AAHOA Recognizes Achievers

ATLANTA, GA, March 16, 2007 – The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) held its Annual Convention and Trade Show in Charlotte, North Carolina, from March 7-10, 2007. Throughout the event, AAHOA presented awards for outstanding achievement to its members and guests.
 
Atul M. Patel was recognized with the AAHOA Award for Excellence, Sangita “Gita” Patel received the Outstanding Woman Hotelier of the Year Award; the Alexis Inn & Suites, located in Nashville, Tennessee, and owned by Atul Kapadia, received the IAHA Independent Hotel of the Year Award; Drs. Kiran Patel and Pallvi Patel received the Cecil B. Day Community Service Award; Meera Jitendra Deva received the 2007-2008 AAHOA Scholarship; Alkesh Patel, ChandraKant I. “C.K.” Patel, and Kalpana Patel received the Board of Directors Awards; Asvin Patel, AV Patel, and Bharat Trivedi received the Chairman’s Awards. AAHOA also recognized Gino Startari of Fusion Productions, BAPS International Care, and H.R. Shah of TV ASIA for their contributions to the association.
 
“This year, we had a very deserving group of award recipients,” Mukesh Mowji, AAHOA Chairman, 2006, said. “The board of directors and the executive committee had difficult decisions to make because of the quality of nominees.”

AAHOA’s Award for Excellence recognizes the Asian American hotelier who has demonstrated strong leadership, high standards of excellence, and someone who is making a significant contribution to the lodging industry. The winner for 2007 is Atul M. Patel, of HMB Management, Inc. in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Atul moved to the United States in 1980, and by 1988, he had formed HMB Management with only a small motel in North Carolina. Today, HMB Management owns and operates commercial real estate worth $135 million and expects to add assets work $130 million in the next two years. A lifetime member of AAHOA, Atul earned his CHA and is the 2005 recipient of the “Hotelier of the Year” award from the Hilton Hotel Corporation. In 2006 he was a member of the advisory board of Starwood Hotels, and Atul has been recognized by BAPS, ICS, the FOI Society and Lad Samaj of New Jersey.

The Outstanding Woman Hotelier of the Year Award recognizes the woman hotelier who has demonstrated strong leadership qualities, a commitment to lodging excellence, and who has made significant contributions to her industry and to her community. Sangita “Gita” Patel was chosen not only for the business strength she has demonstrated as owner and secretary of two businesses; general manager, owner, and director of sales for a Country Inn & Suites; and the construction of a Comfort Suites, but also for her civic efforts, including her work for the Chamber of Commerce, her position as a Chamber Ambassador for York County, and local associations such as the theater and high school.

Alexis Inn & Suites, located in Nashville, Tennessee, and owned by Atul Kapadia, won AAHOA’s IAHA Independent Hotel of the Year Award. The award honors an independent hotel that sets a high standard of excellence in quality, service and guest satisfaction. A specific hotel rather than an independent hotelier is honored. The Alexis Inn & Suites is a 109-room, select-service independent hotel which has consistently been listed in the top 10 revenue and room night producers for the city of Nashville, Tennessee. Not only has the hotel grown but also it has given back to the community by partnering with the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office to fight drug abuse, by sponsoring a local little league football team, by hosting March of Dimes fundraisers, and by partnering with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Cecil B. Day Community Service Award recognizes an individual, or individuals, who have demonstrated a strong commitment to serving the Asian American community. Dr. Kiran Patel and Dr. Pallvi Patel, both of Tampa, Florida, and members of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (APPI), won the Cecil B. Day Community Service Award. The award is named in honor of Cecil B. Day, founder of Days Inn, who was well-known for his commitment to community service.

Each year AAHOA awards a $5,000 scholarship, payable for up to four years to an Asian American student studying hotel/motel hospitality management. The recipient must be the son or daughter of a member in good standing with AAHOA, a legal resident of the United States or Canada, enrolling or currently enrolled in and attending an accredited college or university as a full-time student, seeking a degree in the field of hotel/motel hospitality management, have a minimum B grade point average in high school and maintain at least a B average throughout college to continue receiving the AAHOA Scholarship Award. The 2007-2008 AAHOA Scholarship recipient is Meera Jitendra Deva, of Gastonia, North Carolina.

Kalpana Patel, “C.K” Patel, and Alkesh Patel received Directors Awards for the time, effort and successes they achieved during the past year. Though a freshman member of the AAHOA Board, Kalpana Patel’s “work ethic and her skills set were very high,” said Mukesh Mowji. C.K. Patel, a senior member of the board and AAHOA’s newly-elected Treasurer, took on challenging projects, including updating AAHOA’s 12 Points of Fair Franchising and creating the Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) and succeeded in using them to change franchise business methods to benefit AAHOA members. Also a senior member of the Board, Alkesh Patel’s work on the Freedom team, which generated over $700,000 in revenue for the association, and his leadership of the India 2007 team, which took a delegation of franchisors to India to explore investment opportunities, “made him an ideal candidate for the Directors Award,” according to Mowji.

The Chairman’s Awards went to Asvin Patel, A.V. Patel, and Bharat Trivedi. According to Mowji, Asvin Patel “made me the leader that I ultimately became,” and A.V. Patel was “the guru that produced this leader,” and finally, of Bharat Trivedi, Mowji commented, “If one could claim a brother, he was it . . . his belief in me was ultimately faith in myself.”