Miraj S. Patel, president, Wayside Investment Group, is the youngest-ever chairperson in AAHOA’s 35-year history. Despite his relative youth—and limited time in the position—he laid out ambitious plans for the organization when Hotel Business sat down with him at its regional conference at the Indianapolis Wyndham Airport.
“I have had the opportunity to network with membership all around and having conversations with our brand partners and state association partners to see what we need to work on together, and if there are differences, how we put them aside for the betterment of the industry,” said Patel, who took over chairmanship in April.
Patel’s goals for his time as chair include addressing four areas affecting the industry.
The first is industry disruptors, including OTAs and short-term rentals. “Obviously, there are too many in the market,” he said. “How do we have conversations with them and work with our brand partners to see how we can reduce the commission rate? AAHOA has partnered with other startups like Bookit N Go and many others to create another option for hotel owners with a lower commission rate.”
When it comes to short-term rentals, he is working with AAHOA to promote a level playing field in a number of markets. “A lot of these local cities already have started it, and we are looking at how we continue pushing that because they are taking away a good chunk of our market share,” said Patel.
New technology is also a disruptor, with companies like UberEats, DoorDash, Google and Apple slowly starting to have an effect on the hotel industry “because so many of these advancements are coming so quickly, we need to make sure we are prepared,” he said.
COVID-19 was a major disruptor to the industry, and Patel said there were some lost opportunities that can still be used to reshape the business operating model. “Four years ago, we had a good opportunity to reset the model,” he said. “Unfortunately, the industry didn’t come together because it was always, ‘If that brand doesn’t do it, we’re not going to do it.’ But today’s a prime example. Top line is there, and it’s coming up in many markets. It is not like 2018 or 2019, but it’s coming around. However, NOI continues to shrink day by day, and bottom line numbers are not there. People are not making money. The industry is not making money. If we had done something four years ago, we wouldn’t have been going through what we are going through today.”
The second area the chairman is focusing on is the relationship with brands. “When we look at brands, brand dilution and value, we must address the fact that there may be a lack of differentiators when it comes to these brands,” he said.
The AAHOA chair also feels that brands and owners need to come together when it comes to innovation. A lack of innovation in the past is what caused companies like Airbnb and VRBO to rise in popularity.
His third area is that of lowering the costs of doing business. One of the ways AAHOA is looking at this is talking with brands about purchasing mandates. “How do we challenge the brand purchasing mandate with the free enterprise methodology?” he said. “Many brands have preferred vendors, and the idea behind them is to reduce costs for the owner because of bulk buying. But many times, our owners are finding items that are matching spec, but could cost them much less. We would like them to create a waiver program that allows a member to get an item that matches a spec if it is cheaper.”
The fourth is regulations. AAHOA has been working to create educational workshops and webinars for its members to be more educated on the various government rules and regulations that affect them. “We want our members to get ahead of an issue,” he said. “If you look at ADA and many other components that impacted our industry, we found out after it became a problem. So let’s identify the problem prior and let’s prevent it from becoming big. The least that AAHOA can do is help find a solution.”
