Quest for the guest

At his Wingate hotel in Orlando, Dinyar Mehta’s winsome approach impresses guests. With his hotel providing accommodation to delegates attending three consecutive meets — the global annual general meeting (AGM) of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC), the AGM of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) as also the Global Working Group — he had to mastermind the stay for all the registrants, plus the logistics for the meetings, even the airport pick-ups and drops for all delegates who had flown in from different corners of the world. And adding to his travails was Parsiana, daily reminding him to make time for an interview that was ultimately granted after dinner on the sixth day, May 5, 2019.
In the hospitality industry for nearly 40 years, "every day is a new day” for Mehta who is founder and president of Quest Hotels, Incorporated, which operates two properties, Wingate Orlando International Airport and Ramada Suites Orlando Airport, each with over 100 rooms and annual revenues over three million dollars. Being budget-friendly, limited service hotels, they do not have a restaurant, although amenities such as a business center, fitness room, swimming pool, laundry are assured with accommodation and breakfast.

Clockwise from above: Dinyar Mehta; Ramada Suites and Wingate hotel in Orlando

Having started his hotel enterprise with Wingate in 2003, at the age of 53, with a loan of one million dollars from the Small Business Administration (a US government agency that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses), Mehta remarked, "I truly believe when the time is right, inspiration comes to take risk, calculated risk.” He did not dare to do this when his children were in school or college. In 2006, he and his partners acquired Ramada Inn but sold it in 2015. Ramada Suites as a 128-room property was acquired in 2010. Average occupancy in their hotels is between 86 to 91%, stated Mehta.
"Every business has an element of risk. I don’t want to go to a battlefield and lose. I am not a good loser, I like to win… The only thing I know is money but I’m not married to it. Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth in Hindu mythology) bau chanchal chhè (is very restless). People say that money is the root of all evil but money is a great tool if used properly. Paisa bhéja maa ghusi jaai (money can make people arrogant) but people with money can be most humble.” He advocates that a family should have enough money to cover "the bare necessities and a little extra” but realizes that human nature continuously pushes an individual towards greater acquisition.
Work responsibilities for the indefatigable hotelier never end even when staff members proceed on their weekly offs. With there being 123,000 hotel rooms in their Kissimmee region, he understands that his hotels are used as "a training ground” by the staff until better opportunities beckon. Despite the constant turnover of labor he believes in taking care of his employees and on the day of the interview was preoccupied with hospitalization for one of them.
It was in Nigeria when he was working as a civil engineer in the telecommunications field in 1980 that he first got involved in the hotel business when some friends acquired the 300-room International Motor Inn. He worked with them until 1988 when they sold off the venture. He then qualified as a licensed mortgage broker and real estate sales associate. In 1991 he joined JHM Hotels in the US, owned by the three Rama brothers, Jayanti, Hasmukh and Mankar. Besides the Hampton, he helped them in the running of nine more hotels including the Marriott, Hilton, Carlson. He was Orlando regional vice president of operations when he left them in 2003 to team up with other investors for the launch of Wingate. "I always felt that they (JMH) may opt for younger blood. I did not want to be in that position, so before they could tell me anything I announced my decision,” said Mehta.
An alumnus of Bharda School and Manipal Engineering College, Mehta had first come to the US on a student visa in 1974. After completing his masters from the University of Florida in 1976 he pursued an MBA program at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

Around four decades ago, there were three to four Zoroastrian families in Florida. Now there are 26 families. For community get-togethers "I give everything complimentary. They respect me and I love them,” he mentioned. A decade earlier he took up the challenge of hosting the two-day FEZANA AGM. "I did it for my brother Firdosh (former president of FEZANA) who was the main force,” he stated. Dinyar is the youngest of three brothers and the eldest Adi, who is in Bombay, retired as an engineer from Gherzi Eastern Limited.
To organize the three Zoroastrian meets in May 2019, he was initially approached by WZCC global president Edul Daver. As treasurer of the WZCC Central Florida Chapter, Dinyar was in regular touch with him. Their Chapter with 23 members has quarterly meetings where they invite local professionals from different fields to address them, followed by a meal. Gahanbars through the WZCC platform are popular in the community too and one such meet was attended by as many as 128 Zoroastrians. Playing bingo and other games, auctioning a bottle of whiskey… are other means to enliven the get-together.
"I have resources which I’m using,” Mehta underplays his stellar contribution. To feed the delegates during the five days of the meet, three simultaneous kitchens were operating from the homes of Delphina and Kaizad Bharucha, Yasmine and Adi Irani, Adil and Dilnavaz Marciano, turning out delicious meals to impress every palate, Mehta gave credit to his hardworking team of volunteers. In fact, their home cooked meals served at the neighboring Marriott Springhill Suites property where the meetings and meals were organized, were relished much more than the Polynesian fare offered at Holiday Inn at the gala dinner and awards ceremony. Known for his "passion for work,” Mehta would go around the tables, a big garbage bag in hand, to clear the disposable plates and glasses. "When they see the boss work, others join in too,” he explained his work mantra.
Registration charges for the delegates had not covered dinner on the night prior to the first meet as also the final night. But ever the genial host, Mehta could not bear to inconvenience those in attendance. Under his directions, members of the WZCC Central Florida Chapter that hosted the three meets, post-haste arranged for the meals with the cost being shared by the presidents of the three organizations.
Married to Nahida, an educationist (daughter of Nergish and Dastur Nowrooz Minochehr-Homji), the couple has three children. Son Dr Daryush is director of the Voice Science and Technology Laboratory at the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital and his various teaching assignments include serving as assistant professor in surgery at the Harvard Medical School. Of their two daughters, Nazneen is a lawyer/attorney and Parendi is in the logistics business.

Dinyar’s day invariably starts with Hosh Bam prayers at dawn, a practice he imbibed from his father Dara, a civil engineer who had lost one eye during World War II when serving in the Royal Air Force in Aden. Dinyar regularly donates to the organization Pilots for Kids (a nonprofit organization where airline crew members visit children’s hospitals to distribute toys and other needed items). To perpetuate the benevolence of his mother Tehmina who would cook and distribute food to the fakirs in Mazgaon each year, Dinyar sends financial support to the widows’ chawls in Mazgaon, Thakurdwar and Fort, to the J. J. Hospital and Masina Hospital in Bombay and the infirmary in Navsari. "The more you give, the more you get,” he reiterated. He regularly offers maachis at the atash behrams in Navsari, Surat and Udvada as also the Framji Nasserwanji Patel Agiary in Mazgaon.
Whilst he appears to be perennially energized, he is most charged every Bahram roz when he religiously performs the Mushkil-e-Aasan prayers. May 3 being Bahram roz, he invited devout delegates to join him in prayer at Wingate. As is customary each month, he then proceeded to Russell Home for atypical adults and Harbor House of Central Florida, a shelter for battered women, organizing specially cooked delights "to spread some joy.” On the board of directors for the Young Men’s Christian Association, Dinyar observed, "Non Parsis love us more than we love ourselves.”
He shares with us his favorite quote: "He who has faith has all and he who lacks faith lacks all. It is faith in the name of God that works wonders for faith is life and doubt is death.”