Renewed interest in Freetown’s hotels

Plans are underway to renovate the Mamy Yoko and the Bintumani, two of Freetown’s top hotels, with a view to reducing the shortage of hotel accommodation in the Sierra Leone capital, according to media reports. The ‘Philadelphia Enquirer’, a US daily, reported that Roger Crooks, manager of the Mamy Yoko, was planning to reopen the first floor of the hotel by the end of January. “There’s going to be substantial demand,” the newspaper quoted Crooks as saying. “The demand is here. And this is peaceful compared to how it was.” Sources in Freetown told IRIN on Friday that rents had increased during the past six months and that they were expected to keep rising with the ongoing arrival of UN peacekeepers. Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone government and the Beijing Urban Construction Group Company signed a 25-year lease agreement on Thursday under which the company will run the Bintumani Hotel, AFP reported. Both hotels have been in disuse since sustaining extensive damage when rebels invaded Freetown in May 1997.