Crossword Genius

Country hotel acquired by bad lot (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

chad

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'country' is the definition.
(I know that Chad is or was a African country)

'hotel acquired by bad lot' is the wordplay.
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'acquired by' is an insertion indicator.
'bad lot' becomes 'cad' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'h' going inside 'cad' is 'CHAD'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for chad that I've seen before include "Punched paper; African nation" , "small piece forcibly removed" , "Large, shallow lake in north central Africa" , "N.Central African Republic" , "Landlocked desert country of northern central Africa, formerly a French colony" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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