A’Zambezi Lodge wins excellence award

hospitality excellence and is only given to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveller reviews on its website.
Approximately 10 percent of accommodations listed on TripAdvisor receive this prestigious award.
To qualify for the Certificate of Excellence, businesses must maintain an overall rating of four or higher, out of a possible five, as reviewed by travellers on TripAdvisor.
An additional criterion includes the volume of reviews received within the last 12 months.
Most tourists from major source markets use the Trip Advisor website when they want to choose a hotel to book in.
Rainbow Tourism Group commercial director Mr Godfrey Pasipanodya, who was naturally elated by the development, said the award was a vote of confidence for A’Zambezi which is slowly reclaiming its position as a premier tourist resort in Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe.
“This is quite a good rating that will help us draw more business to A’Zambezi,” he said.
Mr Pasipanodya said A’Zambezi was regaining its market share following its reopening in May last year after undergoing a US$5 million refurbishment that resulted in it being upgraded from a three-star to a four-star lodge.
“We had a slow start after our soft opening because we had not gone into the market but now business is picking up. Our occupancies are averaging 60 percent and our pricing is going up — we are likely to hit US$180 soon.”
Mr Pasipanodya said the occupancy levels were very encouraging, given that the average occupancy in Victoria Fall was around 40 to 50 percent.
He said the increase in occupancy levels had been a result of direct marketing efforts by the group in markets such as the United States and Germany.
“We recently appointed a General Sales Agent in the US and since then, bookings in that market have increased by 60 percent,” he said.
Mr Pasipanodya said they were looking at advertising the lodge in key international brochures, as well as intensifying marketing efforts in Australia, India, Brazil and the Far East.
Apart from aggressively marketing the lodge, Mr  Pasipanodya said they would continue to look at improvements to ensure that it remained attractive to tourists.
“Our bush dinner nights in front of a bonfire under the African sky, a stone’s throw from the mighty Zambezi River, are proving to be very popular and these are only matched by the Boma.
“During these dinners, we offer our guests a chance to sample various African dishes and at the same time we also offer a la carte and a fine wine,” he said.
A’Zambezi, one of the only two tourism facilities located on the Zambezi, has two restaurants — the Amulonga and the Sebastian.
The 91-roomed A’Zambezi River Lodge, which boasts executive rooms with LED screens, superb lighting and décor is designed to cater for the upper end of the market and has become a hit with business executives and their families as well as big-spending tourists.