Goshenvile Hotel, Akure: Where cigarettes and alcohol are forbidden!

After emptying a bowl of pounded yam with vegetable and assorted meats, I ordered for a bottle of my favourite drink to ‘step down’ the swallow.  But to my surprise, the restaurant attendant just smiled at me and said:  “Sir, we don’t serve alcohol in this hotel. Not only that we don’t serve it sir, we also do not allow people to smoke cigarette in the hotel premises.”

“Then why am I here? Why do I need to spend a night here?” I asked myself. After all,  hospitality is all about relaxing and enjoying myself to the fullest, so this idea of non alcoholic drink and no smoking hotel won’t make one to have a pleasant stay in a hotel like this, I concluded .

Yes, to people who cannot do without taking beer or other alcoholic drinks, you may think Goshenvile is not a place for you. But if truly we want the best hospitality service in a serene and secure environment, the hotel is reputed to be one of the best in Akure, the capital city of Ondo State.

Located at Okuta Elerinla Housing Estate, off Ilesa Garage road, Akure, Goshenvile offers exceptional and unique services as it is very rare to see a hotel where beer, wine, brandy and other forms of alcoholic drinks are not sold.

The 20 -room hotel  has all its rooms equipped with  modern room furniture such as television, fridge and standard bed, while the toilet also has facilities that can make it compete with others at international level . You are not only connected to the world in your room; you have the entire world in your room with hi speed internet connections and Dstv, which connects your television to both local and foreign television stations.

The services and facilities available at Goshenvile are good enough to make one forget alcohol simply because they are too good to miss and it’s a home for those who really want to relax and enjoy their rest.

It is a hotel which will make you realise that you will not die for not drinking alcohol, or pass out for not smoking.

The morning after I was denied alcohol,  the guest friendly receptionists put a call to my room at around 7a.m,  probing  for my choice of breakfast which was  complementary to the services. Unlike in other hotels where they think complimentary breakfast is a pain in the ass, at Goshenvile, you have a fill good for the tummy.

Barrister Yinka Awoyinka, propeller of Goshenvile, a journalist with years of  experience in the hospitality sector, said “the only experience I have in the sector is sleeping in good hotels and enjoying top line   services, which we are trying to replicate here, and that is why, apart from hiring the best hands in the sector, I am also available to assist and monitor things so that our guests have  memorable and sweet experience.”

Speaking on why the hotel refused to sell alcohol and cigarettes, Awoyinka said “it is the policy of the hotel because we run this place like a home and not everybody would want to smoke and drink. So, we choose to offer excellence services as an alternative to smoking and drinking alcohol. This is a unique selling point for us.”

Goshenvile also has a functional laundry department as well as standby generating sets. “We ensure there is light all the time in the hotel because we want people to have value for their money.  We  are among the leading hotels in Akure and in the entire South-West  which offer uninterrupted supply of light, 24/7.”

As I stepped  out of the hotel, I was disappointed at  my body chemistry which seemed  to have adjusted itself to the non – smoking and non alcohol session. For  instead of looking for an arena where I could get one bottle for the road, my body system  never put pressure on me like before as I drove smoothly to Ibadan, not hitting  the pot-holes as before and not having to wait to mend any tyres .

If Goshenvile Hotel  is  good for me, I am sure it is good for you, too.

Just be there.