Africa-Press – South-Africa. Hans Enderle went from delivering bread as a teenager to founding City Lodge, one of South Africa’s largest and most revolutionary hotel groups.
Operating over 50 hotels, City Lodge is one of South Africa’s most well-known hospitality brands, but the market looked much different when the company was founded 40 years ago.
Hans Rudolf Enderle was born on 17 September 1942 in Switzerland. He started his hospitality career at 15, when he delivered bread for a bakery.
Not long after, he started training to be a chef. However, Enderle soon decided that his calling wasn’t in the kitchen, and he began his training in hotel management at the Hotel School in Lausanne, Switzerland.
He later started working as a waiter. After meeting a South African and hearing how great the country was, and wanting to improve his English, he took up the post of receptionist at the Langham Hotel in Johannesburg in 1959, earning R100 per month.
Enderle wasn’t immediately taken with the place, though, and it wasn’t long before he returned to Switzerland.
In 1970, he returned to help launch the Holiday Inn chain of hotels, working as the general manager of the Holiday Inn at the OR Tambo International Airport, which was then called the Jan Smuts Airport.
He was promoted to the regional manager of Holiday Inn in 1977. In 1983, he was chosen as the company’s next managing director and chairperson.
A mere two years later, Rennies sold Holiday Inn to the Southern Sun Group. At this time, Enderle decided to buy a property with the Mines Pension Fund.
On 1 August 1985 – fittingly, Swiss National Day – he opened the first “select services” hotel group in South Africa: City Lodge Hotel.
City Lodge
City Lodge Hotel Bryanston
Enderle first had the idea of developing this concept in South Africa during a trip to the United States in the 1980s, when he came across select service hotels.
Previously, South African hotels were all about opulence and luxury. This made it inaccessible to those who needed to travel for business or wanted to take the family somewhere affordable.
This was precisely the problem he aimed to tackle with his first hotel, City Lodge Hotel Randburg, now Bryanston.
The concept aimed to offer business travellers the quality and professionalism of full-service hotels, but without the extras they rarely used, and at a more affordable price.
By talking to guests, Enderle learned that travellers value cleanliness, friendliness and quality service more than luxuries.
Even though the concept was an immediate hit, Clifford Ross recalled that the hotel’s opening wasn’t the smoothest.
Ross was the group’s first General Manager of the first hotel, became Operations Director in 1991, Managing Director in 1994, and CEO in 2003, before retiring in 2018.
“At the opening of our first hotel in 1985, Hans lit a big fire to welcome our VIP guests, but the builders had left a cement slab over the chimney,” Ross said. “The whole place filled with smoke, and everyone had to evacuate. Memorable start.”
Ross explained that the group had another funny and unfortunate occurrence in Bloemfontein in 1989.
“The raclette cheese at the launch party filled the entire hotel with a smell no one could identify – we thought the landscapers had used manure too early. It nearly ended the party,” he recalled.
Growing the business
Fortunately, City Lodge managed to survive the thick smoke and odorous cheese. By 1990, the group was already expanding its offerings with the launch of the two-star Town Lodge brand.
“We were launching something completely new,” Ross said. “The sceptics didn’t think it would work here, but we proved them wrong.”
“It was working in the United States, and we adapted it to our local market. You paid only for what you needed, and the value was obvious.”
Ross helped roll out the 1992 Service Excellence Programme, based on Hans’s TLC philosophy:
Tiptop: Everything in excellent condition, modern and maintained
Loving: Caring service for guests and each other
Clean: Spotless from bathrooms to car parks
The company was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 18 November 1992. In 1995, the one-star Road Lodge was launched, and four-star Courtyard Hotels were acquired.
That same year, the company marked its 10th anniversary by launching what Clifford called “probably South Africa’s first true Black Economic Empowerment scheme”.
The Employee Share Incentive Scheme made every single staff member a shareholder. “That gave the Service Excellence Programme real depth,” he said. “People weren’t just working for a company; they were building it together.”
Enderle stepped down as CEO of the City Lodge Hotel Group in 1994, relocating to Erinvale Golf Estate in Somerset West, Cape Town, and retired as a non-executive at age 67 on 1 August 2010.
He remained a significant shareholder in the group until he passed away on 9 November 2019.
Looking ahead
Today, City Lodge Hotels operates 58 hotels with 7,374 rooms under four well-known brands – Courtyard Hotel, City Lodge Hotel, Town Lodge, and Road Lodge.
The group caters to business and leisure travellers across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Mozambique. According to the group’s CEO, Andrew Widegger, the company’s strength lies in its clear, consistent focus.
“The select services model was perfect for the time,” Widegger said. “Business travellers didn’t need silver service – they needed a great bed, a proper desk, decent lighting and plug points, and a good breakfast.”
“That became our signature. We’ve never lost sight of what people actually value in a hotel stay, and what they’re prepared to pay for.”
The idea of only paying for what you use struck a chord with South African travellers, and the model remains relevant to this day, 40 years after the company was founded.
“We entered a market crowded with luxury hotels, and this was a fresh alternative – practical, efficient, and friendly. That’s what set us apart,” he said.
In recent years, the group has responded to changing travel needs, particularly during and after the pandemic, by rolling out Eat-in restaurants offering à la carte lunch and dinner menus to all Town Lodges and Road Lodges.
This was in addition to the already popular #Café restaurants at the City Lodge Hotel-branded properties and Club Lounge in the Courtyard Hotels.
“Expanding our food and beverage offering was a big shift for us, and it worked,” Widegger added. “Throughout the past four decades, we have kept evolving while staying true to our core principles.”
Looking ahead, Widegger said the group is focused on growth, innovation, and long-term impact.
“I’ve been part of this journey for 32 years, and watching the company grow from a small portfolio into a multi-brand group with national and international reach has been remarkable,” he said.
“We have weathered multiple economic cycles, adapted to disruption, and emerged from COVID as a more agile, future-ready business.”
Chairman Bulelani Ngcuka explained that the group is entering the future from a position of strength.
“We are more agile, more integrated, and more intentional in creating value. The world around us may be uncertain, but our purpose is clear, and our strategy is built for resilience,” Ngcuka said.
“I am confident that the foundation we have laid over the past 40 years, and the direction we have set for the years to come, will continue to serve our guests, our people, our business, and our stakeholders well.”
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