Resorts, franchise agreements drive Africa’s hotel pipeline – Trevor Ward

Africa’s hospitality and leisure industry is on the rise, with resort developments and franchise agreements driving a dynamic hotel market across the continent.

In Nigeria and beyond, international hotel groups are expanding, while local investors navigate complex development pipelines and operational challenges.

In an exclusive interview with Nairametrics, Trevor Ward, Principal at W Hospitality Group, shared his insights on the 2026 hotel pipeline, highlighting key growth areas, investment patterns, and the increasing role of franchise agreements in shaping the sector’s future.

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In the conversation, he discussed the evolving hospitality landscape across Africa, the challenges and opportunities facing investors and operators, and the trends shaping hotel development and management on the continent today.

Nairametrics: Your organization recently released Africa hotel development pipeline report. What are the trends you have observed?

**Trevor Ward: **One trend that really stands out is the growth in the number of resorts opening across Africa, which accounted for about 50% of new hotel openings continent-wide last year. Even more encouraging is the increase in resorts in the chains’ development pipelines, which have risen from 170 projects last year to over 220 this year.

Another positive trend is the rise in franchise agreements between hotel chains and owners. This year, there are 146 franchise agreements in the development pipeline, a 35% increase from last year, now representing almost 22% of the total pipeline (up from 18.7%).

To clarify, under a management agreement, the hotel chain assumes full responsibility for operating and marketing the hotel, generating profits for the owner. In contrast, under a franchise agreement, the chain provides the brand and supports revenue generation, but day-to-day operations remain the owner’s responsibility. While the franchise model is common in Europe and the USA, it is still less widespread in Africa.

On the other hand, there is a concern that the pipeline includes very few economy and midscale hotels (2- to 3-star). The development focus is heavily skewed toward 5-star and luxury hotels. With domestic and regional travel increasing, there is a clear opportunity for more midscale options, but chains are struggling to find owners willing to develop in this segment.

Much of this space remains occupied by local hotels, which often suffer from design flaws, poor construction, and weak operational standards. While international and regional brands can elevate quality, not every existing property can be saved—raising the question of how long the market will tolerate this gap.

**Nairametrics: From your decades of advising hotel investors across Africa, what do you believe is the most misunderstood aspect of hotel development on the continent – and why does this misunderstanding persist? **

Trevor Ward: This must be the lack of understanding about how very complicated hotel design, funding and construction are, at least that is compared to other building types that the owner might have been involved in.

Compounding that is the attitude that when obstacles are encountered – which they always are – then cutting corners is the “best strategy to adopt”, which can only lead to greater problems down the line.

Hotels are complicated to build, and complicated to operate – despite what many owners and their architects think, they are NOT big houses!  Just because “my architect did a grand job building me my new house in the village” does NOT qualify that architect to design a 250-room luxury hotel in Lagos.

I’m looking at a design currently where the architect has knowledge only of what he has experienced as a guest, that is the public areas and the bedrooms, so the plans have lots of restaurants, and bars, and a night club, and a casino, and so on, with hardly any support areas (we call them back of house, or sometimes heart of house, a phrase which emphasises how important they are) to make them work.

No understanding of how room service works, of how big kitchens need to be, of how the garbage truck reaches the back of the hotel without colliding with guests’ limousines.

I work with one international chain which insists that owners anywhere engage 12 different consultants to get any design to meet their brand standards, and which suggests 14 others which might be required, depending on the specific project.

_“I don’t need all those consultants, I can do it much cheaper without them, I know everything about hotels because I’ve stayed in them all over the world, I will persuade XYZ hotel chain to do it my way”. _

Well, that’s one way of going about hotel development – and then there’s the right way.

**Nairametrics: Many hotel projects in Africa struggle post-opening. In your experience, where do developers most often get it wrong (concept, location, financing structure, or operator selection?) **

Trevor Ward: I don’t really agree with that statement, that many hotel projects in Africa struggle post-opening – I think it’s a small minority, hotels that are in a poor location, with unreasonable expectations of how much people will pay for a room there, with too much debt, and with untrained and inexperienced staff and management – the list is endless.

For many years, the Nigerian market has been quite forgiving of owners who got it wrong, willing to tolerate mediocrity, perhaps having no other choice, but with competition increasing throughout the country, I do see that changing.

Nairametrics: International hotel brands are expanding rapidly across Africa. How well do you think brand standards are aligning with local market realities, and where do you see friction between global brands and African owners?

Trevor Ward: Yes, the international chains are signing increasing numbers of new deals in Africa. Our research revealed that the development pipeline is up 12% on last year (based on data provided by 53 international and regional hotel chains in January 2026).

