Hans Enderle, the founder and past chairperson of the City Lodge Hotel Group has passed away at the age of 77.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our founder, leader, mentor and friend Hans Enderle,” says City Lodge Hotel Group CEO Andrew Widegger. “His passion for the hospitality industry and ability to revolutionise with new accommodation concepts in an ever-changing marketplace was extraordinary. He embraced the challenges and marked the celebrations with his signature cheerful, can-do attitude. We have all benefited enormously from his guidance and wisdom over the years, and he will be sorely missed.”
In 1985, when Rennies sold Holiday Inn to the Southern Sun Group, Enderle bought a property together with the Mines Pension Fund and on 1 August 1985 the City Lodge Hotel Group was launched.
It was during a trip to the USA in the 1980s, when he came across select services hotels, that Enderle had the idea of developing this concept in South Africa.
Previously, local hotels were all about opulence and luxury, not making it accessible to those who needed to travel for business or wanted to take the family somewhere affordable.
Enderle developed his idea for a practical, ‘home-away-from-home’ style of accommodation offering in the group’s first hotel, the City Lodge Hotel Bryanston (then called City Lodge Randburg).
Guests instantly took to the concept of a hotel that lived by the principle of TLC (tip top, loving, clean).
City Lodge Hotel remains the group’s three-star brand today.