“I started out cleaning toilets. Today, I am the manager of my five-star boutique hotel with 60 employees,” Souadou Niang, a serial entrepreneur and the owner of Palms Luxury Boutique Hotel in Dakar, Senegal, told BBC Africa.
She worked as a housekeeper at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the United States.
Born and raised in Dakar, Niang moved to the U.S. at age 18. She moved from New York to Washington, D.C., where she applied for work at the Ritz-Carlton to help pay for her education.
For 10 years, Niang cleaned rooms at the hotel while studying. Throughout those years, she always remembered that she would eventually become more successful in the field. Sure enough, she eventually got a job with the management team at the same hotel where she worked as a housekeeper.
“I rose through the ranks, where I got the passion. I said one day I will go back to my country and show that luxury and quality of service can be achieved there,” Niang said.
And that’s precisely what she did! She opened the Palms Luxury Boutique Hotel upon returning to Dakar, Senegal, in 2017. However, it was not without challenges. She experienced rejection from several banks, mainly because she is a woman. Not until one investor believed in her determination and risked all to invest in her project.
Palms Luxury Boutique Hotel is a famous five-star hotel run by 80% female staff. Niang chose to hire more women because she believed in their potential.
Moreover, she hopes to expand the hotel locations across Africa and internationally.
She comments, “My dream is to conquer Africa, and why not the world? As international hotel franchises in Africa, we should be able to adapt our Afro-chic boutique hotels in Western countries and show African women that they can run luxury boutique hotels with the same standards as international hotels.
