AAHOA
112 | Connecting with Your Team, Empowering Women and Mountain Climbing with Lina Patel
AAHOA
Lina Patel’s goal is to climb mountains and her passion is to serve.
Born and raised in India, Lina immigrated to the United States in the early 80’s with her parents. She grew up working in the hotel, cleaning rooms, doing laundry, working front desk shifts, and even mowing the lawn. She remembers coming home after school and immediately racing to the hotel lobby to begin her shift.
Lina graduated from Wright State University with a degree in Management Information Systems and immediately started working with Lexis-Nexis, the online database company, to gain Corporate knowledge.
Ultimately, she rejoined the hotel industry and started investing in multiple franchises across the Eastern United States.
Lina served as an AAHOA regional ambassador program for 6 years, and she was just elected by the members to serve as AAHOA Female Director at Large to represent the Eastern Division.
In This Episode, Lina Reveals:
- How her journey as a second generation hotelier led her from working in the hotel growing up, to working in the corporate world for many years, to returning to hospitality and investing in multiple properties.
- Why she chose to serve on multiple boards, and how getting involved in a trade association has helped her survive the 2008 recession.
- That her employee retention rate is about 50%, which is better than the industry average, and some of the ways she connects with her team.
- Why she is passionate about mountain climbing, and how she has been able to use her hospitality skills on the mountain, and climbing skills in the hotel.
Resources & Links
Mentioned in this Episode
Lina Patel
AAHOA
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343 | Take a Cue from Hospitality: Senior living is next big opportunity
Hoteliers and allied companies invested in both lodging and senior-living assets demonstrate how the spirit of hospitality and its best practices extend into other real-estate-asset groups. Episode 343 of Lodging Leaders podcast is the second in a two-part series that explores the hospitality industry’s growing interest in senior living.
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342 | Live Long and Prosper: Hospitality industry embraces senior living
Since she was a teenager volunteering at senior-living facilities in Boston, Serena Lipton knew she wanted a career in senior housing. But she had a difficult time finding the college program she believed would educate and prepare her to serve in the senior-living industry. After graduating from Boston University School of Hospitality Administration and working as an analyst for JLL’s Senior Housing Valuation Advisory, Lipton finally found what she was looking for. This fall she enrolled in BU’s Master of Management in Hospitality with a new concentration in senior living. She and other students are on the cusp of what BUSHA believes is a massive shift in how Americans view aging and where opportunities lie for the hospitality industry.