Hotel Dreams & Indian Born Barons
Today's great American hotel owner is more likely to be named Patel and have roots that extend to the Gujarat state in India, than to be named Trump and lay claim to premier properties in the New York area.
Immigrants from India, almost all with ties to Gujarat in the western part of the country, have become a dominant force in the US hotel industry.
They own about half of the US economy lodging facilities and almost 37 percent of all hotel properties here, according to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, based in Atlanta.
This means that if a traveler stops at a Days Inn along Interstate 95 on the way to Washington, a Best Western in rural Montana, or a Holiday Inn Express near Dallas, there is about a 50 percent chance the hotel is owned by an individual or the family of an immigrant from India.
"The first group found opportunities in the lodgings industry, more by accident than by design," said Hitesh Bhakta, chairman of the AAHOA at the group's convention held in late April at a suburban Dallas hotel.
Indians from Gujarat started to buy into lower-end US hotels in the 1960s and 1970s, when US immigration laws granted residency for new arrivals who invested about US$10,000 to run a business. The ethnic group now owns about 20,000 hotels - about 1 million rooms - in 50 states.
Immigrants from India, almost all with ties to Gujarat in the western part of the country, have become a dominant force in the US hotel industry.
They own about half of the US economy lodging facilities and almost 37 percent of all hotel properties here, according to the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, based in Atlanta.
This means that if a traveler stops at a Days Inn along Interstate 95 on the way to Washington, a Best Western in rural Montana, or a Holiday Inn Express near Dallas, there is about a 50 percent chance the hotel is owned by an individual or the family of an immigrant from India.
"The first group found opportunities in the lodgings industry, more by accident than by design," said Hitesh Bhakta, chairman of the AAHOA at the group's convention held in late April at a suburban Dallas hotel.
Indians from Gujarat started to buy into lower-end US hotels in the 1960s and 1970s, when US immigration laws granted residency for new arrivals who invested about US$10,000 to run a business. The ethnic group now owns about 20,000 hotels - about 1 million rooms - in 50 states.
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