Norfolk hotel in Nairobi sold to Prince Al Waleed

13 May 2005
Norfolk hotel in Nairobi sold to Prince Al Waleed

The Savoy's new owners, Fairmont Hotels have formed a joint partnership with Kingdom Hotels and IFA Hotels to manage five of the most prestigious, colonial-era properties in Kenya.

The hotels involved in the deal, of which Fairmont holds a 15% interest, are Nairobi's Norfolk hotel, the Mount Keyna Safari Club, the Aberdare Country Club, the Ark and the Mara Safari Club.

Famous past guests include US president Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Bing Crosby and John Wayne.

The Norfolk celebrated its centenary last year and was renowned for the strange antics of its guests. These included Lord Delamere who used to ride his horse into the bar and try to jump over tables without breaking any crockery and shoot bottles off the bar.

Over the next 18 months, the properties will undergo $25m (£13.4m) upgrades before they are renamed as Fairmont Hotels.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire behind Fairmont, bought the management contract for the Savoy in January and also owns the George V hotel in Paris.

Buy this week's Caterer magazine for more industry news and analysis

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking