It’s a typical evening in Rosebank, yet between the lit-up hotels, glitzy shopping malls and buzzing bars, one corner sits in near-total darkness. The once-proud Hyatt Regency lies idle – its lights off, barbed wire drooping over broken fencing, and its iconic entrance long deserted.
The building’s bare face-brick façade, once a symbol of robust elegance, now looms lifeless. The barricaded entrance is a stark monument to what happens when real estate, mismanagement and financial opacity collide – even in the heart of one of South Africa’s fastest-growing, most vibrant and trendiest commercial and residential districts.
“Kindly note that Hyatt Regency Johannesburg will suspend all hotel operations between midnight Thursday, 26 May 2020, until further notice, complying with the South African government disaster management plan,” says a yellowed noticeboard not far from a pile of abandoned bricks. “Entrance beyond this point is STRICTLY PROHIBITED.”
Representatives for the Bin Otaiba Hotel Group – the United Arab Emirates-based owner of the Hyatt and several other major hotels in South Africa – haven’t responded to repeated requests on when the Hyatt Regency will reopen.
When Currency visited the site last week, about five people were milling around the hotel’s conference venue, with one individual in a suit appearing to issue instructions. One of them, who had entered from the adjoining The Firs shopping mall, said the group was discussing plans to reopen the hotel. However, a security guard blocked further access, and the suited individual declined to speak to us.
A person familiar with developments within the Bin Otaiba Hotel Group tells Currency they aren’t convinced the hotel will open anytime soon, seeing the teams on the ground as nothing but “stalling tactics”.
The owner will make it look like they are doing work, try to get the Hyatt to accept it, and they will again reject it, says the person. “The hotel is in really bad condition and needs a serious renovation.”
Pattern of neglect
It’s beyond just the building on the corner of Oxford Road and Biermann Avenue in Rosebank that’s fallen apart; Bin Otaiba Hotel Group has seen its entire local portfolio unravel.
Through a series of leaked emails, Currency has pieced together the challenges faced by the company’s operations and how efforts by the brand owners – Hilton, Hyatt and Radisson – for more than two years were apparently stalled by the hotel’s owners.
The emails suggest debts are unpaid, and legal threats are mounting. What began as a promising foray into the nation’s hospitality industry has turned into a cautionary tale – one with repercussions for workers, municipalities and some of the world’s top hotel brands.
The Bin Otaiba Hotel Group is chaired by HE Khalaf Ahmed Khalaf Al Otaiba and operates out of Sharjah, the third-most populous city in the UAE after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. On paper, the group says it “acquires, develops and manages high-quality hospitality real estate”.
But in practice – after entering the South African market in the 2000s, acquiring Cape Town’s Radisson Blu Le Vendome in August 2008 – many of its South African properties have been reduced to shells.
The group’s other assets include the Hilton Durban, Park Inn Sandton and the historic King Edward Hotel. At one point, this was a respectable portfolio across key urban nodes.
Today, only the Hilton Durban has reopened – and that only happened after pressure from the eThekwini municipality, which threatened to confiscate the building.
Fire safety failures: Park Inn Cardiff, UK
The group’s collapse is evident in an apparent mix of operational failures, financial defaults and regulatory breaches. And not just in South Africa.
Trouble at the Park Inn by Radisson Cardiff City Centre, in the UK, began after the Grenfell Tower disaster in June 2017, when 71 people died in a fire that ripped through a 24-storey residential block in North Kensington, West London – one of the deadliest domestic blazes in UK history.
The fire, accelerated by flammable cladding, triggered nationwide inspections of similar high-rise buildings. In Cardiff, 12 buildings were found to have failed the required standards for cladding combustibility. The Park Inn was among them.
A 2020 report by independent consultants flagged ongoing fire safety risks, but remediation was delayed by the Covid pandemic. By late 2021, fire authorities issued an enforcement notice with a 2022 compliance deadline. Even after an extension to May 2023, Bin Otaiba, the hotel’s owner, failed to comply.
A follow-up inspection in June 2023 led to a second enforcement notice and legal threats.
Radisson, which manages the hotel, warned it would suspend the franchise agreement and disconnect the property from its booking system. A closure order, it said, would risk reputational damage to the Park Inn brand.
The hotel remains open.
