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Keeping you informed on all our GOOD news.

Stay up to date with all our GOOD news and what Guy Stehlik says in his blog. You’ll find all our press releases, articles and blog posts below.

Booking Tips for Festive Season Holidays from the BON Experts

December – that blissful time of the year when the biggest predicament many of us face is not whether to have another mince pie but rather when exactly to nail down those festive holiday bookings.

November 20, 2023

Thought leadership.

The great “aparthotel” deception. Why it matters and what you need to know. First appeared on BizCommunity

November 8, 2023

In her own words.

When it comes to a career in hospitality as a calling, Jadine is an expert. She’s dedicated to providing only the best in service, illustrating the fulfilment that comes with achieving exceptional guest experiences. She shares her ideas on inspiring young people to pursue hospitality careers and her aspirations for BON Hotels below.

November 8, 2023

Thought leadership.

First appeared on BizCommunity South African travellers are becoming increasing diverse, with a rise in black luxury travellers. However, the question arises: do these travellers see an industry that mirrors their aspirations, dreams, and identity?

October 19, 2023

BON Multi- Generational Blogpost

Picture this: grandparents, parents, grandkids, aunties, cousins, and more, all under one roof, sharing stories, laughter, and memories. That's the essence of a multigenerational holiday – a beautiful chaos of generations coming together.

September 18, 2023

BON People

Greg Sparke lights up when he speaks about the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry. Starting as a bartender in the 90s, Greg hiked up the hospitality ladder and is now the Group Operations Director at BON Hotels.

August 28, 2023

Thought leadership.

First appeared on BizCommunity The skills shortage in the global hospitality industry has been widely publicised during the past two years as the world – and the hospitality industry in particular - is getting ‘back to normal’.

August 17, 2023

BON People

With over 25 years in tourism, leisure and hospitality, BON’s Group Sales Director, Gareth Venner, has plenty of experience when it comes to the ups and downs, ins and outs, and fun and games of the industry, including serving 180 wedding guests ice cream and hot chocolate sauce after an infamous malva pudding incident.

August 4, 2023

The Bucket-List Big Five.

Read on for our five iconic bucket-list family adventures you won’t want to miss (and stay tuned for the secret adventure at the end!)

July 27, 2023

Seven travel experiences.

South Africa woke up with a smug smile on her face last week after The Telegraph and 27 000 of its readers voted her the best country in the world and Cape Town the best city to visit. This placed the Mother City and her homeland in top places in the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards.

July 27, 2023

Thought leadership.

Hotel owners in Sub-saharan and South Africa are facing tough challenges in the current economic climate. Inflation, loadshedding, and ever-increasing interest rates (and their significant impact on investment appeal) are just a few. Could hotel lease agreements be the way forward?

June 2, 2023

BON People

“Fancy-schmancy” is not Pieter van Eck’s style. Instead, he is all about positively impacting people’s lives, treasuring connections, and forging new ones. Read about how Pieter, Development Director at BON Hotels, has dedicated over 20 years to the hospitality industry.

May 9, 2023

BON People

BON Hotels’ Group Marketing Services Manager, Lexy Ramoroka, has a career peppered with interesting stories and impressive achievements. Read all about her passion for hospitality, marketing, and making people feel at home.

May 9, 2023

Thought leadership.

Never one to shy away from controversial issues and well-known for her fighting spirit, could recently appointed Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille get the industry back on track? More importantly, with elections looming, can she do it in time?

April 5, 2023

Everything you need to know about road trippin’ to Oudtshoorn

Get road trippin’ to Oudtshoorn for a stay at Queen’s Hotel by BON Hotels! Take a look at our guide, highlighting the best stops along the way and a few family-friendly activities to add to your itinerary once you get there.

March 30, 2023

Extend those long weekends to stay and play for longer

When last did you take a “playcation”? A holiday that was all play and quality family time? Long weekends offer the perfect opportunity! A “playcation” is all about enjoying activities that keep the whole family engaged and entertained.

