INTERVIEW - SAMIR RAHAL, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE TERROU-BI GROUP: "WE WANT TO CONTINUE GROWING AND WE HAVE TWO MAJOR PROJECTS: ONE IN SENEGAL AND ANOTHER IN CÔTE D'IVOIRE"
Samir Rahal, son of the founder of the Terrou-Bi Resort, has no shortage of ideas or ambition to continue, develop and perpetuate the family adventure started by his father Kalil. |
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INTERVIEW - SAMIR RAHAL, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE TERROU-BI GROUP: "WE WANT TO CONTINUE GROWING AND WE HAVE TWO MAJOR PROJECTS: ONE IN SENEGAL AND ANOTHER IN CÔTE D'IVOIRE"
Samir Rahal, son of the founder of the Terrou-Bi Resort, has no shortage of ideas or ambition to continue, develop and perpetuate the family adventure started by his father Kalil. |
Category: Worldwide - Senegal - Industry economy
- Interviews and portraits
- Hotel projects vRenovation / Addition - Interviews
Interview made by Guillaume Chollier on 2025-06-19
 Samir Rahal, managing director of the Terrou-Bi group, with his brother Kamil (right)Samir Rahal, managing director of Terrou-Bi group, with his brother Kamil (right)
Photo credit © Terrou-Bi
This resort, set on five hectares of land, is the dream of one man, Kalil Rahal, a Lebanese travel enthusiast who fell in love with Senegal and gradually transformed this wasteland by the sea into a veritable Eden. His dream came to life in 1986 when he built a seaside restaurant which he named ‘Terrou-Bi’, a term used by local fishermen meaning ‘land on the horizon’. Ten years later, a casino was built, and then in 2008, in anticipation of the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Dakar, Kalil Rehal, who had been joined in the adventure by his sons Samir and Kamil, obtained permission to build a luxury hotel.
Proudly rooted in its African identity and benefiting from an exceptional location and services, Terrou-Bi has risen to the heights of luxury in Dakar and become a popular destination on the city's western coast, attracting a diverse clientele with its wide range of offerings.
Le Journal des Palaces visited the hotel and met with Samir Rehal. Like his father, he is a visionary and has no shortage of ambition. He presented his future projects, which will enable the Terrou-Bi brand to reach new heights in luxury hospitality.
Journal des Palaces: What is your background?
When my father opened the restaurant, my brother was already a chef. I was still at school. So my brother took over in the kitchen. I left school in Year 10 and went to France to get a CAP (vocational qualification) in waiting. After 18 months, I gave up because I didn't like it at all. I came back to Dakar. But after six months, my parents sent me back to France to get a CAP in cooking. There, I spent five or six years working in restaurants with one or two Michelin stars. Then I came back to join the company in Senegal in 1989, where I worked for several years with my brother.
In 1994, my father applied for and obtained a casino licence. At the time, there was only one casino in Senegal, in Dakar. We opened ours with 15 slot machines and 10 gaming tables.
In 2006, we obtained authorisation to build a hotel, which we opened in 2009 as part of the OIC, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which was held in Senegal. It was an instant success: after three months of operation, we had already reached an occupancy rate of 80%. We had a gourmet restaurant, which has been closed since Covid, but we plan to reopen it within a year or two.
How has the hotel evolved?
The hotel initially had 112 rooms in 2008. In 2014, we opened additional rooms to bring the total to 165.
We also built a logistics base so that we could organise all our delivery flows outside the customer car park. Everything related to supplies and food goes through there. Food, for example, is sorted, portioned, frozen or refrigerated. It is then sent to the various kitchens or points of sale, ready for use. The logistics centre has a butcher, a fishmonger, a greengrocer, etc. Everything is concentrated there, and we have a central preparation base for stews, dishes in sauce, sauces and ice cream. We also have a pastry shop and make our own ice cream. We really have an extraordinary work unit. All the preparations are then distributed to the points of sale.
But in 2020, Covid dealt us a resounding blow. We were on the brink of collapse because we were closed for three months. However, we kept all our employees on, paying them 70% of their wages without any help from the government. We had to accommodate people who had been in contact with Covid patients for £60 per room, which is nothing compared to our huge costs.
How did you make the most of this period?
We decided to completely renovate the casino. This gave us a boost compared to the competition and the six casinos in Dakar. Then, once Covid was over, we took a look at ourselves and set out a strategy for the next 10-15 years. We are located on the most beautiful site in Dakar, and we have decided to develop it.
We had a splendid meeting room where we organised banquets for 500, 600 and 800 people outdoors, as well as parties, galas, etc. We decided to convert it into a meeting room. Then we focused on the hotel, enlarging the rooms with the aim of becoming the most prestigious resort in Dakar, Senegal and West Africa in terms of standing, quality of service and quality of infrastructure.
What are Terrou-Bi's strengths?
Terrou-Bi is an oasis in the heart of Dakar. We have a marina that allows us to take guests directly to Gorée, an island in Dakar Bay that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gorée is a symbolic place in the memory of the slave trade in Africa. It was the last stop for slaves before they were sent to France or the United States. We offer private transfers from the resort with our boat. Guests leave their rooms, board the boat and are accompanied by a guide to Gorée, without having to transfer via the city port.
