About Don Suite Hotels

From the moment you arrive at Don Suite Hotels, you’ll experience the freedom to stay your way. This concept, that extended-stay suite hotels could provide the comforts of home for travellers who were to spend considerable periods of time away from home, appealed to property owner Norman Banks. For this purpose, he custom built the original Don Apartments – Don Pepe, Don Pasquelle and Don Augustus.

At the time, with a total of 214 apartments, they were the only properties of note that provided rented furnished apartments in the affluent northern suburbs. Ambitious property entrepreneur Marc Wainer, together with a sleeping partner, realised the potential of The Don concept and acquired these original Dons in 1988.

As is true of Don Suite Hotels accommodation today, the original three properties featured huge bedrooms and lounge/dining space. Every attention was paid to satisfy the requirements of guests who had a wide range of needs. To this end Don Suite Hotels marketed studios, one, two or three bedroom suites as an alternative to the single rooms of conventional hotels. The suite hotel option was aimed at the business travel market and particularly at business people committed to relatively long stays away from home.

Don Suite Hotels offered more than the comforts of a hotel room – instead it provided a fully serviced suite with the convenience of well equipped self-catering style kitchens, spacious, separate lounge/dining rooms and a workstation area, as well as additional family bedrooms and secure parking.

Rather than the limited space of the majority of hotel rooms, Don Suite Hotels are spacious and set the highest standards in quality furnishings, linen, cutlery, amenities and ultimately created comforts equal to the best internationally. In fact one of our earliest slogans said it all: DOUBLE THE SPACE AT HALF THE PRICE.

Today guests may choose between a luxury studio, one, two, or three bedroom suites with features that both surprise and please. From the upmarket luxury of a hotel with 24-hour reception, DSTV, dry cleaning and laundry services, to barbeque facilities, Don Suite Hotels are guaranteed to satisfy.

Once again to accommodate the needs of the more independent traveller Don Suite Hotels created a pricing policy where guests were charged a rate according to the suite rather than per person.

As a result of protracted negotiations, Don Suite Hotels once again changed hands. The old consortium joined forces with Bloemfontein entrepreneur and hotelier Thabiso Tlelai’s family trust to form a new company in which Tlelai’s trust held 51% shares.



1993 was an eventful year in the development of The Don chain of hotels. The group was given the resources to expand, when a Johannesburg financial and property organisation acquired the controlling equity. This meant that the Don suites could be upgraded to meet the highest international standards in comfort, convenience and security. From these developments sprung the 59 unit suite hotel on the shores of the cosmopolitan and ever popular Bruma Lake, followed by the first Don in the mushrooming Rosebank CBD; Don Pasquale was renovated to offer high quality Platinum Suite accommodation, and 41 luxury units were added to upgrade another of the original Dons – Pepe.

1995 – 1998 was a time of profile growth for Don Suite Hotels. Land was purchased in Isando near Johannesburg International Airport and so commenced the building of the profitable Airport Don, opened by the Premier of Gauteng Tokyo Sexwale.

Expansion into Pretoria and refurbishment and enlargements of a recent acquisition saw the opening of Don Arcadia I with 46 suites in April 1995. At the same time, a development on a second site in the same area began R3,5 million was spent on the reconstruction of Don Rosebank II which consisted for 29 suites and in 1998, the re-development and integration of an adjoining building, increased its number of suites to 46. Further developments occurred in Sandton and Pretoria.

The next move gave Don Suite Hotels a prized foothold in the Western Cape. This came through the acquisition country wide, of seven hotels owned by the Trafalgar group in March 1996. Beautiful old buildings renovated to the style and standards of Don Suite Hotels saw the opening of properties in Seapoint with 27 suites, and Gardens with 31 suites.