February 23, 2023

Couples who play together, stay together.

Do you remember when Valentine’s Day used to be fun? With plenty of light-hearted shenanigans to make you smile, like roses exchanged at school (red for love, yellow or white for friendship), handwritten cards popped into post boxes, unexpected bouquets, picnics, sundowners, and more chocolate than you could shake a stick at.

February 13, 2023

Teambuilding is Fun and Face-to-Face in 2023

Let’s face it — networking and relationship-building are best done in person. There is no substitute for the organic magic that happens when you get together with people in real life, but it has almost become a long-lost art

February 6, 2023

Do you speak “millennial’?

The tech revolution sweeping through the global hotel industry seems fuelled by the post-pandemic zeitgeist of ‘life’s too short’.

September 12, 2022

The way to success for your hotel? Own the relationship with your client

Throughout my career and particularly through the legendary Arthur Gillis of Protea Hotels, I learned the concept of the "Lifetime Value of Returning Guests".

August 23, 2022

Four easy ways to make the most of your loyalty programme

If possible, loyalty programmes today are more important than ever before as the hospitality industry is trying to recuperate the losses incurred over the past two years as a result of COVID-19.

July 8, 2022

It’s good to be back! Musings from this week’s Meetings Africa and beyond

t’s good to be back. That was my overarching thought during this past week’s Meetings Africa – the first time in a long time we were able to interact face-to-face as an industry and the start of the trade show season.

March 7, 2022

BON gets vaxxed

“There is light at the end of the tunnel.” A reiterated message I’ve been sharing with our team and stakeholders as our organisation forges ahead facing what appears to be a never-ending barrage of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

August 29, 2021

The digital face of a hotel guest experience

Now more than ever before hotel guests find themselves with even more need of human connection and interaction than ever before.

July 5, 2021

Lastminute.com at a SPRINT

Picture this – you head out for a spontaneous road trip along the Garden route, decide during your drive to spend the night or turn your planned three day trip into four days, what do you do?

May 17, 2021

Break away and travel solo

In the world according to ME, Earth can be carved up into two categories of travellers: 1) Someone [like me] who thrives on travelling solo as it provides more freedom to pick up-and-go at any given moment and 2) People who just cannot bear the prospect of travelling alone;

April 13, 2021

Why you want value for money

From the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, good value (for money) is described as “something that is good value, is not expensive, or is worth what you pay for it”.

March 17, 2021

How hotel management companies should prepare hotel owners for crises

The hospitality industry is no stranger to hardships. We are often first to feel the impact of any global or local crisis. When a situation impacts the lives of the consumers we deal with daily, we are directly affected.

June 23, 2020

Intra-Africa Travel

As the CEO of an African hospitality group, I spend a fairly big chunk of my time travelling across the continent.

February 16, 2020

It’s all in the numbers…or is it?

Every year, at about this time, the hospitality industry goes into a flurry of activity getting together reports about the industry’s performance during the busy end-of-year season.

January 30, 2020

SA’s tourism industry is cruising

I read with great interest this month that ground was broken on the construction of a new cruise liner passenger terminal in Durban.

November 29, 2019

Are relaxed visa regulations enough to turn the tourism industry around?

It’s no secret that in light of the current South African climate in general, there are serious commitments needed from our government to turn around not only the nation’s perception of South Africa, but the world’s.

November 2, 2019

African should support, not fight, Africa in propelling the continent forward

Not too long ago, the outside world referred to Africa as ‘the dark continent’, a region plagued by conflict, famine, dictatorships, corruption, failing economies, and a massive infrastructure gap - to name but a few challenges

October 1, 2019

Living with High Hopes

In the years preceding the resignation of Jacob Zuma, we were experiencing a living nightmare. As I think back on the mayhem that surrounded us each and every day, I wonder how we survived

March 19, 2019

Stay in your lane

2018 brought plenty of hours of spring cleaning at BON Hotels: we cleared out the cobwebs and passed on projects, properties and relationships that, like outdated clothing, no longer fit us nicely.

