Brazil's David Luiz and Thiago Silva.
Seventeen years ago, Kevin Clarence and his father Brian did the unthinkable: they launched a hotel with no experience in the hospitality industry. Kevin had been working for a construction company building major hotels in Sandton, and Brian had a small commercial property investment company, but the ins and outs of running a hotel weren’t their forte. Still, they borrowed R15-million, found a suitable piece of land in Boksburg near the airport, and built the first 153 rooms of what was to become the 665-room Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre.
Kevin says the hotel’s original target market — business travellers — slowly but surely started taking a backseat as the Birchwood became famous as a conference venue. (It now has 60 business conference venues, two restaurants, a grill house, a Mangwanani African Day Spa, and wine, coffee and wine bars, set in 53ha of gardens.)
Slowly but surely, the family bought more land and expanded the capacity of the hotel and its conferencing facilities. The staff complement grew, and Kevin’s days were filled with meeting prospective clients while running a three-star hotel and conference venue, in addition to supervising new developments.
“Our model has always been a no frills, no fuss approach, but with top service levels,” says Kevin.
In 2006, the Birchwood property was sold to a listed property holding company, Hospitality Property Fund. The Clarence Family retained a 25% share in the property, and through a lease-back agreement still managed the hotel and conference venues. With the capital realised in this way, Kevin built the OR Tambo Conference Centre, an additional 120 rooms and the Serengeti lapa, all extensions to the existing conference facilities.
Business boomed, and five years ago, soon after Brian’s passing, Kevin decided to step aside and allow new chief executive Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo to truly take over the reins. “It wouldn’t have been fair to remain on, in day-to-day contact with the staff. They knew me to be the one in charge and Lindiwe would have been second-guessed all the time. By stepping right out of the business, I made space for her to shine, which she has done,” says Kevin. He spent the next five years as director of the Birchwood travelling the world with his girlfriend, and launching a leisure and tourism venue in Fiji with longtime friend and ex-Birchwood manager Maurice Stijp.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup saw 2000 more hotel rooms become available in the area, and slowly but surely, the Birchwood started losing its core clientele. “The reality is that a business traveller is very, very different from a conference-goer. Business travellers want a quiet space, and they need to sleep deep and eat well but within budget, be comfortable but still not overspend on accommodation, and they want the kind of service that is tailored to their individual needs.
“When you have 3 000 people checking in for a conference, the lone business traveller is easily overlooked. She struggles to check in because the queues are too long, the dining area is filled to capacity at breakfast time when she’s in a rush, and the conference-goers might have disrupted her sleep the night before with their rowdy teambuilding.” It simply won’t do to deliver less than the best service, Kevin says, so the Birchwood has launched Silverbirch @ Birchwood.
He has used the same energy he poured into first launching the Birchwood to create this hotel-within-a-hotel, created by refurbishing the original 153 rooms of the Birchwood into a private, boomed-off area set aside for business travellers. Silverbirch also has a separate check-in area and dedicated porters, and golfcarts to transport business guests to the exclusive area.
Rooms are available for a quick shower and refresh (five hours) or overnight, and offer free Wi-Fi (which is surprisingly fast). A separate breakfast area and dining experience are also offered, meaning guests at Silverbirch are not caught up in the hubbub of large conferences. A complimentary shuttle service departs to OR Tambo Airport hourly, and 24-hour room service means that no need is left unmet.
Asked what keeps him coming back, Kevin says: “The challenge. The hospitality industry in this area has been severely diluted, and we now need to build it back up to the levels we had before. This new service will allow us to not only retain our conference business, but also service the business traveller whose needs are more focused. We’re going back to our roots, and I am back to manage this particular aspect of the Birchwood, called Silverbirch.”
Other little extras at Silverbirch include larger desks to accommodate laptops in rooms and an elegant business centre. Fine dining away from the crowds is available at the Grill @ One Twenty, a modern grill house offering a variety of dishes in a quiet and relaxed atmosphere.
Sangweni-Siddo remains on as chief executive, with responsibility for the day-to-day running of the vast property, and says: “Silverbirch affords our discerning guests looking for a more exclusive business stay the best of both worlds – they
are still part of the business centre of Birchwood with all the facilities we provide, but also have the privacy and those little extras that ensure they can relax and do business.”
Kevin says he is “happy to have the new challenge of a business-traveller-only venue to market”. And walking past him as he interacts with guests in the breakfast room the morning after Silverbirch’s official launch, one gets the feeling that longtime customers are happy to see him actively back in the family business.