From Front Desk to Fairfield: A Conversation with Hotel Owner Vimal Ranat

Growing up in a hotel can teach you a lot about life—and about business. In this episode of The Room Key, host Chase Keller sits down with hospitality veteran Vimal Ranat, who shares his inspiring journey from working the front desk as a child to owning multiple branded properties, including a newly built Fairfield Inn & Suites.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The challenges and opportunities in today’s hospitality industry
• How cross-training staff can solve labor shortages
• Why automation and AI are changing hotel operations
• Vimal’s advice for hotel owners on growth, risk-taking, and building strong partnerships

Bonus Insight: Vimal reveals what it’s really like to do a joint venture for hotel development and shares his vision for the future of midscale and extended-stay properties.

Stay tuned for the Wake-Up Call segment, where Vimal answers rapid-fire questions about hotel ownership and his biggest lessons learned.

Only on The Room Key!

📍 Subscribe for more interviews, legal insights, and real-world hotel strategies: www.youtube.com/@TheRoomKey

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) As Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook says, any risk

is a risk, right?

And being in business, it's a risk.

But as long as you know, you're logical,

and numbers work, everything will be fine.

Thank you so much for coming to talk

with us.

I'm excited to hear your story.

Welcome to the podcast.

I always like to start out with the

origin story.

Who was Vimal when you grew up?

What kind of a kid were you?

So glad to be here.

You know, thank you very much.

Nice to meet you.

So I grew up in India, up until

the age of five, in the state of

Gujarat, basically.

And my father migrated to the US in

1969.

Then my mom and I, we migrated in

1975.

So when we came to the country, as

a child, I was very curious, because being

in a new country, not being very efficient

in English.

Sure.

So going to school was a little bit

challenging in the beginning.

But with the support of my teachers and

my friends.

So what, where did you come to?

Did you come to Kansas City?

So my dad leased his first hotel in

Stockton, California.

Stockton, California, back in 1970, 71.

And then I, you know, I came in,

we flew into Stockton, California, grew up in

the hotel industry during that time.

At the age of, I started working the

desk with my parents at the age of

seven, just to get into the industry.

And, you know, I still remember during that

time, where it was a small hotel, you

know, in Indian property, and in a rundown

area, you know, because the investment was small

at that time, right, you know, money was

challenging.

So my dad took his first step, took

the risk, you know, and I remember, you

know, renting rooms with my dad.

And, you know, the guest would come in,

rent the room.

And we used to give out the sheets

and towels to the guest for a small

deposit.

And they would make their own bed.

So I wish I wish we could go

back to those days now.

But times have changed.

What kind of a property was how big?

It was an Indian property.

I think it was about 2425 rooms.

So he leased that it was his first

hotel he leased in Stockton, California.

And then we moved to Las Vegas with

property there.

And we have property in Texas.

And then we moved to Oklahoma, and a

small town called Elk City.

We were the first Indian family in that

town.

Really?

That was the town population, I think at

that time was about two or 3000 population.

Okay, well, that's a small, yeah, it was

a small town.

And you know, everybody knew us.

You know, the community was very supportive of

us being there, you know, especially in the

hotel industry.

And we grew up there, we bought, you

know, multiple properties at that time.

And then we moved to Kansas City in

1982.

We purchased a property here.

And then this is our basement.

Without me having to do the math.

How old were you when you moved to

Kansas City, Kansas City?

I was in seventh grade.

Yeah.

Junior high.

So you and you lived?

Did you live in Vegas and in Texas?

We did.

We lived in Stockton, Vegas and Oklahoma.

So the Texas property was a remote property.

Do you guys still own any of those?

No, we sold.

Our parents sold them off many years ago.

And you know, dad retired at an early

age.

And then I took over the business.

I have two siblings.

They're awesome.

One's an attorney, and my sister is a

PharmD major.

They're in California.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

And nobody else wanted to get into the

hotel industry.

Just you.

Somebody has to continue the tradition, right?

Absolutely.

So here we are.

So you took the reins.

I did.