March 2, 2019

Break the shackles

In the start-up stages of BON Hotels, very eager (as are most hotel management companies) to get our portfolio numbers up, we were sucked into the proverbial question of ‘how many hotels have you got in your group?'

September 2, 2018

Please Mr Hotel Developer

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks, doing deals, learning about and discovering more of Africa. My recent expeditions have taken me to Namibia, Angola, Nigeria, Zambia, Mozambique and Nairobi.

May 22, 2018

Not on my watch

I’m deeply disappointed by an awful incident at one of our hotels last week.

May 7, 2018

Ten take-aways from an (almost) grizzled hotelier

Maturity brings acceptance of one’s flaws. Although this flaw is something I am not proud of, it is something I must constantly work on: my (sometimes) arrogant approach to authority.

March 21, 2018

The Art of War: Part 2

Some time ago, I was directed by a business coach to the collection of Sun Tzu’s strategic advice - The Art of War.

February 28, 2018

Size Matters

It’s a fact that we are living in what I call the ‘Age of Consolidation’, the ‘sharing economy’ as it’s coined by others.

September 11, 2017

Horses for Courses

As much as people do business with like-minded people, businesses do business with like-minded businesses. There certainly needs to be some sort of a match.

August 22, 2017

Ahhh, the luxury…

I remember the days when we hoteliers had the luxury of daydreaming of ways to delight our guests, conjuring up new ideas, even improving things that seemed to be working.

June 21, 2017

The perfect match

As much as people ‘do business’ with like-minded people, businesses ‘do business’ with like-minded businesses. There certainly needs to be some sort of a match.

April 18, 2017

Comfy in the middle

While this might sound fallacious, it is actually founded in truth. Travelling abroad will make any South African hotel guest realise that our ‘3-star’ market boxes way above its weight.

March 16, 2017

The worst hotel in the world

My recent blog on the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at got me thinking of the contrary. What is the WORST hotel I have ever stayed at?

February 22, 2017

The way you make me feel

At a recent hotel industry function, I was asked which was THE best hotel I have ever stayed at. This has been a common question over the years and one that has an easy answer.

January 30, 2017

The Rise of the Old School General Manager

There’s been something fundamental missing in this last decade of hotel management: the unflashy, workaholic general managers, those who started their careers waiting tables, scrubbing kitchen counters and floors, climbing the ladder, slowly learning ALL of the necessary skills to eventually become THE General Manager.

January 2, 2017

Hats

There’s a terrible misconception by hotel management companies that hotel owners are interfering, ill-informed nuisances who should leave hotel management companies to do what they do

November 9, 2016

Disserving the service industry

As the large hotel groups also focussed on training industry ‘wannabees’, I would estimate that collectively our industry trained and placed 180 hotel school graduates annually.

August 31, 2016

Third party politics – owning the client

I often come across hotel owners who insist that their hotel is performing well and as such, they see no need for a marketing strategy or a dedicated sales effort.

July 25, 2016

Let the son shine

We occasionally need a life-changing event to remind us to be grateful. In tough circumstances, we so easily get caught up in the darkness that we cannot see the wood for the trees.

July 7, 2016

Leading horses to water

Start-up. Sounds like an exciting journey, doesn’t it? I have to say, exciting is true in every way, but the realities of a start-up can be challenging in many regards as well, not the least of which is staff turnover.

June 13, 2016

The value of trade shows

We’ve just seen the back-end of the trade show season in the hospitality industry. Current conversation concerns the present value of participating in industry trade shows

May 26, 2016

How many people does it take to change a light bulb?

Case in point: I was hosted at a four-star luxury 80 room, full-service hotel in Paris. The hotel had only nine permanent staff. I kid you not!

