Choice Hotels has commenced a continental expansion strategy across sub Saharan and southern Africa, marking its entry with three flagship properties in Kenya. This initiative forms part of a broader commitment to develop 100 hotels across Africa by the year 2035, representing one of the most extensive growth strategies in the region by a global hospitality brand in recent memory. The decision to begin with Kenya signals both a recognition of the country’s tourism potential and a deliberate alignment with local entrepreneurial leadership.
Rather than adopting a conventional corporate approach, the company has partnered with Aniket Shroff, a Kenyan entrepreneur, whose emphasis on sustainability, cultural relevance and community integration forms a core part of the venture. This partnership underscores a conscious departure from extractive investment models and towards collaborative frameworks that respect local knowledge and practices.
The first three properties to be launched under this initiative include two Clarion Hotels in Nairobi and a third property in the Maasai Mara, which will join the Ascend Collection. The Nairobi hotels, converted from La Maison Royale Westlands and La Maison Royale South C, are intended to cater to both business and leisure travellers. These establishments will provide a suite of amenities including multi cuisine restaurants, fitness centres, spas and rooftop pools, situated within some of Nairobi’s most accessible and dynamic neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, the Maasai Mara property, located in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy, will offer a nature immersive hospitality experience, including guided safaris and cultural encounters, situated within one of the continent’s most ecologically significant areas.
The conservancy’s fragile biodiversity has long been a site of both environmental concern and cultural reverence, and the integration of this hotel into the Ascend Collection is presented as a commitment to low impact tourism. The project has embedded principles of conservation and sustainable sourcing, aligning with local ecological stewardship while providing employment and infrastructure in a traditionally underserved area.
This expansion occurs in a context where Africa’s tourism sector is experiencing robust growth, fuelled by both a burgeoning middle class and rising international arrivals. According to data from Choice Hotels EMEA, the brand saw 17 per cent year on year growth in 2025 across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and plans to add to its existing 470 properties and over 69000 rooms across these markets. African countries such as Rwanda, Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius, Tanzania and Seychelles are identified as future destinations for further developments under this initiative.
By working with local developers and entrepreneurs, Choice Hotels aims to offer hospitality that is not only globally standardised but also deeply informed by regional culture. This approach moves away from the replication of western architectural and service templates and instead seeks to foreground African expressions of hospitality, while maintaining rigorous international benchmarks.
The strategic partnership with Shroff is representative of a broader effort to place African business leaders at the centre of the continent’s hospitality renaissance. His focus on sourcing materials locally, hiring from surrounding communities, and preserving regional traditions through the hotel experience, introduces a layered narrative about African tourism that balances commercial goals with long term cultural and environmental stewardship.
While the project is undeniably a commercial investment by a global brand, it is also indicative of evolving models of infrastructure development in Africa that prioritise sustainability and shared ownership. Tourism has often been seen as a site of uneven development across the continent. However, this new wave of hospitality investment, when anchored by partnerships that acknowledge and empower local agency, may present an opportunity to shift the historical dynamics of the industry.
As Choice Hotels continues to expand across the continent, its presence will undoubtedly shape how Africa is positioned within global travel discourse. But perhaps more significantly, it opens a space for reimagining African hospitality from the inside out. The future of African tourism, in this vision, is not solely about accommodating international visitors but about constructing systems that honour African places, people and perspectives.