We are also professional chefs. Therefore, we attach great importance to freshness, ingredients and waiting times. Our director, David Sierra, comes from the luxury hotel industry.
Finally, today, the focus is on the customer. We sell them the night, a smile, service, a warm welcome and comfort. This has become our DNA and sets us apart from our competitors. To achieve this, we have invested heavily in people. This applies both to our managers, i.e. the people who work for us, and to the training and tools we provide to our teams to enable them to perform better, behave better and understand customer issues better. It also applies to their fulfilment in their work.
What type of clientele do you welcome at Terrou-Bi?
Until now, we have had a large corporate and business clientele, which accounts for between 80 and 85% of our guests. Our clients are mainly Africans from neighbouring countries. We also welcome many French guests, of course. As Senegal has oil and gas reserves, many English speakers stay here for work. The country now has direct flights to the United States. More and more Americans are visiting Senegal to discover their roots. There are also more Asian visitors than before, including Koreans, Chinese and Japanese. The fact that we organise international poker tournaments at the casino also contributes to our large international clientele. We are now starting to enter the luxury market. To do this, we are trying to attract leisure customers from all over the world for stays of two, three or four nights. These customers enable us to increase the share of leisure.
The hotel is constantly evolving. Work will start soon...
Renovation work will begin on the lobby, which will then be extended towards the garden. An extension is also in the pipeline. This represents a major investment of over £30 million.
What will this extension involve?
As we said, we have a business hotel, but we are also located in a seaside resort. So we have different types of customers who overlap. We have decided to create this new business-oriented wing to avoid mixing visitors in suits with leisure guests in swimsuits. With this new block, which will have 100 new rooms, we will raise the standard of the infrastructure and concentrate residential seminars there, as it will have a 250-seat amphitheatre and meeting rooms: a plenary room, which can be divided, with a capacity of 350 people, breakout rooms and another meeting room, which is a little further away, 200 metres away, near the sea. Thanks to this new wing, which is separate from the main hotel, our two clientele will have less contact with each other.
This new business-focused block, with its 100 additional rooms, will enable us to renovate the historic hotel, which dates back to 2008. Closing 60 or 70 rooms in a hotel with 165 rooms for renovation is very risky financially. With 265 rooms, this gives us greater flexibility. Over the next three years, the aim is to completely refurbish the entire Terrou-Bi resort.
Will this new wing also offer more upmarket rooms?
Absolutely! We will have two 250 m2 presidential suites with exceptional terraces. There will also be six or seven sumptuous suites with terraces and very spacious rooms.
Finally, this wing will include two dining areas: one for individual breakfasts and one for groups, where breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served as required.
This new block should be completed by June 2026 and the Youth Olympic Games, which will be hosted by Dakar, in October. Terrou-Bi will also house the IOC's executive centre.
Do you have any other projects similar to Terrou-Bi in Senegal or elsewhere?
Indeed, we want to continue to grow, and we have two major projects: one in Senegal and another in Côte d'Ivoire. The first is in Saly, a seaside resort located about 100 kilometres from Dakar.
On the site of the casino we operate there, we have 5,000 or 6,000 square metres of land on which we would like to build a 60- or 70-room hotel of the same standard as Terrou-Bi. The idea is to offer a high-end product to set ourselves apart. Especially since we have what is undoubtedly the best restaurant in Saly in our casino. The investment will be between 7 million and 8 million euros.
The second project would be to create the same type of establishment as Terrou-Bi in Côte d'Ivoire, in Abidjan. We already have a foothold in this city, which is an important African hub, through another business. The difficulty is finding a space that allows us to offer something similar to what we have in Dakar. Investing in a tower block in the city is out of the question for us because that's not what we do.
The difficulty in Abidjan is finding a space by the sea. We would like to set up on the lagoon. The investment would be substantial, between €50 and €60 million, for this new venture. The other difficulty we face today in Africa is credit. We cannot borrow in euros. We therefore need an intermediary bank, which currently offers rates of between 4 and 5%, with the risk of devaluation hanging over our heads. If the CFA franc devalues, the loan could double or triple. The other obstacle when borrowing locally is that here, the long term is five years, with a two-year deferral, at 7.5% or even 8%. It's not like in Europe, where you can borrow for 15 or 20 years at 2% or 2.5%. As soon as the money arrives, the borrower starts paying interest. Then, after two years, when the establishment opens, both the interest and the capital have to be repaid. So it's very complicated because you have to be profitable immediately in order to be able to repay the loan.
 The Terrou-Bi resort is located on the seafront, away from the hustle and bustle of Dakar
Photo credit © Terrou-Bi
 The Terrou-Bi hotel has 165 rooms. An extension of 100 additional rooms is currently under construction.
Photo credit © Terrou-Bi
 The rooms, ranging from 32 to 121 square metres in size, are modern and comfortable. Some offer a very pleasant sea view.
Photo credit © Terrou-Bi
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