Q. Why has Hop decided to move into South Africa?
The South African hospitality market is vibrant, growing, and increasingly open to technological adoption. As Hop is a well-designed, user-friendly, and cost-effective hospitality management system that addresses local needs and challenges, we felt that is this is the right time to bring something new to the South African market.
The market is supported by a strong tourism sector, which not only attracts international visitors but is also significantly bolstered by robust local and regional travel; domestic tourism alone, which is on an upward trend, accounts for 60-70% of all stays. This high volume of year-round travel, with its seasonal fluctuations, creates a pressing need for the automated reservation, channel management, and real-time availability solutions we provide.
Crucially, the South African market is at a pivotal stage of technological adoption. Many hotels are actively seeking to migrate from inefficient manual processes, spreadsheets, and disconnected legacy systems to integrated, cloud-based PMS platforms.
This presents a clear opportunity for us, as the market is fragmented and ripe for disruption. With a growing demand for digitisation, we are perfectly positioned to introduce our advanced technology to an emerging market eager to enhance operational efficiency and modernise the guest experience.
Q. What are the business connections with the country?
Two of our co -founders Jon Erasmus and Richard Drummond have also recently opened a South African office for their other business Turas Hotels and felt that SA also offered an opportunity for Hop by bringing hospitality technology to SA that has been built and designed by hoteliers.
Jon a native South African originally from Durban and the third Co-founder of Hop, Ronald Tweedie from Johannesburg always had plans to bring Hop to South Africa .
Jon and his wife Victoria also set up a children’s charity that works to improve everyday living conditions of young people in iKhethelo in Kwa Zulu Natal whilst also working with charity, Lily of the Valley.
With the business and personal connections now was the right time to launch Hop in South Africa.
Q. Is the South African market potentially a fruitful one for Hop and why?
The South African market holds significant potential for Hop, due to SA being a robust and growing digital economy.
South African Tourism’s 2025/26 Annual Performance Plan highlights a continued growth path, focusing on increasing visitor arrivals, growing domestic tourism, diversifying products, and improving stakeholder relations. The sector is considered a “sunrise sector with endless possibilities.” Over 50,000 hotel rooms in 304 hotels are expected to open in Africa in 2025 and 2026, with South Africa being a key contributor to this pipeline.
South African hotels showed robust growth in early 2025 and the forecast for the remainder of the year remains extremely positive.
This is an ideal time for Hop to launch into South Africa and provide an all-in-one solution to the growing hospitality industry.
Q. Why did you decide to open an office in Cape Town?
Cape Town is emerging as a leading tech hub in Africa, attracting investment and talent so the ideal city for Hop to be based in.
The city also fosters a collaborative environment with numerous tech and hospitality events that encourage networking and knowledge sharing and something that Hop would like to be part of.
Cape Town is a prime location due to its robust tourism and hospitality industry, which is increasingly embracing technology for efficiency and guest experience.
Q. How will the South African operation work with the other Hop offices?
The SA operation will work closely with the Hop team in the UK. With only a 1- or 2-hour time difference this will allow both teams to collaborate daily whist also leveraging the strengths of both locations to achieve our company business objectives.
Q. What are the ultimate goals for the S African operation? Do you have initial, short term and long-term targets?
The goal is to establish Hop as a leading player in the Hospitality Property Management System market in South Africa. We want to Revolutionise hotel operations across South Africa by providing a comprehensive, efficient, and a guest-centric management system that significantly improves profitability and guest satisfaction. We want to establish Hop and a strong, trusted and reputable brand know for its reliability, and customer centric approach.
Staring with 2 employees in July 2025 we want to gain some initial market traction that will then allow us to scale our operations as we grow our client base.
The long-term vision is about market leadership, sustained growth, and contributing to the overall Hop global strategy whilst also becoming a magnet for top tech and business talent in South Africa, contributing to the local tech ecosystem.
Q. Will you have an official launch or what are the plans to introduce Hop to S Africa?
We have a multi-faceted strategy to launch Hop to the South African market. Our Cape Town based Business Development Manager, Teboho Ntsiane has extensive hospitality experience and will be introducing his contacts Hop to whist networking at local hospitality exhibitions and events. This together will our social media campaign and everything else we have planned will certainly let the hospital industry know that Hop has landed in South Africa!
