From low occupancy, election tension and rogue bank holding its money City Lodge Hotel has opened doors to a rough start in Kenya

The South African hotel chain City Lodge which opened its doors to guests in December at Two Rivers on Limuru Road has Sh407 million locked in Chase Bank.

The firm in its audited statement ended June 2017 says that the Kenyan premier was also affected by low occupancies, throughout the period, which was severely affected by the disruption caused by the country’s election and a subsequent re-run of the election.

In January this year, the Central Bank announced that a sale agreement had been concluded with State Bank of Mauritius on that would open up part of the funds.

City Lodge Hotels says that to date, there has not been an announcement of the effective date and as such, no adjustment has been made to the impairment charge.

The hotel says that occupancies at the Kenyan operations have shown good signs of recovery in the first six weeks of 2018.