[starang21]

Originally posted by MysticCat81
Patel is an Indian title meaning "village head" and is one of the most commonly-used Indian surnames.

Per Wikipedia: Patels are associated with Businesses, and in the US they are also associated with the lodging industry, many stores, and owning numerous hotel and motel businesses. (The Asian American Hotel Owner's Association (AAHOA), some ninety percent of whose nearly 9,000 members are Patels, estimates that they collectively own 18,000 hospitality properties worth some $38 billion in all.) There are also massive numbers who also are employed as doctors, engineers, and pharmacists.

As a surname, Patel is perhaps the most popular and easily identified Indian last name, other than Singh. Unlike many European last names, two random Patels (or two random Singhs) are highly unlikely to actually have any familial relationship.

I quoted the Wikipedia article portion about the hotel and motel business since hoosier's post referred to "Patel-owned motels."

so they're indians? patel is a slang term for them?