April 4, 2016

Keep your foot in the door

Most of us have worked in a sales department at some point in our career. I certainly have. In fact, a substantial part of my role at BON Hotels requires sales skills.

March 9, 2016

Colouring in between the lines

My jaw dropped when I recently heard that the Department of Home Affairs announced quite audaciously that inbound tourism numbers climbed between 4 and 7% during the last quarter of 2015.

February 24, 2016

Seeing STARS

I am learning that to successfully build any business, it is best to nurture your own people, instil your own systems and develop your own culture.

February 2, 2016

Started from the bottom, no we are here: Lessons from 2015

Naturally, this time of the year forces one to reflect on the past twelve months. In doing so, I cannot remember ever having a tougher year than this one.

January 7, 2016

Long distance relationships

ternational hotel management companies have had their fair share of the South African hotel management contract pie for more than a decade.

November 30, 2015

Africa – the land of opportunity

My recent travels to Zambia and Namibia have confirmed; our long-term strategic plan of focusing on the larger Africa is a good one.

October 28, 2015

Do they know something we don’t?

We are all well aware of the adverse effect on the inbound tourism industry due to new Home Affairs legislation. Fortunately (in a twisted way) the rand is coming to our rescue, its poor performance making South Africa an enticing destination of choice for international holiday

September 8, 2015

Ringing the bell

We’ve put a bell in our office. Slap bang in the middle of everything and everyone. For the sole purpose of celebrating achievements.

August 26, 2015

Budgets – who’s driving the bus

I’ve learned that financial statements tell a story, a movie recapping all that has happened in terms of trading over a period of time.

August 5, 2015

Hello Africa, tell me how you are doing

I was scrolling through my recent blog posts musing that there has certainly been a lot to complain about lately!

July 20, 2015

Get the balance right

Don't turn this way Don't turn that way Straight down the middle until next Thursday

June 23, 2015

Thee Wise Men: watch and learn

Wow! We have received such a hearty and warm response from media and industry personnel with regard to my father, Otto Stehlik, joining us at BON Hotels.

June 9, 2015

Rock Bottom

I simply cannot avoid a topic that’s been weighing heavily on all of us these past few weeks. I’ve noticed a profound change in our demeanor: we as a nation are down, depressed, and dragging our heels and our hearts through this very tough time.

May 12, 2015

Game Changer

A major challenge has been keeping me awake at night, one that I have warned others about and yet one that has, quite frankly, landed us on the brink as a start-up

April 8, 2015

The revolving door

I’ve been a little concerned lately with the turnover of people in our new company. We’ve experienced a number of people starting with us and within a few weeks – or even days!

March 17, 2015

The Art of War

I was fortunate enough at an early stage in my career to find myself at an industry event, sitting next to a very well-known psychoanalyst.

February 25, 2015

Rats, gems and elephants

I’m not sure if it’s just the time of the year for new beginnings, or if BON Hotels has captured the attention of tons of job-seekers in the hospitality industry.

January 27, 2015

Dropping the ball

My team and I have recently undergone a truly humbling experience at BON Hotels

January 9, 2015

Bring on the Gramadoelas

There’s something very special about being the ‘small guy’. I mean, though we of course aspire to box in the heavyweight division, at the moment, the featherweight ring is where the exciting stuff is happening!

December 5, 2014

The value of PR

Being a start-up organisation, we are fairly constrained by slim marketing budgets.

November 25, 2014

Keep on trucking

As fledglings in the hospitality industry, my team has travelled the road (or ridden the rollercoaster, I might say!)

November 5, 2014

Rubbing shoulders

Networking has not been one of my priorities. I confess it is something I shy away from - I prefer to connect with people one-on-one.

October 14, 2014

Getting the basics right

As passionate hoteliers, we find ourselves in a difficult situation. Banks are slowly starting to warm to hotel projects - this time around less lenient, and on their own terms

October 1, 2014

Good people people

A successful hotelier is frequently asked the question, “What makes a hotel good?” The answers are endless, but there is one ingredient that will make or break a property.

