For many years apartheid ruled in South Africa. Foreign capital shunned the country, and investment in tourism was negligible, including by the major international hotel groups. Although Accor, Intercontinental, Starwood, Hilton and Rezidor are now seeking investment opportunities in the country it has been left to local investors to develop the market. Groups such as Sun International and Kerzner have led the way but much of the hotel provision has been by small individually owned group

Tourism is growing strongly and with the 2010 World Cup on the horizon an added impetus is being given. Over 8 million tourists visited the country in the twelve months to June 2007, most of them from other African countries, many from Northern Africa and the Gulf, but a million from Europe, predominantly Germany and the UK. Cape Town is known as the Riviera of Africa, and the region offers a wide variety of attractions to the European, Asian or American visitor. With deserts such as the Kalahari, wild life parks, whale watching and the wine lands as well as urban life in Johannesburg, Durban or Cape Town itself with its shopping and nightclubs, there is plenty to occupy the holiday maker, whilst the speedy growth of the South African economy continues to attract much new business investment.

It is said that for many wealthy investors property investment in South Africa has taken over, as a prime investment, from property in Bermuda or Malta. With a burgeoning black middle class also looking for homes in the Cape, there is pressure on development sites, with new industrial areas building as well as housing and shopping developments. New destinations are being created up such as the Cape Town docks being redeveloped into the V&A Waterfront with its major shopping, entertainment and restaurant scene, along with major hotel developments (see our article at Cape Town Location), helping towards giving the country a growth rate of 9%.

Hotelier Liz McGrath has taken the opportunity of this growing economy to develop her group of individual hotels over the last 16 years, with hotels along the coast at Hermanus and in the countryside, but her flagship is the five star Cellars Hohenort in Constantia, a wine district of Cape Town, the vineyards themselves undergoing radical redevelopment.

The hotel is a development of an historic manor house with an associated winery in a ten acre estate with gardens and vineyards near the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town’s hinterland. The secluded hotel gardens are a tranquil hideaway easily reached from the city centre, and the owner, who is also the lead designer, has taken the opportunity offered by a varied group of buildings to offer a range of different design and style experiences. From the renovation of the historic manor to offer traditional interiors to striking contemporary suites in the detached buildings of the original Klassenboch winery that is a part of the 58 bedroom hotel complex, the emphasis is on guest choice and delivering that choice through a variety of room styles as well as a varied range of restaurant experiences, spa treatments, outdoor pools and gardens.

The programme of continuous improvement and refurbishment has enabled the owner to work with her designers to provide upgrades to rooms steadily across the whole estate. As I moved out of my room, the builders were scheduled to be the next tenants, making this owner a designers delight as this kind of rolling programme gives the opportunity to get to know the property and the operational style, so that delivery of good design becomes easier.