I did.

And it's been very fruitful.

Thanks to our, you know, thanks to the

parents and the family support.

So how many did he build prior to

retiring?

So basically, off and on probably close to

eight or nine properties.

And then we built our first property in

Kansas City back in 1999.

We kept that for about 16 years, and

then we sold it.

So you very much grew up in the

hospitality industry.

It's in your blood, clearly.

Going forward, legacy, do you have kids?

I do.

I do have two kids, a son and

a daughter.

My son, he majored in international marketing from

California.

And he does help me in the real

estate business, in the hotel business.

And he also has his own men's boutique

for Indian wear.

So he's a fashion designer also.

Interesting.

I think he goes after my wife.

My wife, she's a fashion designer herself for

Indian wedding clothing.

Really?

Yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah.

And then my daughter, she just graduated from

college a couple of months ago.

So she wants to go into the health

field.

She's an entrepreneur, but I think she has

her mindset in the health field.

And I don't think she wants to go

into the hotel industry.

Sure.

So did they grow up very similar to

how you grew up?

Or were they not?

Because your portfolio was much larger than when

you initially grew up.

So you were, like you said, sitting at

the front desk helping out from very early

on.

Correct.

How involved have they been in the industry?

So they've been very involved from childhood.

You know, I taught them how to write

checks, make hotel deposits, you know, things like

that.

You know, answer the phone, you know, just

the basics.

Because I want them to learn and see

if they want to really get into that

industry when they grew up, right?

Yeah.

So you have to start somewhere.

Absolutely.

And especially having their sense of entrepreneurship clearly

comes from you, from your father.

Correct.

What was it like?

I mean, it's probably all you knew, but

how would you describe your childhood growing up

in the hotel industry around your parents?

So childhood growing up as a child in

the hotel industry, my parents did not believe

in child labor laws.

You know, I think none of the parents

do.

So, you know, working the front desk at

early age, helping in laundry, making rooms, you

know, things like that, and answering the phones.

So I think, you know, the seed that

they planted in me at that time is

being very fruitful today for us.

What would you say is your first major

role that you took on, obviously with your

parents, but what was the mall's like first

project that he took on as a kid?

So as a kid, the management side of

the of all the hotels, and then helping

in the construction of our first hotel that

we did in 99.

Learning from that, we acquired many other properties,

you know, myself, branched out, and I have

other brands that I own, including the Marriott

Fairfield Inn, which we just opened up seven

months ago.

And that was a JV project.

That's the first one for us.

And I think it was a dedication to

my parents.

Nice.

You know, because he's always wanted to have

an upscale property, you know, name brand, which

I think we made that happen.

So what other brands have you been involved?

We've been involved with Choice Hotels, Wyndham Properties,

I have existing Wyndham Properties right now, and

then Marriott, and then hopefully looking into other

other brands down the road.

What was the first franchise that you and

your dad got into after being independent?

First project, our first hotel was a budget

host, economy, economy brand, right?

There's still a few out there in the

market.

And it wasn't, it was nice.

We had an independent property, which we converted

to a budget host.

And we've we operated that for about 12

years, basically.

And then I was on the board for

budget host also.

That was my first experience being on board.

Very nice.

You mentioned that the Fairfield, having the upscale

brand, upscale property was sort of a tribute

to your parents.

What is Vimal's legacy?

What do you want to see years down

the road for what you've worked on?

Years down the road, we eventually we do

want to grow more into upscale properties, new

construction, and just continue continue the legend.

You're heavy here in the Kansas City market.

Is that where you want to stay?

Do you want to?

Oh, we're open to ideas, you know, open

to possibilities anywhere in the US.

We did have properties in, like I mentioned,

in Stockton.

We also had a property in Paso Robles,

California, which is a wine county.

So we had a boutique hotel there.

So yeah.

You still do?

No, we sold that.

And so the hospitality industry is obviously very

demanding.

Constantly, there is no going to sleep and

putting it to bed.

What do you do outside of hospitality to

keep you grounded?

So to keep me grounded is I do

a lot of community service.

I like to give back to the back

to the community.

No recognition, recognition, you know, needed.

You know, it just helps me be a

better person.

Yeah.

And motivates myself, you know, motivates to keep

going.

Did you go to college or grew up?

We I went to college in Warrensburg, Missouri,

CMSU, Central Missouri State University.

Yep.

Majored in business and CIS computer information systems,

but then took a detour into the hotel

industry.

Detour back.

Yeah, exactly.

To go back, actually, it took a pause

a little bit.

Yes.

Go back to your roots.

Did you meet your wife here in Kansas

City in college?

So my wife is from India, Bombay, Mumbai,

actually, which they call.

So we were we were introduced via, you

know, other friends and relatives.

Basically, we were pen pals for about two

years.

We wrote letters at that time, didn't have

any email or fax, you know, back in

1990.

I met her through via phone and letters

around 91.

So we used to write letters to each

other.

And, you know, and, you know, we used

to wait for the letters to come in.

You know, that was the exciting part.

You'd run to the P.O. box, you

know, to pick up the mail right at

that time.

You know, so we used to do that.

So it was nice.

I met her.

We got married in 93.

Then she came to the U.S. after

she finished her studies and came in here,

came to the U.S. in 94.

How does she like the U.S.? She

loves it.

She I mean, you know, she grew up

in a in Bombay in a and she

went to a Indian English speaking school.

So she was fluent in English already, which

is good.

And she's been very supportive.

She does not get involved in the hotel

industry.

She has her own boutique.

And then she also works in a corporate

corporate world, too.

Yeah.

She stays very busy.

So, you know, we want to come home

together, have dinner and not talk about hotels.

Yes.

Right.

Yes.

My my wife and I are both in

real estate.

We work together.

And yes, having a little bit of separation

is so important.

You need your time, time.

What was your first venture apart from your

father?

So first venture was a Wyndham product, which

we purchased.

That was our first acquisition, my first acquisition,

actually.

And then I have multiple Wyndham brands now,

including the Fairfield.

You like the Wyndham system?

I do.

I do like the Wyndham system.

They're they're like family to me.

Yeah.

And it's it's been a good run with

them.

Very nice.

Very supportive.

My DFO is very supportive in the area.

Anytime I need anything, a messenger gets a

prompt reply right back.

Yeah.

So it helps.

In my experience there, it's very much a

family inside Wyndham, especially a lot of the

brands, obviously, but Wyndham especially.

It is very close.

What would you say is one of the

biggest risks that you took early on?

So, you know, as Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook

says, you know, any risk is a risk.

Right.

And being in business, it's a risk.

But as long as, you know, you you're

logical and numbers work, everything will be fine.

Would you say you are naturally more on

the business systems or the the numbers and

analysis or the customer service?

Where does Vimalak really shine?

So my shining point is everywhere, in every

department.

As a business owner, you have to be

in every department.

Right.

And you have to be very flexible.

And, you know, it's been very challenging to

me because I'm a very hands-on person.

And with the Fairfield Inn, you know, since

it's our first JV project, I decided to,

instead of managing it and I want to

focus on growth, I hired a management company

for this property.

But I'm still here every day.

I don't get involved, you know, but, you

know, I'm there for my staff, for the

management company, anything they need, I'm there for

them.

And one thing that a lot of, not

a lot, but some investors, when they're getting

in, especially if they're new to that industry

sector, you think if I'm going to hire

a property manager, I don't want to have

anything to do with it.

And that's where we see a lot of

problems.

You have to, you can hire the best

manager, but you still have to manage the

manager.

You do.

Absolutely.

I agree with you.

And it's been, it's been a nice, nice

go.

And if nothing else, just to make sure

you're on the same page, because they could

be fantastic at what they do, but if

it's not what the strategy is that you

are looking for, you're never going to align

unless you're here talking to them.

Correct.

Yeah.

Correct.

Did you ever think, I don't know if

this is going to work out with any

of your projects?

You know, going back to the property I

purchased about four years ago as a Wyndham

brand, you know, I took my wife there

and I wanted to get her perspective on

it, right.

And you know, buying properties in a small

town, we've never done that before.

We've always been in big cities, metro areas.

So I took her there, a population of

20,000.

We were driving and I told her, this

is a property.

She goes, she looked at it and she

goes, let's buy it just by looking at

the property because she had that intuition, right?

You get, you get that feeling and we

bought it and it's been a good run

for them.

It's been, it's been nice.

That's incredible.

It's been nice.

They've been performing, performing very well.

It's amazing how, I think it's something about

the feminine that has an intuition that we

just honestly don't have.

Absolutely.

We can look at the numbers, we can

look at everything in solid detail, but something

about that intuition is, is so important.

Yep.

And then I'm very glad that she's there

for me.

That's awesome.

Yes.

That's very important.

What is one lesson you learned early on

that sticks with you today?

Starting to work at an early age.

I mean, that's, that's the most benefit that

I've, I've received.

Yeah.

You know, and like I said, glad to

my parents that, you know, they placed me

at the front desk.

He said, go for it, you know, because

I, I still remember, you know, at that

age, you know, when you have an Indian

property in a small town, you know, the

parents might want to take a break, you

know, I said, Hey, you know what, we're

going to go to the store.

We're going to do this, you know, you

know, and overhead, we're watching overhead.

So I said, Okay, Vimo, can you watch

the desk for a bit for an hour

for half an hour, you know, we're just

gonna run to the store and come back,

you know.

So I used to do that.

Yeah.

So it's been nice.

I learned a lot from that.

They were able to take little, little pieces

to be able to test.

Yeah.

And just, you know, and build me where

I am today.

You know, and I still remember, you know,

when I was in high school, my dad

used to, you know, when he used to

acquire hotels, you know, we'd work on the

LOI, we'd work on the purchase agreement.

And he goes, Okay, I don't know how

to type, you know, can you do it

for me?

You know, I knew he knew how to

type.

I knew he knew how to type, you

know, it might be, it might take a

little bit long for him to type, but

I knew he knew it.

But I think, you know, he wanted to

instill in me that, you know what, this

is how you do it.

You know, this is how you do LOI.

This is how you create a purchase agreement.

And from that, I do my own agreements

now.

Giving you those little pieces to build the

puzzle, putting the puzzle together, right?

Yeah, I remember early being been pretty young,

and my dad would buy a new lawnmower,

a new wheelbarrow or something, and he'd point

at the box and say, You're an engineer,

figure it out.

Yep, yep.

I knew my dad could easily put it

together much faster and probably accurately.

But just giving you those little projects to

that, you know, that you take on, and

it's all you definitely builds, it builds character

builds, you know, intelligence.

I mean, it just, you know, all rounded

person, what do you think are some of

the biggest challenges that hotel owners face today?

So the challenger challenges that hotel owners are

facing today, as you know, of course, there's

a few that I have in mind, you

know, property insurance increases, very challenging, property tax

increases, you know, employment challenges.

And then, of course, the current economy, where

we stand today.

So those are the challenges that every owner

is facing throughout the US.

Right?

What is Vimal doing right now, to get

in front of those obstacles to handle some

of those issues and not be taken out

by them?

So what we're doing is we're being proactive

in every department, for example, we'll take this

hotel, we know we're cross training all our

employees, you know, the front desk employees, a

salesperson, assistant manager, you know, they're all doing

playing different roles, basically.

And it's very helpful, very helpful.

And they've been a very good staff to

me.

What do you think is some of the

main benefits of that?

Is it to so that they can help

out if things get tough?

Or if you just can't hire enough people

in that role that other people can come

and help out?

It's a synergy.

No, we're we're a family.

And I believe in my employees as being

family members.

You know, and I just, it just creates

a good positive, positive vibe.

Are you seeing any shifts in consumer behavior,

travel trends?

We are.

So, you know, of course, the lack of

international travel has hurt the economy, a rise

in alternative accommodations, like Airbnb, Verbo, coming in

online.