I see very little mismatch between brand standards and local market realities, in fact my experience is that hotel chains recognise that, for example, there is a greater requirement for staff areas (canteen, changing rooms et al), cold storage and kitchen space (and menus) for different cuisines, and indeed their standards require that such additional spaces are provided, in order for the hotel to operate efficiently.

I’m not saying that brand standards always fit – an insistence on a large-scale spa and wellness centre in a secondary city, just because that’s what the brand manual say, has to be a matter for discussion between the owner and the brand.  Perhaps that brand is not appropriate for that location?

Hotel management agreements are long-term commitments for both parties (often 20 years or more), therefore it’s essential that the owner, who has most often never done this before, must fully understand (and agree to, by signing it) what he or she is getting into, to the tiniest detail specified in the contract.  Often that means engaging an expert advisor who understands better the implications of each clause of the agreement, and can identify better the financial and other implications of engaging an international (or local) operator.

And note that there is nothing peculiar in the relationship between the hotel chains and African hotel owners – the chains use general templates for their management agreements, and enjoy mutually-beneficial relationships with owners in Africa and around the world, as well as experiencing difficulties with owners in Africa and around the world!

People do business with people, and over the duration of a management agreement those people in both parties might well change, resulting in better or worse relationships over time.

**Nairametrics: Do you prefer international hotel chains to dot the African landscape or local/indigenous brands and how sustainable are locally owned hotel brands?  **

Trevor Ward: I have no preference!  It’s horses for courses, each project needs to be looked at on its own merit, taking into account the owner’s wishes, and the benefits that an international or local brand brings.  In some cases, no brand is required.

Essentially, a brand is there to attract business, through name recognition and through its distribution channels (online, social media, loyalty card members and so on), the actual operation of the hotel is done through people on the ground, not by a head office on another continent.

A hotel that is operating in a market with mostly international visitors and with internationally-branded competitors, may well (but not always) benefit from an international brand – but that does not mean that an unbranded hotel cannot succeed in that market.

Look at Lagos, for example, where the two largest hotels, the Eko Hotel and the Lagos Continental, do not have an international brand (both used to, and de-branded), but are very successful, alongside scores of others.  In fact, in Lagos today, there are only 17 hotels (out of possibly several hundred) that have an international or regional (African) brand.

There are only a very few African brands that are active in West Africa.  There are four, being Azalaï, Bon, Mangalis and Onomo.  All are experiencing growth, except for Bon. The others started out as owner-operators, and consequently, their growth was slow; they are now pursuing the asset-light strategy (the owner invests, the hotel chain does not) that is the business model of virtually every other brand.

It’s the owners who prefer to work with international hotel brands. I have tried to introduce others (including those named above), but they don’t resonate as much as the various American and European brands and in terms of international distribution (where that is a requirement), the local brands just can’t compete.  But I will keep trying!

**Nairametrics: If Africa is to move from ‘high potential’ to a consistently profitable hospitality sector, what changes must occur not just in investment structures and policy but in leadership development and workforce professionalism? **

Trevor Ward: There are many, many hotels and resorts in Africa (branded and unbranded) which are best in class, winning global awards for what they offer, and offer consistently and profitably.  We mustn’t paint a picture of under-achievement, because it’s just not true.  Sure, there are problems in some African hotels, but where in the world are there not problems?

I stayed in an internationally-branded 4-star hotel in a major US city, the experience was awful, with almost insolent staff and poor maintenance.  People tell me about the wonderful service standards in Asia, as if everything there is fine and dandy – just go onto TripAdvisor and see the poor reviews of some hotels in Bangkok.

There are issues with leadership and skills training in some countries in Africa – again, where in the world are there not such issues?  My experience of African hotels is that attitudes need to change.  They say that the fish rots from the head – whilst some owners see their staff as a necessary but costly overhead (but at the same time underpaying those that have been hired), and a hindrance to profitability, others understand that staff are the beginning and the end of the hospitality experience, and are key to profitability.

**Nairametrics: Feasibility studies often focus on demand, rates, and returns. In your view, are workforce costs, productivity, and talent availability given enough weight during pre-development decision-making in Africa? **

**Trevor Ward: **Well, it’s certainly a consideration, because to project financial returns, we must also project operational costs, the main ones being energy and payroll.  But when considering the investment returns to an owner of a proposed hotel, payroll costs are only one of the many variables in the analysis we undertake.

In fact, we give more weight to the development cost of a hotel in Nigeria, which is high, higher than many developers appreciate, which goes right back to the beginning of this discussion!

Three restaurants, four swimming pools and a huge spa may be what the owner wants, but does the market want them, will they generate revenue (and cover their operating costs), and how much will they cost to build?  That is all part of the research and analysis which we at W Hospitality Group undertake for our clients.

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