Eat in hotels, as in the country (5)
I believe the answer is:
heath
'the country' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Open country ' mean 'heath' so perhaps 'country' could also mean 'heath')
'eat in hotels' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'hotels' becomes 'HH' (two H's - hotel is H in the NATO phonetic alphabet).
'eat' placed into 'hh' is 'HEATH'.
'as in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for heath that I've seen before include "Open uncultivated land" , "PM 1970-74" , "Barren open land" , "Sir Edward - , PM" , "Tract of open land" .)