And then just the guest expectations with lower

tolerance, you know, so because, you know, before

we used to have guests, you know, that

come in very positive, but now it's like,

you know, it's a fast society.

You know, you have the internet, you have

social media, you have all these, you know,

sources that guests look at, you know, and

they choose and pick which property they want

to stay or where they want to eat.

Right.

Now you do the same.

Yeah, absolutely.

As a consumer.

With issues like labor shortages, rising costs, franchise

pressures, is there anything that you are changing

with your business to accommodate some of those

issues?

So, you know, labor shortages, going back to

cross training, that really helps us in the

labor shortages, rising cost, you know, we try

to negotiate bulk purchases for lower cost.

And then franchise pressures, we try to maintain

a good communication with the brand reps, you

know, to ensure that, you know, everything is

in compliance.

And that realistically, the PIP, that they're providing

the timelines, and it's cost effective for this,

for the brand.

Have you seen any issues yet?

And hopefully, not and hopefully not too much

in the future.

But the with increasing tariffs, with increasing costs

for suppliers, are you have you seen any

of that pressure yourself?

We have we have across the whole board,

basically, you know, with purchases for the hotel

industry.

It's going to be there.

I mean, it's a norm is to change

part of life now part of the business

doing business, right?

So we just have to watch our overhead,

you know, and try to cut cost, where

it does not affect the customer service portion

of it.

Right, right.

The quality of quality satisfaction, in general, where's

the industry headed?

What major changes are you seeing that affects

the whole hospitality industry?

So the changes that I've seen, I've started

to see actually is increase in automation, self

check-in portions, basically, more data driven personalization

with the guest, and then, you know, brand

diversification.

So we're seeing all this come into play

now, especially for the future, you know, automation

and contactless check-ins will be a big

business.

As far as AI, are you seeing any,

any major changes for the artificial intelligence inside

the hospitality industry that you're using?

We are and you know, we're looking at,

you know, the operational efficiency, you know, it's

gonna be more efficient to do business on

a day to day basis.

Even though that may, you know, affect the

employment rate, you know, so it's a balance

that we have to take, right, but you're

not going to have robots everywhere.

You will need human beings.

And, you know, and to me, a, it's

a personal touch when you have a human

being, you know, speaking to you.

It's a very personal touch.

Yes, absolutely.

And I feel like even more now, customer

service is so important because we have so

many touch points where it is AI, it's

a bot that doesn't feel real, like we're

getting more used to it.

But when you have good customer service coming

from a real person, it almost makes a

bigger difference today, getting that personal touch.

No, absolutely.

And you know, guest expectations are increasing, increasing

tremendously nowadays, right?

They want more for the money, basically, and

you have to offer that.

What opportunities are you seeing, personally, going forward,

any different market segments, product types, different brands,

different markets, where, where are you looking into

the future?

For the future, where I'm looking into more

of towards, I'd like to stay within mid

scale brands, because of less overhead, full service,

I try to stay away from full service

at this time, because it's too much overhead,

basically.

And, you know, and I'm also looking into

extended stay markets.

I know there's quite a few brands that

have rolled out extended stay brands, which are

appealing to me.

Yeah, I agree.

And I feel like there's a good dichotomy

between the Airbnb, Vrbo, that sort of appeal

to that extended stay, I feel like that's

very similar.

And for us, personally, we love to travel

naturally.

And we have a big family, we have

six kids.

So often, it can be challenging going to

hotels, absolutely almost have to have connecting rooms,

sometimes that's available, sometimes it's not.

And even a connecting room can be tough

to get eight people into a single room.

And that's sort of an appeal to and

I think a push now that a lot

of families have, you know, eight people that

are traveling together, but you do have a

lot of groups that are multiple families together

or extended families that are traveling together, that

have an appeal to go to a larger

building, a larger space that Airbnb typically allows

for.

But I feel like that's where the extended

stay helps out a lot and where hotels

and brands are getting really smart and dipping

into that market, while it may be smaller,

still has a lot of benefits that hotels

have just haven't had the opportunity to jump

into lately.

