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How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#21

Post by automated_toast »

selimthegrim wrote: post #11
walterbell wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About half the country’s motels are now owned by Indian Americans. A majority of these owners are from Gujarat state’s industrious Patel community, leading them to be jokingly referred to as the Patel Motel Cartel. They are mostly from one region of India.

I have to wonder if any Gujarati non-Patel Muslims turned up, would they be getting the same handshake loans?

Non-Patel Hindus that are of the same caste as Patels would have a hard time getting Handshake loans. It is really tribal. Within Patels themselves, there are extensive intra-Patel clans.

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#23

Post by Spooky23 »

bytematic wrote: post #9
stephengillie wrote: post #3

This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries. > Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, an…

Could this apply, or have applied, to farms? I bet that would have a lot of interesting social effects.

No. Hotels work because they require capital and low overhead — they also have a limited scope of competition. farming is a business in the middle of a consolidation wave. Small farmers are being starved out and losing access to capital as small banks go away.

I don’t thing that the gujarati model works for fringe agriculture. The big players in the agriculture business are global now, and a farmer in Ohio or New York will have a hard time making money, as the big companies just need to outbid you for one harvest season, and make up the difference with their weekly harvests in California, Chile, etc.

There are players (people serving Chinese restaurants and the Amish) doing well, but those markets are limited.

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#24

Post by monocasa »

stephengillie wrote: post #3

This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries. > Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, an…

Really? The killer app here seems to be access to capital on amazing terms.

> They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#25

Post by justaguyhere »

stephengillie wrote: post #3

This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries. > Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, an…

I recently learned about oulipo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulipo) who create works with constraints (sometimes severe) and the results are quite amazing. Lack of resources can be sometimes a blessing in disguise whether it is literature or hard business.

I wonder why Americans don't do this (maybe they do, I don't know) - why borrow from banks (or VCs etc) with strict strings attached, instead of supporting one another based on trust? Obviously this won't work for millions of dollars, but this should work for 5/6 figure loans?

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#26

Post by CodeCube »

If you are interested in these kinds of stories, check out the documentary http://www.thesearchforgeneraltso.com/

Aside from being specifically about searching for the origin of the general tso recipe, it talks about how chinese immigrants came to own so many chinese restaurants across the country.

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#27

Post by parthdesai »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #17

Can someone tell me why the surname of Patel is so predominant in the hotel owners? The article doesn't really explain why.

In India, last names were usually based on your occupation. And iirc, Patels used to be farmers or merchants. It's the most common Gujarati surname. That's why you would see some people having "Motiwala" as a last name which literally translates to "Pearl merchant".

Source: have the 3rd most common Gujarati surname.

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#28

Post by sidlls »

stephengillie wrote: post #3

This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries. > Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, an…

It's not (just) that most Americans feel these jobs aren't worth their time. There is a very strong individualist streak in American culture and a very strong taboo against lending friends or family members money for any reason.

There are plenty of American families who have relations who could easily help bootstrap a profitable small business in the way described here. It just doesn't happen that way very often.

Instead the typical means to wealth is inheritance or luck of birth providing access to investment capital (not loans) and business connections. For every WhatsApp there's a dozen or more Microsofts and Facebooks (Gates and Zuckerberg both benefitted from the immense social and financial capital their families could provide).

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#29

Post by [deleted] »

monocasa wrote: post #24
stephengillie wrote: post #3

This model has led to success for other immigrant groups in other industries. > Many followed his advice. “They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, an…

Really? The killer app here seems to be access to capital on amazing terms. > They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can

[deleted]

Re: How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

#30

Post by bluedino »

>> Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, and profits went toward acquiring new motels.

It is the exact same with convenience stores. Work 12-14 hour days. Only have other family members work there.

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