The Audacious New Kids On The Block – Aura by Transcorp

What is your name, role, and the name of your company? 

My name is Dupe Olusola. I am the MD/CEO of Transcorp Hotels Plc, owners of the award-winning Transcorp Hilton Abuja, Transcorp Hotels Calabar and Aura by Transcorp Hotels.

What inspired you to take on this role?

When you work within the HH group, you learn and know that ‘impossible’ just does not exist. You learn so much about yourself with every new opportunity that is thrown at you. And it’s also in my blood. I love challenges, I love growth, I love to be stretched, I love to achieve results and I love to deliver. This role was going to allow me to do all those things and force me to even deliver beyond previous roles, so it only made sense.

I had to relocate to Abuja for the role. This meant moving away from my family and friends to head the leading hospitality brand listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group. As exciting as it was, the country was right in the middle of a pandemic. Imagine being head of a hospitality business in the middle of a pandemic. Lockdown had just been announced; no flights, no tourists, no events, no guests … everyone was at home. Yet, we had to keep running; we had staff and overheads.

The occupancy rate at the hotel had drastically dropped, and we had to quickly review whether to leave our doors open to cater to the very few guests that we had despite the huge operational costs.

Keeping the hotel running turned out to be one of the best decisions we made, as we watched several hotels around the world struggle with staffing, renovation and fixing faulty equipment after months of lockdown. We also had to be creative and think out of the box, reimagining hospitality beyond the pandemic, activating our asset-light strategy and introducing new businesses.

Imagine how much of a challenge the role came with, but I took it on with the help of my amazing team, and we’ve been doing great.

What were your fears about being involved with a startup business?

There are scary figures everywhere on the failure of startups. Research shows that more than 90% of startups fail, so when you take over a business during a pandemic and then have to launch a startup, jitters are not unexpected, however, as I already mentioned, we don’t believe in ‘impossible’ and in the same way, failure is not an option. We just keep relearning and trying again in different ways till we get great results.

Launching the Aura brand, a business idea that was handed over to me and my team to bring to life, has been quite exciting. Aura presents a great opportunity for us to disrupt the hospitality business in Africa and this is the best time to do it. We believe that Aura will boost domestic tourism, create jobs and contribute to economic growth. These possibilities are motivating and with the brand now in the market, as a team, we are committed to building Africa’s number one online platform for accommodation, food and experiences.

I have a great team that share the same values and believe strongly in execution and pushing till we achieve so that also makes it easier.

Did your expectation match the reality when you finally joined?  

The reality exceeded my expectations in every way possible. I expected a challenge, I expected growth, but I didn’t see the dynamics and the challenges that would come with the pandemic. I had to start work without formally meeting the team on ground face to face, but everyone was amazing.

I would spend many sleepless nights on Zoom calls trying to understand the financials with the Chief Finance Officer or understand the ongoing projects with the Projects team, start an EMC without truly knowing everyone; it was different, but we did it. We had several virtual bonding sessions, and all got to know each other, everyone was so helpful. They understood me very quickly too which helped as we all pushed for success together.

As a team, the task at hand was to reimagine and restructure our business to remain relevant in the ‘new normal,’ particularly for the hotels business. We introduced drive-in cinema, food delivery services, drive-through laundry. These new initiatives helped our recovery following the pandemic. With an impressive occupancy rate and fast-growing revenue post lockdown, Transcorp Hilton Abuja was rated as the best performing hotel on post-pandemic recovery amongst all Hilton hotels globally. The others were calling to ask what we were doing. It was crazy but then, it dawned on us all that we couldn’t give up and that we had to continue to do things differently and the team got to executing and making it all happen.

Even when we had to sadly let go of staff at the hotel, that entire exercise was carried out as a team ensuring staff that were let go were treated well, paid their full benefit and exposed to training for life after retirement and business skills.

Also, no one is ever fully prepared for the sleepless nights, the endless strategy sessions and meetings that go into bringing a new business to life, but we did it!

The reality of the job has definitely challenged me, but I have grown into it and I am quite comfortably owning it.

Tell us about your milestones to date. 

We recently launched Aura by Transcorp Hotels. Aura is an online platform for booking accommodation, staycations, great food, and memorable lifestyle experiences. The launch was a 2-day funfair, we hosted guests from across the country in Abuja who got to enjoy specially curated activities that you would find on Aura. We had DIY cocktails, yoga, paint and sip, breakfast, lunch, hotel tour, and the main event where the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo launched the app and gave a stellar review, followed by an electrifying performance by Tiwa Savage. It was an immersive experience. The team is working hard to ensure they curate more unique homes, restaurants, and experiences.

Our first phase which we launched is focused on experiences and accommodation across Nigeria. However, very quickly we are progressing to including accommodation and experiences across the rest of Arica. We are already in talks on this and are quite optimistic about our Africa offerings.

We have gone from looking for properties to list on the platform to people asking us how they can list. Everyone knows about Aura now and we are enjoying impressive organic growth following our official launch. We have now listed close to a thousand homes and hotels (with more than 2,000 rooms), downloads of the App is also growing daily both on Android and Apple devices.

At Transcorp Hilton Abuja and Transcorp Hotels Calabar, we have been driving our leisure experience packages. We recently partnered with Studio 24 at Transcorp Hilton Abuja to provide an Eid experience with a beautiful photo set up for our guests.

At Transcorp Hotels Calabar, Afrinite is coming back better. The hotel is also undergoing some revamp to enable us to put our best foot forward in Calabar and maintain our standard of excellence.

As a new player in your industry, what difference is your company bringing to the market?   

Though Aura is a new player in the hospitality industry, it is backed by the reputation we have built over the years with Transcorp Hotels Plc, hence, there is a level of comfort people have when using Aura that you wouldn’t usually get with a new brand. Our major competitors are foreign companies playing in the country offering their services in foreign currency, which reduces access for most people who have to pay with Naira cards and struggle with foreign currency limits on their cards. Our guests pay in Naira and our hosts’ accounts get credited before their guests check in; a different and improved experience than they have had with our competitors.

We also verify every accommodation listed on the platform; combining our commitment to the quality of listings with the safety of our guests, Aura is democratising access to luxurious hospitality and unlocking the home-sharing value in Nigeria.

On a bigger hospitality scale, we are also focused on expansion. We are currently working on developing a lifestyle centre in Ikoyi, Lagos. It will provide great amenities including a spa, gym and great restaurants. Furthermore, we have plans to develop 200 luxury apartments in Abuja and a 3,000-4,000 capacity event centre.

Share with us, some career growth tips that have helped you over the years. 

Work Hard! Work Hard! I believe in always putting in my best every time and I stay open to learning from everyone – learn up, learn down, learn sideways… just keep learning so you can do better.

I believe you just ‘do it afraid’ sometimes – Never say “no” out of fear or the lack of confidence; just say “Yes” and learn what you need to do it better. Put yourself up for new tasks, new roles, anything that will challenge and grow you.

Networking is key, the right network will take you far in your career and in life. When you meet people, interact, keep in touch, collaborate, and build to add value.

Trust the process. It may get difficult as the road to success is not smooth, however, you must trust the process. Remind yourself of your whys and destination because it makes the process all worth it.

Make sure you execute, it is not enough to have great ideas and solutions, you must execute, that’s how change and growth happens.

I believe in kindness. It is an essential leadership trait that I stand by. It doesn’t mean diplomacy or not telling people the hard truth. Not at all. It just means you should be kind. Be true to yourself and others. Correct and teach with love so people get the lesson and learn.

Stay authentic and let people know what you stand for.

Finally, learn not to take things personally. Life is stressful enough.