Lessons from Humble Beginnings and Hard Work...

Viran Nana and Jagdip ('Jags') Patel were born in the southern African nation of Zambia where their parents Nanubhai and Ramila Patel operated a small retail store. In reflection, they recall hospitality, taking care of others, helping those in need and being actively involved in the community as always the first priority of their family and ahead of profits or financial rewards which somehow ‘just seemed to follow’.

Upon immigrating to the United States in December 1976, their parents purchased The Park Plaza Motel - a small 32 Key motel with only 10 operational rooms at the time. This became their new home. Parents and siblings all lived and worked at the Park Plaza Motel. Long days were followed by long nights. Often there was no hired help, especially for their mother, it was a struggle to maintain a family business which they all depended on for income as well as raise a family and care for their father’s illness.

Over a four year period however, things started to turnaround with guest occupancy increasing from 15% to 63% and room rates more than tripling from $4.00 per night to $15.00 per night.

The Hotel Business Bug and the First Development...

After completing college and gaining employment, Jags and Viran came to realize how much they missed the hotel business. In 1988 they finally decided to purchase an old Holiday Inn property from RTC which was an independent property with 60 guest rooms and a night club. They renovated, took over the bar and turned both parts of the property into a good profitable operation. While profitable, through this experience they came to realize older properties required a lot of work, and rather than putting on ‘tool belts’ every morning, they felt they could put their time to better use. Development and new construction was the way to go.

In 1991, they developed their first ground-up hotel, the 45 Key Comfort Inn - Decatur, Texas. Just prior to opening, they received a generous surprise offer to sell the Holiday Inn property which allowed them to focus their efforts on the new development. Viran believed it was critical to gain first-hand experience in construction, so for a few years while attending college, he worked for a local general contractor. In 1992, they were ready to develop new properties.

Building a Team, Growing and Refining the Business...

After completing several successful projects, the opportunity came in 1994 to develop opposite the busy and prominent Parks Mall in South Arlington. With this and several other high potential development opportunities on the table, it was time to grow operations and bring in investors. With friends and family members they built a team and developed the Best Western Inn & Suites and the Holiday Inn Express hotels in South Arlington. With a good solid foundation from existing hotels, development focus was further expanded to sites in and around the DFW area, and materialized into the development of the Hampton Inn - North Fort Worth, Holiday Inn Express - Hillsboro, Holiday Inn Express - Terrell, the Best Western Inn & Suites - Fort Worth South and the Best Western Inn & Suites - Denton.

In 1998, Atlantic Management Inc. was formed to increase efficiencies through centralization of operations, management and accounting. Atlantic Management Inc was further consolidated into N2 which include construction activities. With systems and procedures in place, the focus shifted to refinement and a commitment to establishing first class operations.

These efforts actualized into the development of the Springhill Suites - Grapevine in July 2005 and the Fairfield Inn & Suites - Denton in April 2006.

Q Hotels Today...

In September 2006, to preserve the vision and direction of the company as well as further develop their relationship with the people at Marriott (whom they credit for much inspiration and guidance over the years), Q Hotels was formed under sole ownership of Jags Patel and Viran Nana.

Following significant divestment of smaller properties, Jags and Viran under Q Hotels begin aggressively implementing their new plans which resulted in the development of the exemplary Courtyard by Marriott - Fort Worth West at City View which opened July 2009 and the unique Holiday Inn Express - Dallas West which opened February 2010.

Today Q Hotels is a more streamlined, agile, innovative and technology driven organization with ownership interests and proven team leaders. These and other properties can be viewed in our Portfolio section.