The First 100 Days

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AAHOA Chairman Alkesh Patel reviews his first 100 days and outlines some exciting changes and developments coming this fall for all members

While it’s only been 100 days since Alkesh Patel became AAHOA Chairman, he and

the rest of the Board of Directors have been hard at work planning events and making decisions for the future.

During the first Board meeting on May 22, the Board made a prior-ity to plan agendas and set dates for more than a dozen Regional meet-ings in order to give vendors, at-tendees and Board members plenty of time to prepare.

After receiving feedback from vendors who exhibit during Re-gional Trade Shows, Patel felt it was important to be careful how AAHOA scheduled the events.

“We put the Regionals on Tues-day and Thursday. Strategically, it makes sense so you’re not running around the whole week back and forth. You know you can do two

Regionals so you can plan your personal business and personal life along with AAHOA business,” Patel said. “[Vendors said] it’s good to have Regionals done by Thursday so they can be home by Thursday evening. If they can’t, they’re back by Friday. If we do Regionals on Friday, then they’re traveling on Saturday and that takes out from their work schedule. When you have it planned, it makes a big difference for them.”

In addition to sensible timing, Patel said the Board will focus this fall on adjusting Regional schedules in order to maximize resources and provide members the best value. Traditionally, the day-long Re-gional meetings begin at 1 p.m. with

Educational Seminars, followed by a three-hour Trade Show in the mid-dle of the afternoon and an evening Business Meeting.

“Up to two or three in the af-ternoon, you are really busy. In 50 percent of the Regions, you have an audience that arrives at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the afternoon,” Patel said. “It’s not that they don’t want to get the education, it’s that they are working. They’re running the hotels and taking care of the kids. If we were to do a Trade Show and then do some education pieces during the evening, I think it makes sense.”

Rather than Officers reciting information members can find in AAHOA Lodging Business, Patel hopes to use the Business Meeting as a platform for vendors to educate members on different products, services and other industry issues.

By Jonathan Springston, AAHOA Lodging Business

AAHOA Chairman Alkesh Patel in Atlanta during the 2012

Annual Convention

Class In Session

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“The evening is when you have the most attendees and we need to take advantage of that. It’s a pre-mium time,” Patel said.

During the May 22 Board meeting, Patel said each Regional Director agreed to send letters and e-mail invitations to elected officials and candidates for office from their respective Regions.

“We expect we’ll always have two to three elected officials, plus professionals. We want to make sure during that one-hour Business Meet-ing, we are as productive as pos-sible and spend more time answer-ing questions from members than making long speeches,” Patel said. “When you have three or four differ-ent individuals that come and speak on a topic that matters to [members], they are going to pay attention. They don’t want to listen to me talking about something that is already in the magazine. It’s boring for them.”

Before becoming Chairman in May during the AAHOA Annual Convention in Atlanta, Patel knew there had to be detailed plans to ensure he could not only meet the demands of his new leadership role but also those of his personal and professional life.

“I always wanted the meetings planned in advance so I know what my AAHOA responsibilities are. That way, I can prepare my business schedules and family schedules too,” he said. “I have a great family and partners who help me with [my business]. You also want to make sure you spend time with the family. I have a young daughter and son. I try to get business done by Friday [so] I’m home with them on the weekends.”

In the weeks since the Conven-tion, Patel has begun crafting his message and slipping into a broader leadership role.

“I have a bigger role as Chair-man to fill. Before, it was more of a supporting role as a member of the Board, a committee chair or as an

Officer. As Chairman, it’s decision time and every decision is that much more important,” he said. “Before, it was speaking for the Board or a com-mittee opinion. Now, it’s making a decision for AAHOA and the membership.”

Even though travel has been light, Patel has been active. He attended the NYU Conference in New York. The Board met with Best Western executives to discuss partnership ideas. In early June, he par-

ticipated in a business roundtable hosted by Red Roof Inn and Hotel Business in Columbus, Ohio.

“As Chairman, what’s different is you go and meet with these industry executives and find out what are the things [they] can offer to the AAHOA membership they are already offering to their members,” Patel said.

In late June, Patel traveled to Baltimore for HITEC, where he and other Board members strengthened relations with members of the Hos-pitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) leadership, in-cluding Frank Wolfe and R.P. Rama, who invited the new Chairman and the Board to upcoming HFTP events in Orlando and Goa, India.

“[HITEC] was amazing. I met with the executives there

[and] we talked about how they can bring

some of their exper-tise to AAHOA. We spent a lot of time with them discuss-ing how they do their educational seminars,” Patel

said. “Their

When you have three or four different individuals that come and speak on a topic that matters to [members], they are going to pay attention

Alkesh Patel no longer speaks for just a few

members or the Board but the entire association

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“Every time you speak, you have to think about it. That’s different. Before, it was speaking for the Board or a committee opinion. Now it’s important. More of it is making a decision for AAHOA and the membership.”

executive team is so knowledgeable. They gave me a lending hand. They said ‘let’s come up with special seminars at the [AAHOA] Conven-

tion for the youth.’”Patel said bringing

such knowledge to the new generation of AA-HOA hoteliers could be invaluable.

