The Laico brand is a big name in Africa. With an extensive portfolio throughout the continent, it offers more than 3,000 rooms in 14 hotels, providing consistently high levels of service in key destinations.
The group has been slowly and steadily expanding over the last few years, even through the global credit crisis. However, while other chain expansions can represent unique venues being swallowed into a homogenous mass, Laico are keen for their hotels to be distinct from each other, retaining a large part of their local traditions. “Business travellers will come to a Laico hotel and recognise the brand, the uniform, the stationery,” says marketing manager Renaud Bachoffner, “but each hotel still retains its own personality.”
So their Lake Victoria Hotel in Entebbe is a British colonial style destination, while the Djerba Hotel in Tunisia reproduces all the charm local Mediterranean architecture, and the Laico Bahari Beach in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania, the brand’s latest opening, offers luxuriously furbished rooms in traditional thatched beach houses, mere seconds from the Indian Ocean.
“Imagine a hard day working in the hot city centre,” says Mr Bachoffner. “After a short drive, you enter your cottage, take your suit off, and only steps away from your room, dive into the ocean.”
“It’s a unique feeling,” he says: “you’ve just washed your busy day stress away.”
Away from the hustle and bustle of the city, surrounded by beautiful lush gardens featuring indigenous palms, tropical flowering shrubs and bright bougainvillea, the hotel offers 92 bedrooms, four suites and an ultra-modern conference centre – the best of its kind in Dar-es-salaam.
Meeting in paradise
The Bahari Conference Centre features three meeting rooms and a multi-purpose ballroom; all the venues are fully equipped with LCD projectors, screens, a translation room and modern furnishings providing delegates with all-in-one conference solutions.
Tembo, the multi-purpose ballroom, can host up to 600 people for a reception or 260 people in a classroom style. The three fully equipped meeting rooms on the first floor offer a spectacular atmosphere for board meetings and smaller events. Simba can host up to 70 people in reception style and 45 classroom; Chui holds 60 reception and 42 classroom, and Twiga fits 50 people reception and 35 classroom.
The conference centre is completed with three well furnished lounges where delegates can relax during their breaks, a VIP lounge for prestigious delegates, and ample secure parking around the facility to guarantee peace of mind. And with just a two minute walk to the beautiful Bahari Beach, it is the perfect venue to indulge in some wide-open, blue-sky thinking.
The country’s unique landscape and the hotel’s individual design makes it a fantastic destination for MICE visits, whether visitors wish to take advantage of the nearby national parks offering excellent safari opportunities, or simply enjoy the professional facilities of the hotel with a well deserved cocktail and delicious dinner under the tropical stars.
The design of the Laico Bahari Beach’s guestrooms and suites is influenced by old Swahili architecture, built in traditional style from coral blocks and palm frond thatched roofs. Every single room faces the ocean, offering spectacular views of the sun rising over the sparkling sea, and has its own spacious terrace or balcony accessed through wide glass doors. They are individually air conditioned, and elegantly styled and furnished with local fabrics in traditional colours.
