RAPS Hospitality was founded in 1949 by B.V. Patel, a pioneer in the Indian-American community who came to the United States and purchased small hotels in the Downtown San Francisco area. Through hard work, he was able to build up his equity in his first hotel and purchase other downtown residential properties. As his business grew, he expanded into the neighboring cities and acquired hotels in Berkley, Sacramento, Stockton, Fairfield and Oakland. In the early days, these were primarily small, independent residential hotels. One of these hotels was the 108-room William Penn in Downtown San Francisco, which B.V. purchased in 1960 for $195,000 and later sold in 1982 for $2.75 million.
As his business grew, B.V. Patel’s son Raman gradually took over and they both began to acquire more upscale hotels in the surrounding tourist areas of Santa Cruz, Monterey and Seaside. RAPS Hospitality also began to obtain major franchises such as Comfort Inn and Howard Johnson. These properties were usually more upscale, with 3-diamond AAA ratings that primarily catered to the tourist market.
In the 1990s, B.V. Patel retired from the business, and Raman and his son, Pramod, continued to expand the group of hotels owned by RAPS. During the 1990s, Raman and Pramod acquired hotels in San Simeon, Napa Valley, Castro Valley and Hayward. The RAPS investment strategy for each of these hotels was similar. First, they would acquire an under performing hotel in a good location, and then invest in a substantial remodel of the hotel as well as new, more skilled management. And finally, if necessary, they would acquire a national franchise to help market the hotel.
During the latter part of the 1990s, RAPS began to acquire larger business-class hotels in the Bay Area. Today, members of the RAPS Hospitality Group include Raman Patel, Arvind Patel, Pramod Patel and Sanjay Patel.
Members of RAPS Hospitality have also been involved in various Trade Associations like AAHOA, CH&LA and CLIA. Pramod Patel, one of the members, served as the Treasurer of AAHOA. He has also been a member of the IAHI Express Committee for several years.
In 1999 and 2000, Hotel Business ranked RAPS Hospitality as 76th in their annual ranking of the top 100 hotel owner/developers in the United States.
