By Adedapo Adesanya
The COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a long the closure of many establishments across the world, improved the shortlets business in Nigeria, says lifestyle entrepreneur, Mr Tobi Misan Adegboyega.
Mr Adegboyega, Managing Director, Eko ShortLets, in an exclusive interview with brandafriq.com and brandspurng.com, disclosed that the COVID-19 lockdown was a blessing in disguise.
Mr Adegboyega revealed that while government shutdown hotels, Eko ShortLets and other shortlets firms were making cool money because of some clients that needed a place to stay.
He noted that different people had to turn to shortlets apartments to spend their time especially those that came into Lagos and got stranded due to the lockdown timing.
The Eko ShortLets MD stressed that he made more money during the COVID-19 lockdown as they had customers staying up to four months and paying daily.
“At Eko ShortLets, we did not even know there was COVID-19 because it did not have any negative effect on us. Because of COVID-19, hotels were locked down but apartments were still running. So, different people who couldn’t use hotels had to come into apartments so because of that, it has kind of opened the market more and there are new people coming into the business and more competitions and all of that.
“So, COVID-19 did not affect shortlets at all, I can beat my chest to it. In fact, we made more money because we had some people who were in our apartment for the entire 3-4 months. So, imagine someone paying you daily for three months, I mean, there was never a COVID-19 negative effect on Eko ShortLets,” Mr Adegboyega stated.
Eko ShortLets is an apartment management company that has taken up the challenge to change the shortLet and apartment tale, one customer at a time.
The company also takes on other people’s property in a managerial capacity. These properties will be put up on its fleet of tastefully furnished apartments and they will be made up to fit into the standard of primus inter pares luxurious spaces, whilst retaining an almost pristine state.
Owners of such property will be given a percentage of the company’s income on a monthly basis without fail. To this end, it’s a win-win situation for both the owners of properties and the team at Eko ShortLets.
