Kampala Serena Hotel

The Kampala Serena Hotel is a hotel in Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda. The hotel is rated 5-stars by the Uganda Tourism Board.[1]

Kampala Serena Hotel
Location within Kampala
General information
LocationKampala,  Uganda
Coordinates00°19′08″N 32°35′11″E
Opening31 July 2006
ManagementSerena Hotels
Technical details
Floor count7
Other information
Number of rooms139
Number of suites13
Number of restaurants3
Website
Homepage

Location

The hotel is on Kintu Road on Nakasero Hill, in the centre of Kampala. The hotel is nestled among 17 acres (6.9 ha) of lawns and gardens.[2] The hotel is adjacent to the Kampala Sheraton Hotel and the Imperial Royale Hotel. It is in the Kampala Central Division, one of the five administrative divisions of the city. The coordinates of the Kampala Serena Hotel are 0°19'08.0"N, 32°35'11.0"E (Latitude:0.318889; Longitude:32.586400).[3]

Overview

The hotel opened on 31 July 2006, after eighteen months of renovations and refurbishment at a cost of US$30.5 million.[4] The hotel is part of the Serena Hotels Group. It has 152 rooms, including thirteen suites, one of which is a presidential suite.[5] During the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2007 in Kampala, the hotel hosted Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom for four nights.[6]

The hotel has its own helipad for easy transport between the hotel and Entebbe International Airport. Adjacent to the hotel is the Kampala Serena International Conference Center with a seating capacity of 1,500 and multilingual translation facilities of up to nine languages simultaneously.[7] In 2016, the hotel is expected to undergo expansion, with the addition of 32 bedrooms, and the improvement of food, beverage, and meeting facilities.[8][9]

History

International Conference Center at Serena Hotel

International Conference Center at Serena Hotel was constructed in 1975 in order to host 13th Summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).[10] The hexagonal building was completed by Energoprojekt holding from Non-Aligned Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[10] The venue was subsequently used by Idi Amin regime for president's personal activities and according to some sources for torture of Amin's opponents and enemies.[10]

Ownership

The Kampala Serena Hotel is owned by a consortium that includes three corporate entities; (a) Tourism Promotion Services, a division of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, (b) the Uganda National Social Security Fund, (c) Proparco, a French property investment company.[11][12] The table below summarizes the shareholding in the business.

Kampala Serena Hotel Stock Ownership
RankName of OwnerPercentage Ownership
1Tourism Promotion Services60.0
2National Social Security Fund20.0
3PROPARCO20.0
Total100.0

Renovations

In March 2016, the hotel began renovations that will "create 36 new residential rooms, a new state-of-the-art suite, partial refurbishment and alterations of the meeting rooms and create more executive lounges and meeting rooms".[13] The US$8 million expansion is partly funded by PROPARCO of France and is expected to last 12 months.[13]

See also

References
  1. Barigaba, Julius (4 July 2015). "Hotels In Kampala Get Classified, Seven Years On". The EastAfrican. Nairobi. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  2. AKDN (10 November 2006). "President Museveni and Aga Khan inaugurate Kampala Serena hotel". Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  3. Google (4 July 2015). "Location of Kampala Serena Hotel At Google Maps" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  4. Olaki, Emmy (12 July 2012). "Serena Hotel ready". New Vision. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  5. "The Kampala Serena Hotel". Serena Hotels. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  6. Felix Osike, Alfred Wasike, and Henry Mukasa (21 November 2007). "Queen Elizabeth II Is Here". New Vision. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  7. "Conferences, Meetings And Events At the Kampala Serena Hotel". Serena Hotels. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  8. Omusolo, Moses (25 August 2015). "Serena bets big on tourism rebound, gets Sh2bn loan". Daily Nation. Nairobi. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  9. Juma, Victor (26 August 2015). "Serena Hotels in $20m deal with French fund Proparco". The EastAfrican. Nairobi. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  10. Niebyl, Donald (29 March 2020). "10 Works of Yugoslav Modernist Architecture in Africa & the Middle East". The Spomenik Database. The Spomenik Database. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  11. Juma, Victor (25 August 2015). "Serena Hotels in Sh2 billion deal with French fund Proparco". Business Daily Africa. Nairobi. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  12. Geresom Musamali, and Charles Bwogi (8 October 2007). "NSSF buys 20% stake in Serena Hotel". New Vision. Kampala. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  13. Oketch, Martin Luther (20 May 2016). "Kampala Serena Hotel starts Shs 26 billion expansion". Daily Monitor. Kampala. Retrieved 20 March 2016.

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