In under 15 years, PrideInn Hotels & Resorts has expanded from a single hotel with 28 rooms to 8 luxurious hotels across 5 counties. They have more than 900 rooms and conference facilities with a threshold minimum of 15,000.

What began as a company with just 20 employees has grown to over 1,500 workers. Little is known of this magical journey Hasnain Noorani in 2011.

He sought to fill a gap in Kenya’s luxury hotel market leading to the birth of PrideInn Hotel. At first, PrideInn was to be a provider of budget-friendly 4-star and 5-star services. Today, it is meeting the growing demand for quality home-grown hospitality.

“PrideInn started very humbly in 2011. It was never about the chain of hotels. At that time I was travelling from Eldoret to Nairobi and there were only two (luxury) hotels in Westlands. I noticed something that would give me value for money,” Mr Noorani said.

A professionally trained engineer, Mr Noorani shared that he immediately stopped working as an engineer when the idea for PrideInn hotel floated around his mind.

“By education, I have a degree in engineering. I worked for four years before I realized engineering was not for me. I was more of a PR person, and I started looking out for what I wanted to do. This is when the whole idea came about,” he says.

Mr. Noorani began by setting a clear vision that would shape the hotel’s foundation and culture, a vision he has maintained for over 12 years. His first project, PrideInn Westlands, came with a price tag of US$1 million.

He remembers going to six different banks to get funding for his dream, only to face rejection each time, leaving him nearly in despair.

“We started approaching various banks to get finance. I was rejected six times and I was nearly losing hope. At the seventh time, courtesy of my father, we managed to get the first loan to start us off,” he says.

With the money, he built a 28-room hotel in a span of two years. Luck was upon him when his first client booked 25 rooms at $100 per night and paid a 75% deposit in exchange for 100% occupancy right after the hotel’s completion.

“Imagine the happiness of seeing a cheque of $7,500 for a start. I jumped out of joy,” he said.

When the 6 months lapsed, Mr Noorani noticed that his hotel bookings got busier than the rooms they could offer. Expansion thoughts rocked inside his mind.

Acting on a friend’s advice, he began buying existing facilities on credit which helped him grow his business. Within 3 years, the PrideInn brand had rapidly grown to 6 different locations where it was marketed as a budget hotel.

Mr Noorani shared that one of his hotels, PrideInn Mombasa had been sitting idle for over 7 years before he was invited to make an acquisition purchase that cost him $25 million.

“It was 2014. Mombasa was on its knees. People were exiting. I was stressed and had discussions with my dad on whether to buy the hotel or not. Then something came into my mind, what’s the worst that can happen? Finally, I got the financing and this (PrideInn Paradise) is what we have today,” he explained.

He recalled the opening of PrideInn Paradise being an emotional day for him. At the time, Dubai and London had already positioned themselves as MICE hubs, whereas Mombasa was a leisure city.

He identified the gap and chose to set up a conference facility in Mombasa. Despite this, 2016 proved to be the toughest year for him, during which he considered quitting. Fortunately, 2017 brought a turnaround in his fortunes.

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In July 2017, the businessman acquired PrideInn Flamingo. Unfortunately, this acquisition was accompanied by a fierce court battle that nearly led to the company’s (The Pride Group) bankruptcy.

“My team and my family stood by me. It was a terrible time. The clients were even more worried. Our clients stood by us and we assured them of our commitment and we managed to sail through, although we were slapped with a hefty fine,” Mr Noorani says.

After navigating the challenges, PrideInn signed a management contract with Azure in December 2019, which began in February 2020, just a month before lockdown protocols were enforced in Kenya.

“The moment we took charge of PrideInn Azure in February 2020, in March, Covid struck and we had to shut down. That was one of the incidences that threw us down,” he says.

Later that year, the hotel reopened and embarked on another ambitious expansion, focusing on local tourism. They signed new management contracts with PrideInn Mara Camp and PrideInn Plaza in Athi River.

Under the Pride Group, there are several other businesses. They are Glory Driving School, Pride Drive, Pride Fuels, Shawarma Express, the Royal Kitchen Multicuisine restaurant, Paradise Convention Center, Glory Expeditions, Cake City, Muthaiga Business Center, and Buffets of PrideInn.