I needn’t put off acquiring hotel ultimately (2,3,3)
I believe the answer is:
in the end
'ultimately' is the definition.
(I know that ultimately can be written as in the end)
'i needn't put off acquiring hotel' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'i' is found in the answer.
'put' could be 'the' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'the' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for in the end that I've seen before include "Eventually" , "At long last" , "Finally" , "Then Enid came at last" , "Ultimately" .)