Graduating from the University of Failures and Mistakes with Vimal Patel, CEO of QHotels and Innrly

Vimal Patel came from humble beginnings, working at a McDonald's and living with his cousin when he moved to America. A few years later he got a job in the hotel business, and currently, he manages 11 hotels. How did he get to where he’s at? A lot of mistakes and hard lessons, he says. As the President and CEO of QHotels, Vimal owns and operates several hotels; on top of that, he founded Innrly, a software that streamlines the day-to-day duties of hoteliers. It all started when he moved to America in 1991; he stayed with his cousin who owned a motel. He took a job working for his cousin and eventually formed his own hotel management company. As he expanded from three hotels to four hotels, he discovered errors in accounting and wanted to ensure they wouldn’t continue to happen. So he developed software to automate day-to-day processes. Now he sells the software to other hotels to utilize. In this episode, Vimal tells us about the company culture he’s built — one of empowerment and respect. He retains employees, the majority in housekeeping, by not micromanaging them and encouraging career growth within the hotels. For example, when he promotes someone, he provides time for the employee to make sure that they like the new role and can succeed before moving them permanently to the new position. Vimal discusses how he has time to manage an entire tech firm while leading QHotels. He also talks to Carol about current issues facing the hotel industry: a labor shortage and skyrocketing insurance prices that are causing hotels to also raise rates. Learn more about Vimal Patel and QHotels & Innrly. You can find more information on all our episodes at Vertical Elevation, and you can find Carol on Twitter @carolbschultz or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolbschultz/.