Over the past two months, reviews on Tripadvisor have been mixed. Some guests praised the central location, clean rooms and friendly staff. Others complained of a broken lift, a rundown exterior, stained carpets, peeling paint, and poor hygiene in the breakfast dining area, including dirty tables, missing cutlery and glasses.
One guest said the room door felt insecure, the bathroom smelled of “poo” or drains, the fixtures were broken, the shower temperature was erratic, and a lamp was not working.
Health violations: Radisson Blu Le Vendome, Sea Point
In April 2023, Cape Town’s city health department issued a warning to the Radisson Blu Le Vendome, citing “unhygienic conditions” following complaints. An environmental health inspector deemed the issues “unacceptable” and urged immediate intervention.
In parallel emails, a Hilton representative offered to travel to Cape Town to assist, while urging a formal response to health authorities. The person also urged that the company formally respond to the health official.
The severity of the situation was clear: failure to address the health concerns could prompt further action from the health department, potentially leading to the hotel’s closure or legal repercussions.
According to its website, the hotel is still closed.
The last time I observed the hotel building’s physical neglect was in 2022 when I was staying in a neighbouring apartment to the hotel. Peeling paint and a green swamp for a swimming pool. As far as the exterior of the building goes, not much cleaning or general maintenance had taken place for many months. It was certainly not the classy, reliable standard of Radisson that we all know and love.
Financial defaults and closures: Radisson South Africa
An email from Radisson’s legal team in April 2023 detailed a dramatic breakdown at Bin Otaiba-owned South African hotels. It all began in November 2020 when, at the owner’s request, the hotels were shuttered despite “maintaining positive operations”.
Radisson staff were retrenched, most were dismissed from the sites, and the group was locked out of bank accounts, resulting in “multiple defaults of payments to employees and suppliers”.
To protect its brand, Radisson removed signage and proposed property improvement plans and mechanical inspections, but Bin Otaiba refused to comply. A proposed four-month reopening window was ignored. Instead, the owner attempted to convert the agreements to a franchise model, which was rejected by Radisson.
Stand-off at the Hilton Durban
The Hilton Durban has faced similar frustrations. Emails in Currency’s possession show that in September 2022, a Hilton executive wrote to Bin Otaiba offering to explore a franchise deal, on condition that debts of $662,000 and R21.1m were settled, and that it comply with the management agreement.
However, subsequent communications suggest a lack of progress. On May 30 2023, another representative from the Hilton organisation reiterated the company’s position, attaching letters from the past year and an Excel document detailing the debts. They proposed accelerating payments to resolve the issue, but warned that Hilton reserved its rights under existing agreements if Bin Otaiba failed to act.
By June 12, 2023, the situation had worsened. In an email to Bin Otaiba’s finance team, they noted that despite meetings with HE Khalaf and assurances of payment, no progress had been made on the monetary default, risking disruptions to reservations.
Two years on, there’s been no resolution.
The damage spreads
The closure of these hotels is no small glitch – it’s a full-blown crisis. Hotels are not just buildings and providers of accommodation – they are economic engines, supporting local supply chains and driving tourism.
South Africa’s tourism industry contributes about 3% to GDP and, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council supports more than 1.8-million direct and indirect jobs.
When hotels shut, the local economy suffers. When they collapse due to mismanagement, the reputational damage ripples far wider.
In Rosebank, the Hyatt’s shuttering has impacted foot traffic to The Firs shopping centre. It’s also a visible symbol of value destruction in a node that has seen billions in private investment over the past decade.
The financial damage is stark, too. Hilton’s unpaid claims total nearly R33m, according to sources. And Bin Otaiba’s Radisson-branded hotels remain shut, with no path to reopening.
Radisson, Hilton and local communities have been left exposed, while the Bin Otaiba portfolio continues to decay. Only the Hilton Durban has been salvaged, and only after municipal threats.
Municipalities should arguably have stronger tools to compel responsible stewardship of such assets. Financial muscle should not equate to impunity – especially when it undermines jobs, services and a city’s hard-earned momentum.
Meanwhile, local officials tell Currency they feel paralysed in their ability to intervene.
Bin Otaiba’s crisis is a case study in how things fall apart when property owners neglect their duties. The apparent refusal to collaborate with international partners – despite claiming a willingness to do so – suggests dysfunction at the top.
Can the group turn it around? Perhaps. But for now, its South African hotels stand as a reminder of what happens when ownership is divorced from accountability, and when no-one steps in to stop the rot.
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