Hospitality and the hotel business is a particularly hard line of business; and one would expect it to be particularly hard when it is being run by a woman. When it is run by a woman under 40, it is almost unthinkable.

Temitope Falila Sanusi, a graduate of sociology, Lagos State University started her career as a customer service attendant in the banking industry until she yielded to her passion for the hospitality business. As the CEO of Trendy inn in Lagos, she sees her business as small but mighty. In this interview with Woman’s Own, she shares more…

By Anino Aganbi

How did you get into hospitality?

A lot of people try to figure out the link between banking and the hotel business but one thing led to the other. I worked in the banking sector straight out of the University and then encouragement from my family and people around me helped me find my way into the hospitality world. It has been challenging. Being a mother was one of the things that made it really tough.

Temitope Falila Sanusi

It is something I have passion about. When it comes to the issue of neatness, I am a very finicky person who takes a lot of things into cognisance especially when it comes to health and presentation of the environment and people in general. I started running the hotel business from Minna. Hotel business was a bit different in the North as compared to Lagos.

In the North, I saw that I wasn’t challenged. Things were going too slow and I liked being in a place where you have competition to bring out the best in you and enable you go further. That was what brought me to Lagos. Coming to Lagos has been tough but I am happy I did. So far, we are over six years. I did two years in the North and six years here.

It has not been without its own challenges. You have the staff and the customers too at times but giving your customers the best of service is key.  I try as much as possible to improve myself by doing researches online, having outings with friends who are also in the hotel business. We rub minds on what we face in the industry. We are making headway. I normally tell my staff that we can be small but mighty. We do not have to be a Sheraton or Protea to bring out the best of service.

But a lot of people do not understand the culture of hospitality and tourism in Nigeria…

Tourism and hospitality are two different things but there is a link. I would like to start with the hotel business which is the hospitality aspect itself. A lot of hotels lack continuity in maintenance. This is one thing I have noticed kills hotels. I never give kudos to those who have not spent like 3-4 years in the hotel business because that is only when you can say they have succeeded. A new hotel which has just spent 1-2 years has not really gone through the rigor.

There are the issues of electricity, money, staff and because of the way things in the country, you tend not to have too good staff. You have to be able to beat these challenges to like 80 per cent to be able to get success in the hospitality industry. Linking it into the tourism, foreigners come in to see what we do. If we are not able to put in our best then it affects tourism. By the time these tourists go back, what they have seen goes a long way in their perception of how Nigerians are or how the country is.

How have you been able to maintain your standard?

To be honest, it has been tough. There is one thing we do not compromise since we started; which is our usage of white bed sheets. A lot of customers come in saying this is a budget hotel, how do you manage with white bed sheets? We change our beddings on a daily basis and do not use coloured beddings. It is expensive. The only way you can try to save cost is if you have a very good management and you have to be on your toes. A lot of people tend to ask why I don’t do more with my hotel and I tell them this on its own is a whole load of trouble. You need to have passion for what you do.

How do you make a difference knowing there are competitors out there?

We do random checks to have an idea of what the guests like. We might not be able to go out to other hotels to see what they do but there are times customers make their views known to say maybe we are a bit overpriced and we tell them we are giving them the best price.

We are so confident to tell them they could go elsewhere but we assure them that they will definitely come back and it has happened severally. Some customers come in complaining about small hotels like ours there were issues of mosquitoes, rodents; some even complained that they did not use white bed sheets like we do. We also never compromise on the issue of light, we have to run the light 24hrs irrespective of the challenges we are having.

To be able to get that value to give to them, we just try to make sure that we balance our expenses and make sure our expense does not override the income we are getting. If we do that at the long run, the standard of the hotel will drop drastically. Most times you will see guests going to hotels and after like six months they will tell you sorry we cannot stay here anymore, this is not the way the hotel used to be.

Once you have issues like that, most likely the management has been changed. If you have a poor management, definitely things will go wrong. Staffs will be complaining. Basically, these are internal issues that have to be faced properly. If they are not faced and are visible to customers, then you lose out. Being able to manage your internal problems and getting solutions to them reasonably is when you can keep your head above the others. Everyone is challenged, but with God we will keep making it.

Like all businesses which have ups and downs, how have you been able to find a middle ground?

Well, it has been tough being a woman. Most times my managers have been male, I have never taken a female manager. I have noticed that we like to stress on women, it is not all women that go the extra mile to want to achieve but those who do that easily will be easily noticed. There are times you go to places and once they see that it is a woman that is running the business, you will be harassed. Sometimes it happens.

There are just few challenges that you can always know how to find your way if you know what you are doing. If you know the nitty-gritty about the job then you will succeed. But there is no job without its challenges. We thank God we are doing okay.

If there was a body for hoteliers and you happened to be on that board, what changes will you make in the Nigerian hotel system?

The number one change I would make is the maintenance level which has to be improved upon. There was a day I went to a 5 star hotel, I went to their guest room and was able to find out that things were rightly done. But on getting to their convenience, I noticed it was messy. So probably, they had a supervisor or one or two people who did not take note of that. I think it is a general thing.

Nigerians should not have this mentality that it is not our business so you can just do the way you like. Which would affect us when foreigners come and see we really do not have the passion for whatever we do.

Whether you are a boss, a manager or a junior staff, you should be able to have passion for whatever you do. Once you do that, our orientation generally will change. I am not talking of hospitality alone but am referring to other fields of profession as well. Whatever you do, put in your best. If we can do this, Nigeria will be a great nation and it will be best for all of us.

Advice to women …

Whatever you love doing, continue to do it. If we all put in our best in whatever we do, we will have a lot of success. There are few people who want to stay, because now everybody wants to run to other countries. If we can put in our best and not try to stampede on other peoples toes by not allowing them to move forward, we will be better.