Hotel in capital starts to exploit elegant old Jew (8)
I believe the answer is:
pharisee
'old jew' is the definition.
'hotel in capital starts to exploit elegant' is the wordplay.
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'capital' becomes 'paris' (Paris is an example**).
'starts to' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'exploit elegant' is 'ee'.
'h' put within 'paris' is 'pharis'.
'pharis'+'ee'='PHARISEE'
(Other definitions for pharisee that I've seen before include "Hypocritical Biblical official" , "Self-righteous one in the Bible" , "Self-righteous person - one of an ancient Jewish sect" , "Ancient Jew" , "Strict follower of Jewish law" .)