“The second and third genera-tions are coming into business. The youth can sit with [HFTP]. They can take so much out of it. That informa-tion is essential,” he said. “When you have that information and you

use that in your new project, that saves you a lot of money. Rather than doing something without that knowledge, you do it with that expertise. Then five years down the road, you’re not scrambling to

Alkesh Patel has his eyes on the future

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change something that’s already come along.”

Education has emerged as an im-portant theme for Patel’s Chairman-ship. While AAHOA remains “the sword you need and the shield you deserve,” as the new Chairman put it

during the Convention, the associa-tion is ready to make individual members their own best advocates.

As part of the new governance model that took effect after the Convention, members had the opportunity to apply

for positions on association com-mittees.

“Every month I was writing about the committee participa-tion. At the Convention, I told the members that in order to be a part of it, you need to apply. We had a lot of people apply and show interest. We were able to get 95 to 99 percent of those who applied onto committees to serve,” Patel said. “There were certain committees like Governmen-tal Affairs, Strategic Planning and Youth that had greater interest than the others. If people weren’t able to serve

on their first com-mittee of choice, I

was able to put

them in their second committee of choice.”

“It worked out pretty well. We got our orientations done and the committees elected their chairs. It’s something we’ll work on improv-ing,” he added.

AAHOA recently commissioned a survey through Xavier University and the University of Kentucky that seeks to answer many important questions for franchisees.

“We want to get the stats out on the performance of certain

brands so we can have a book or a sheet,” Patel said. “If we can produce guidelines for [a first-time hotelier] that shows how much it’s going to

cost, the different categories of hotels, and the brands that

give the most ROI, that will help him to make the

decision.”

You meet with these industry executives and find out what are the things [they] can offer to the AAHOA membership they are already offering to their members

The new Chairman constantly works with other AAHOA leaders to chart a

new course for the association

Alkesh Patel at the Annual Convention in Atlanta shortly before announcing the results of the election

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order to ensure the protec-tion of those business inter-ests. In recent years, AAHOA has become a lobbying force on Capitol Hill.

With the help of the Washington, D.C.-based firm Patton Boggs LLP, AAHOA has made many friends on Capitol Hill. The Board is working on hiring a lobby-ist who would work out of the Patton Boggs office and focus exclusively on AAHOA and hospitality industry interests.

“Having a permanent office - AAHOA’s office - will make a big difference,” Patel said. “You need to have a presence [on Capitol Hill] doing this full time. It makes a big difference.”

In order to wield greater influence within electoral

politics, Patel has put a heavy em-phasis on raising more money for the AAHOA Political Action Committee (PAC).

“The PAC is the biggest thing this year, being an election year. Part of our governance model is to have a healthy PAC,” Patel said. “Our goal is to have $1

million in the PAC.”In order to raise more

money, the Board has devised a strategic plan that includes three PAC club levels: 101, 365 and 1,001, where these num-bers represent dollar amounts.

“For each Regional Direc-tor, we have come up with a goal of $9,000. Let’s say we have a $9,000 goal that each Regional Director raises on a five year renewal basis. That gives you an idea of how to get to that million,” Patel said.

During the first Board

meeting, Board members chipped in $75,000 for the PAC.

“It was a good start. Before, cer-tain regions would go heavily after PAC funds, and we would raise tons of money. But other regions would be dry,” Patel noted.

Members who cannot afford to donate at this level, will have the op-portunity to donate smaller amounts as part of a raffle to be held at each Regional meeting.

“They can give $20 or $25, but I want to make sure the member under-stands why it’s important to commit that money and to contribute to the PAC,” Patel said. “I have no doubt we will be able to reach or exceed our goal.”

The survey will also reveal franchise fees details and which brands are easier to work with. Patel said raw data could be extracted to determine how many AAHOA mem-bers own a particular brand of hotel and what percentage of a particular brand that number represents.

For the new term, AAHOA has completely revamped the Certified

Hotel Owners (CHO) program*, with plans in place for classes to oc-cur almost every week and expecta-tions that the program will produce more graduates than ever before.

“With our mission statement, education is a key piece of it,” Patel said. “The first generation believed on providing good education. We want to make sure that as long as the members are getting education, they will be able to operate their business smartly.”

Part of running a smart business means reaching out to elected of-ficials at all levels of government in

We want to make sure that as long as the members are getting education, they will be able to operate their business smartly

Alkesh Patel has put heavy emphasis on raising funds for the AAHOA PAC

Alkesh Patel speaking during

the Northeast Regional in July

*Developed by Kapoor & Kapoor Hospitality Consultants