City Lodge Hotels will on Wednesday open its 51st hotel, the 184-room City Lodge Hatfield in Pretoria.

This is the group's fifth hotel in the Pretoria/Tshwane area, following hard on the heels of the 203-room City Lodge Lynnwood, which opened in June.

Located within easy access of the Gautrain's Hatfield station, which will be opened in 2011, the hotel was developed at a total cost of around R140 million and employs 60 staff members. It will initially be opening 76 of its rooms and will be fully operational by mid November.

The group's other Pretoria hotels include Courtyard Arcadia, Town Lodge Menlo and Road Lodge Centurion.

City Lodge Hatfield is aimed at meeting the accommodation needs of business and leisure travelers. Its facilities include wireless internet throughout the hotel, a coffee shop, a mini gym and 10-seater and 12-seater meeting rooms.

"For many years, we struggled to gain traction in Pretoria, so it is very pleasing for us to open two hotels in Pretoria in the same year," said City Lodge Hotels' chief executive, Clifford Ross.

"We are excited about the potential of both City Lodge Hatfield and City Lodge Lynnwood which have brought much-needed quality accommodation to two important parts of our capital city.

Next month, the group will open its 52nd hotel, the 203-room Town Lodge Port Elizabeth, completing its biggest ever expansion phase involving the opening of nine new hotels since the middle of 2009, taking total rooms numbers to 6,440 across South Africa.

Source: I-Net Bridge