September 19, 2014

Cool like that

Executive meetings can be intense and uninspiring. To liven things up, we have a tradition at BON Hotels EXCO meetings for each member to have a turn to present to the committee a ground-breaking emerging industry trend

September 18, 2014

Value vs Volume

I have always believed in the organic growth of BON Hotels and have sworn in the past that I would rather go bust than take on a property to rack up the numbers in our portfolio, without being able to add value.

August 25, 2014

Women in Hospitality – Good Business!

Hotel, catering and tourism is an ever-changing landscape and is the largest, fastest-growing service sector, with an average female contingent of over 55% at global level.

August 6, 2014

Backing the jockey

I recently had the honour of being part of the Nedbank It’s my Biz campaign and had the delight of being selected to join them on the Pietermaritzburg leg of their Simply Biz semina

July 25, 2014

Blinds man’s bluff

We have recently had a few distressed hotels approach us, looking for a magic wand to sort out their hotel management problems.

July 22, 2014

Send in the Calvary

Hotel owners are often extraordinary business people, but hotel management requires skills that are not typical to managing a business.

July 17, 2014

Local is more than Lekker

We recently hosted a cocktail function at one of our new properties - invited guests included many local business people, all of whom are passionate about their community and proud of what their neighbourhood has to offer

June 24, 2014

Great Expectations

I was jolted into reality last week at how easy it is for a leader, who is passionate about what you are doing, to fall into the trap of expecting super-human performances from your team.

June 12, 2014

As you were

I recently had a request to comment on the role of the hotel general manager - specifically as to how this role has changed and to what we could attribute this.

June 2, 2014

Shape Shifting

Many business and entrepreneur experts pound into our heads the idea that a new business or a start-up needs to establish its company culture from the outset

May 19, 2014

Connecting with good people

People do business with people they like, and not necessarily with like-minded people. If you break it down to the bare bones, BON Hotels is about relationships

May 14, 2014

Most Outrageous Job

Student life teaches you many lessons. How to wear a pair of jeans for a few weeks, what to do with mould in your coffee cup, and how to get through lectures on a few hours’ sleep.

April 30, 2014

SOS

The current hotel climate is certainly experiencing a degree of uncertainty in the form of mixed messages.

April 23, 2014

Enter the Giants

Hospitality industry hype at the moment is centred on the arrival of international brands into Africa and South Africa.

April 16, 2014

How quickly we forget

The South African business sector, Cape Town in particular, has a short memory with regard to the oversupply of hotels and/or accommodation in our prime CBD locations

April 8, 2014

Good things come to those who wait

You may recall Malcolm Gladwell's hugely popular book Outliers which is largely responsible for introducing "the 10 000-hour rule" to the masses.

April 1, 2014

There’s a time to plan and a time to do…

One of my greatest philosophies - and a phrase those who know me will often hear me say - is: “There is a time to plan and a time to do; never do when you plan and never plan when you do.”

March 25, 2014

BON Hotels securing future talent…

It is encouraging, to say the least, that over the last few weeks our core values are coming to the fore and the industry will be buying into them - Good people. Good thinking. Good feeling.

March 18, 2014

Trends in the Hospitality Industry for 2014

The biggest trend would be personalisation - social media and the mobile generation has resulted in a new type of traveller and these new travellers are growing exponentially, not only throughout the world, but particularly here in South Africa.

March 11, 2014

Nigeria calling

It’s been a week of GOOD news, but our most significant experiences in the last few days have stemmed out of Nigeria.

March 4, 2014

Engaging with Asian markets

Returning to Cape Town from a business trip, it became apparent to me whilst observing Chinese travellers and their confusion at signs and seat numbers, inevitably sitting in the wrong place

February 25, 2014