ORLANDO, Florida—Texas hotelier Miraj S. Patel, MBA, CHO, CHIA, was named the most recent Chairman of the AAHOA (Asian American Lodge House owners Affiliation) 2024-25 Board of Administrators, and the youngest serving on this place in AAHOA’s 35-year historical past. Patel turned Chairman on the conclusion of the 2024 AAHOA Conference & Commerce Present in Orlando, Florida, which set a document stage of exhibiting distributors and welcomed almost 6,500 attendees.
“It’s an honor to serve America’s lodge homeowners as the most recent AAHOA Chairman,” Patel mentioned. “I’m dedicated to serving to remedy a number of the trade’s hardest challenges with easy and easy options and to placing our members on the heart of each choice we make.”
Patel is a second-generation hotelier who started his profession in hospitality at a younger age, rising up in his household’s first 30-room unbiased property. He bought his begin in volunteer service at AAHOA by serving as a committee member for a number of years and becoming a member of the AAHOA Board of Administrators in 2019 after being elected as Younger Skilled Director Western Division.
“Serving because the youngest Chair within the affiliation’s historical past additional demonstrates AAHOA’s dedication to fostering the expansion and success of the following era,” Patel mentioned. “I’m all the time encouraging younger professionals to not let age decide success. Many occasions, individuals might say you’re too younger, however that’s completely not true. There are such a lot of of us who’re younger however nonetheless do no matter it takes to seek out success. Should you by no means attempt, you’ll by no means know what you’re able to reaching.”
Immediately, Patel is President of Wayside Funding Group, a Texas-based firm that focuses on making opportunistic investments within the lodging and hospitality actual property sector.
Over time, Patel has exemplified management within the trade. Other than his devotion to the hospitality trade, he believes in giving again to the neighborhood. He serves on numerous trade associations and charitable organizations and continues to hunt alternatives to make a optimistic distinction.
Patel earned his Grasp’s in Enterprise Administration and his Bachelor of Science diploma in Lodge and Lodging Administration from Johnson and Wales College in Miami, Florida.
“On behalf of the whole AAHOA group, we congratulate Miraj on turning into AAHOA’s latest Chairman,” mentioned AAHOA President and CEO Laura Lee Blake. “We sit up for working below his management to proceed to advance the trade and place AAHOA as the one true voice of lodge homeowners within the nation. Miraj has an unbelievable ardour for serving the trade and members of AAHOA, and, like those that have come earlier than him, we all know he’ll have a big optimistic impression on AAHOA within the years forward.”
“I promise to put the muse for a tomorrow that displays the aspirations, wants, and challenges of right now,” Patel mentioned. “I’m the place I’m right now due to AAHOA, and it’s extremely reassuring to know the identical is true for therefore many different AAHOA Members. As Chairman of AAHOA, I’ll try to work alongside the 2024-25 AAHOA Board of Administrators to form a future the place we’re pioneering new methods of considering, a collaborative spirit, and outcomes for AAHOA members.”