to be Apartments for accommodation and our business is to provide quality service.
The idea of Apartment seems new in Ibadan and the state, how do you intend to make it acceptable to intending customers and also sustain it?
Like I said, we are going to achieve that by embarking on massive advertisment and media promotion. We will make ourselves known by approaching the media both in Ibadan and Lagos. We will use every means of advertisment like posters, handbills, online, newspapers, Radio and Television. It is only going to be a matter of time, we will surely achieve our goals and objectives.
We are going to adhere to maintenance culture of high standard in Supreme Apartments. We have fire extinguishers in all the kitchen. We also have other facilities that make us look unique and different in the hospitality business. Our priority is safety for our esteemed customers, our gym and equipment are of international standard. We have 24/7 internet facilities and we also have a kitchen of international standard. The Apartments have a kitchen and sitting rooms of high quality standard which hotels don’t have, so we make our services as extremely comfortable for tv our customers.
