re: Patels make up less than 1 in 500 Americans, but they own over 50% of all motels in the US

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Doesn’t “Patel” literally translate to the word “hotel?”

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I was told it loosely translates as "inn keeper"

To the other point about skipping town on bills, not entirely untrue.

Friend was the GM of a hotel in town that was bought by some Patels. Started to get to where he couldn't get any of the contractors - plumbers, electricians, etc - that he had used regularly for years to come for service calls with any urgency. One of them finally told him "Look, since y'all were bought out, if they're gonna take their sweet arse time paying, I'm gonna take my sweet arse time coming out."

Turns out, he would submit their invoices and the new owners just wouldn't pay them for months on end with no explanation while he had guests submitting tons of shitty online reviews - plumbing leaks, no A/C, etc.

He finally said "frick it" and moved on.