No, I agree.

I agree.

And even for us, you know, when we

travel, we try, we love to travel also.

And, you know, if we're with our family

or friends and a larger group, we're going

to be renting a house or Airbnb, you

know, that's the route to go to, you

know, but, you know, hotel industry will always

remain there, they'll stay strong, you know, and

we also have cycles that go up and

down, which is every business has, and we

just have to stick it out.

So JV obviously went successful.

It did, it did.

First JV project for us, you know, because

up until now, all our hotels that we

owned were self-provided, you know, self-funded

basically.

And at that certain point, you know, it

limits your growth.

So I said, you know what, let's try

a JV project, see how it goes, and

then we'll go from there.

Do you like it?

I do, I do.

We love it.

Everybody's on the same page.

You know, I have my siblings in here

with me, my brother and sister, and then

I have my, one of my good family

friend, his family invested with us.

So it's been good.

It's been good so far.

Awesome.

Yeah.

And we're on the same page, you know,

and we have our days, of course, everybody

does, you know, we stay, we're very communicative.

Once a month, we have a call with

the management company.

All of us are on the call.

Once a month.

Once a month, we'll see where we're heading,

you know, and I'm here every day, right?

So, I mean, I know everything.

But that once a month call really involves

all my partners together.

I want them involved too, right?

In any major decision-making, day-to-day

decisions, small ones, I take care of it.

So I don't even bother anybody.

You're going to do another one of those?

I'm Hilton approved now.

So think about, I do want to do

a Hilton product, probably on the road.

And then looking at Wyndham, the Echo, the

extended stay Echo, the new one that rolled

out.

That's a little bit So I'm talking to

a general contractor right now to see how

the numbers work out.

To build from the ground up again?

Yeah, from ground up, basically.

But I did, you know, one question, I

don't think we discussed this, but one question

is that, you know, we want to, for

any person that's constructing a new hotel, don't

take shortcuts.

Hire an experienced GC, because that will save

you money and time.

Yes, absolutely.

And the thing that is so interesting, and

one of the things that really pulled me

into the hospitality space, because I've been a

commercial broker for a long time, is just

how unique hotels are.

One, it's still real estate, and the location

obviously matters a ton, but it's very much

a business.

And how well the business is run directly

affects, obviously, your income, but the value of

the property.

So that's where I deal with quite a

bit.

And with being used so much, I totally

agree with you on the construction side, like,

do it right from the beginning, because you're

going to be ideally in this 20, 30,

40, 50 years, and it gets used so

hard, so much more than like an office

building, or a retail building gets used and

just pounded to the ground every day.

If you're taking shortcuts, it's going to show

up.

It's going to show up, and it's going

to affect the business down the road.

And in the long term, you just got

to make sure you make the right logical,

right person that you need to hire, basically,

because that will really affect the business.

Going into our next section, before we check

out from this interview, I always like to

do what we call the wake-up call,

which is shorter answers, rapid-fire questions.

What's one hotel experience that you'll never forget?

Going back is that listening to my wife.

To purchase that one hotel.

So yeah, I think that's paid off.

Trust those...

Trust those instincts, you know, feminine instincts.

You have to do it.

Yeah.

What's one thing that you wish more guests

understood?

I wish more guests understood the challenges that

hotel employees face on a daily basis, basically,

especially the front desk staff, right?

Front desk staff are working hard to meet

guest expectations.

They're working, you know, while managing multiple responsibilities

behind the scenes.

So I think, you know, a little patience

from the guest and empathy would go a

long ways.

A good front desk clerk has to be

one of the hardest jobs in the world.

Not only are you managing so many people,

so many humans as guests and all their

emotions and all their needs, which we all

know traveling can be hectic.

It can be frustrating, especially when things don't

go right or don't meet your expectations.

And you have to meet their emotions.

You have all of the other staff that

you're coordinating and helping with and in your

own.

That's right.

There's so many long hours and that's just

got to be one of the hardest jobs.