Mother outside hotel beginning to enter drunk state (9)
I believe the answer is:
minnesota
'state' is the definition.
(US state)
'mother outside hotel beginning to enter drunk' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'hotel' could be 'inn' (inn is a kind of hotel) and 'inn' is located in the answer.
'drunk' could be 'sot' (both can mean someone who drinks too much) and 'sot' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'mea' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for minnesota that I've seen before include "American state, capital St Paul" , "Nominates, oddly, the US state" , "Wobegon state (Keillor)" , "Nominates for American state" , "US state, capital St Paul" .)