Kobus Botha — The Cradle Boutique Hotel, why an eco friendly hotel
With Kobus Botha — The Cradle Boutique Hotel, why an eco friendly hotel
In short
Kobus Botha moved from cinematography and TV commercials into hotels with no hospitality experience, built Blue Mountain Lodge, and now runs The Cradle Boutique Hotel and nature reserve for owner Timothy Nash. The hotel's proceeds fund conservation and an education trust in Westbury, and a mentored aquaponics farming venture is planned to create jobs from nearby informal settlements. The one takeaway: Kobus changed careers entirely with no hotel experience, and credits the work ethic and sense of purpose learned in advertising for carrying him through.
How did a cameraman end up running hotels?
Kobus studied commercial photography in Durban, worked as an assistant cameraman and then lighting cameraman on features and documentaries, studied lighting and cinematography in Los Angeles, and returned to open a production company making TV ads. When his first son was born he decided to leave the city and chose the hotel business.
Why a country hotel rather than a restaurant?
He had a passion for cooking and entertaining and first considered a restaurant, but friendships with restaurateurs showed him it meant replacing one bad routine with another, working around the clock. Research pointed him towards a country hotel instead, and he bought a farm called Serra Azul and built Blue Mountain Lodge.
How did the film background shape the design of Blue Mountain Lodge?
They treated it as building a movie set for real. It took roughly two years and about 25 farms viewed before they found land with forestry, water and an escarpment looking east. Both he and his wife came from the film business, so their travels and their fantasy hotel became the design reference.
What happened when he took on the farming side as well?
He inherited a farm in a far worse state than expected, growing avocados, lychees and coffee, and knew nothing about farming. He brought in a consultant, things went pear-shaped early, but production rose from 5,000 cartons to 55,000 cartons within three years through what he calls dogged determination.
What is conscious capitalism at The Cradle in practice?
The concept came from owner Timothy Nash: run a commercial hotel with the proceeds dedicated to community upliftment. Income goes into nature conservation and into education and training, including funding the Westbury school. Staff were recruited from the local community and trained, and Kobus says guests notice how happy they are.
What does the African Digital Education Trust do?
It runs a campus in Westbury, a marginalised community on the southern side of Johannesburg, where 400 primary school children come after school five days a week for lunch and online English, maths and robotics classes. Saturdays add a maths-only high school programme, now covering grades nine to eleven.
How does the ambassadors programme work?
Msuka, a branch of the trust run by Lindsay Hunter, one of Lee Berger's cave divers, offers a three-day programme at Maropeng covering how palaeoanthropology and nature conservation fit into the area's story. All Cradle staff have attended, most surrounding hotels send theirs, and the programmes are subsidised with help from a National Geographic grant.
What is the aquaponics tunnel farming project meant to achieve?
Ten tunnels run as ten separate companies by people recruited from local informal settlements, in a mentored environment, potentially creating 62 jobs in the first phase. Each tunnel has two fish tanks, possibly tilapia, whose waste feeds herbs and vegetables suspended in water and pebble beds, saving water and accelerating growth.
What makes it an eco hotel?
Rooms are wooden structures on stilts so the land is not scarred, kitchen refuse is broken down with bokashi powder into manure, and because the area is dolomitic the grey water is pumped across the hill into French drains rather than into the subterranean water basin. No plastic; bamboo containers and paper straws are used.
What can be done at the pavilion conference venue?
Launched in November about a kilometre from the hotel, the pavilion has a conference venue, a chapel referred to as the long room, a mixed seating and bar zone and a large pool entertainment area, taking up to three or four hundred people. It has hosted a car launch, a small music promotion and two weddings.
In their words
they say there's a time in your life when you're young enough, naive enough and brave enough to do something wild
I thought I was going to go and have this luxurious life in the country, read my books and stroll around the farm. You know, little did I know that this was actually a long feature movie that never stopped.
we turned it around within two, three years and we took the production from 5,000 cartons to 55,000 cartons within three years
I mean, you have to empower people. You can't treat them like stones. I mean, they're human beings, they work there. They are ambassadors.
if all of our business people take some effort to take one step and do one project to empower people and create jobs in the area, I think we can go a long way
Key takeaways
- Kobus changed careers entirely with no hotel experience, and credits the work ethic and sense of purpose learned in advertising for carrying him through.
- The Cradle's commercial income is deliberately channelled into nature conservation and community education rather than kept by the owners.
- Training and empowering staff is treated as a business asset: retention is high and staff act as ambassadors for the hotel.
- The planned aquaponics venture is mentored rather than handed over, explicitly to avoid the pattern of well-funded projects abandoned to people without the knowledge to run them.
- Green practice at the hotel runs from stilted wooden rooms and bokashi composting to a chemical-free wetland swimming pool.
- The guest ethos is to remove timetables and anxiety, with no fixed breakfast hours and meals served in rooms, on the mountain or as picnics.
Show notes
On this episode I chat with Kobus Botha CEO of The Cradle Boutique Hotel and nature reserve. We chat about what it's like to run a luxury small hotel in The Cradle Of Humankind as well as some of the incredible projects they are involving the local community with.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the hotel and how far is it from Johannesburg?
It has 17 rooms and sits on a 1,680-hectare nature reserve, with traversing rights over neighbouring family farms giving access to about 9,000 hectares. Kobus says guests are roughly 40 minutes from Sandton yet feel transported elsewhere.
Is it a game reserve with the big five?
No, it is a nature reserve. Antelope species, civets, genets and servals occur, an elusive leopard and brown hyena have been seen, and giraffe sometimes come up to the restaurant. The animals are not tame and sightings are treated as a privilege.
Do you need to book to eat there?
Booking is preferred rather than essential. The 200-seater restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and bookings can be made through Dineplan or the website, which lets the kitchen and service prepare properly.
How does the wetland pool work?
No chemicals are used. The pool is terraced into water plants and pebbles, and the water reticulates through three ponds before being pumped back into the swimming pool, which is filled with crystal-clear mountain water from the property.
Who can guide the palaeoanthropology tours?
Professor Lee Berger takes tours, and other specialist guides include Lindsay Hunter and Howard Geach, who cover geology, land, history, fossils and the discoveries. Reserve guides such as Grant also give game drives and weekend explorers club walks for children.
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