Patrick Bitature bashed over ‘hotels are just laundry business’ comments

• Patrick Bitature said hotel business is mainly about washing bedsheets, customer care and good service.

• Many Ugandans criticised him for ignoring the huge costs of land, construction and maintenance.

• Some users also mocked him over his ongoing $10 million debt dispute with Vantage Mezzanine Fund.

Businessman Patrick Bitature sparked a social media backlash this week following his comments, which were deemed as oversimplifying the hotel business, and disrespectful to people in the academia. 

The tycoon was accused of “misleading” Ugandans about one of the country’s most capital-intensive sectors  when he described the hotel industry as mainly a “laundry business.”

In a video shared on social media, Bitature said people wrongly think hotels are a complicated business, yet in his view, success mainly depends on cleanliness, customer care and good service.

“I had to diversify my portfolio; I got into hotels. Hotel business is not as hard as most people think,” Bitature said.

“What is it? I will share the secret. Hotel business is being able to wash bedsheets properly. These guys come in, they stay in your room, pay you $100, $200. They don’t take the bedsheets; they don’t take the towels. You just wash them… next guest.”

“Before you realise it, every day you are making $20,000 because you got numbers. That’s the hotel business.”

He added, “People think it is a humongous business but we are really in the laundry business; cleaning up, giving people good food and being customer polite…that is not rocket science.”

He also said many highly educated people struggle financially despite their qualifications.

“I see people with PhDs struggling; they don’t own a house, they don’t own a car. What was the point of the IQ?” he said.

The remarks triggered backlash online, as many users lambasted Bitature for ignoring the hardest part of the hotel business: raising capital, buying land and construction.

Ray De wrote: “He jumped the hardest part; construction.”

Syd added: “How do you get prime spaces, money to construct the buildings? Don’t tell us about the tail end of things.”

Another user, Apuuli, wrote: “...it is also a maintenance business ***t is always breaking.”

Others questioned how Bitature, despite describing hospitality as simple, ended up in a major debt dispute involving his own hotel assets.

“I am here wondering where the huge debt came from,” wrote Pat Mo.

Adrian asked: “Did you settle your debt?”

Bitature, through Simba Group, has major interests in hospitality and real estate, including the high-end Skyz Hotel Naguru, also known as Protea Hotel by Marriott Naguru Skyz, and Protea Hotel Kampala.

His companies also include Elgon Terrace Hotel Ltd, which became part of the collateral in his long-running dispute with South African lender Vantage Mezzanine Fund II Partnership.

The dispute dates back to 2014 when Simba Properties Investment Company took a $10 million loan from Vantage to support expansion in real estate and hospitality.

Bitature, his wife Carol, and several Simba Group companies including Simba Telecom, Linda Properties and Elgon Terrace Hotel guaranteed repayment. Prime properties and shares were pledged as security. 

After default, the matter went to international arbitration in London, where a tribunal ruled in 2023 that Simba Properties and the guarantors had to honour the loan. 

In 2025, Uganda’s Court of Appeal cleared Vantage to enforce the award, but the Supreme Court later granted Bitature temporary relief, stopping immediate asset seizure as the larger appeal continues.

That legal fight remains unresolved, making his latest comments on how “simple” hotel business is even more controversial.