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A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the word ''motel'', coined as a portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsMilestone Mo-Tel of San Luis Obispo, California (now called the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo), which was built in 1925. The term referred to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms whose doors faced a parking lot and in some circumstances, a common area or a series of small cabins with common parking. Motels are often individually owned, though motel chains do exist.
As large highway systems began to be developed in the 1920s, long-distance road journeys became more common, and the need for inexpensive, easily accessible overnight accommodation sites close to the main routes led to the growth of the motel concept. Motels peaked in popularity in the 1960s with rising car travel, only to decline in response to competition from the newer chain hotels that became commonplace at highway interchanges as traffic was bypassed onto newly constructed
Motels differ from hotels in their location along highways, as opposed to the urban cores favored by hotels, and their orientation to the outside (in contrast to hotels, whose doors typically face an interior hallway). Motels almost by definition include a parking lot, while older hotels were not usually built with automobile parking in mind.
Because of their low-rise construction, the number of rooms which would fit on any given amount of land was low compared to the high-rise urban hotels which had grown around train stations. This was not an issue in an era where the major highways became the main street in every town along the way and inexpensive land at the edge of town could be developed with motels, car dealerships, fuel stations, lumber yards, amusement parks, roadside diners, drive-in restaurants, theaters, and countless other small roadside businesses. The automobile brought mobility and the motel could appear anywhere on the vast network of two-lane highways.
In 1951, residential developer
In many once-prime locations, independent motels which thrived in the 1950s and 1960s were being squeezed out by the 1980s as they were forced to compete with growing chains with a much larger number of rooms at each property. Many were left stranded on former two-lane main highways which had been bypassed by motorways or declined as original owners retired and subsequent proprietors neglected the maintenance of buildings and rooms. As these were low-end properties even in their heyday, most are now showing their age.
In Canada, the pattern was most visible in the densely populated Windsor-Quebec Corridor, particularly the urban locations like Toronto's Kingston Road motel strip once bypassed by the completed
In the early to mid 2000s, much original 1950s roadside infrastructure on now-bypassed U.S. highways had fallen into decline or was being razed for development. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Wildwoods Shore motel district in New Jersey in its 2006 list of
The plight of Route 66, whose removal from the United States Highway System in 1985 turned places like Glenrio, Texas and
The early motels were built in the southwestern United States as a replacement for the tourist camps and tourist cabins which had grown around the U.S. highway system. In Australia and New Zealand, motels have followed largely the same path of development as in Canada and the United States. The first Australian motels include the West End Motel in
As in the U.S., the initial 1930s roadside accommodations were primitive tourist camps, with over a hundred campgrounds listed in Ontario alone on one 1930 provincial road map. While most of these provided access to the most basic of amenities (like picnic tables, playgrounds, toilet facilities and supplies), fewer than a quarter offered cottages in the pre-Depression era, and the vast majority required travelers bring their own tents. In Canada's climate, these sites were effectively unusable outside the high season.
Because cabins and camps were ill-suited to a Canadian winter, the number and variety of motels grew dramatically after World War II, peaking just before freeways such as Ontario Highway 401 opened in the 1960s. Due to Canada's climate and short tourist season, which begins at
The original concept of a motel as a motorist's hotel which grew up around the highways of the 1920s is of American origin. The term appears to have initially had the same meaning in other countries, but has since been used in many places to refer either to a budget-priced hotel with limited amenities or a
The annual number of calls for service to police departments per room ("CFS/room") as a metric has been used to identify motels with poor surveillance of visitors, inadequate staff or management unwilling to pro-actively exclude known or likely problem tenants. Motels with lax security in bad neighborhoods attract disturbances (including guests who will not leave or pay), robbery, auto theft and theft from rooms or vehicles, vandalism, public intoxication and alcoholism, drug dealing or clandestine methamphetamine laboratories, fighting, street gang activity, pimping and street prostitution or sexual assaults.
As severe unlawful conduct issues impact the neighborhood as a whole, some municipalities have adopted a nuisance abatement strategy of using public health and fire safety violations or taxation laws as pretexts to shut down bad motels. City bylaws such as
Motel Americana
– a page devoted to history, narratives, and design of post-war motels {{Authority control 1925 introductions Hotel types Tourist accommodations
freeways
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...
. Several historic motels are listed on the US National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.
Architecture
Motels differ from hotels in their location along highways, as opposed to the urban cores favored by hotels, and their orientation to the outside (in contrast to hotels, whose doors typically face an interior hallway). Motels almost by definition include a parking lot, while older hotels were not usually built with automobile parking in mind.
Because of their low-rise construction, the number of rooms which would fit on any given amount of land was low compared to the high-rise urban hotels which had grown around train stations. This was not an issue in an era where the major highways became the main street in every town along the way and inexpensive land at the edge of town could be developed with motels, car dealerships, fuel stations, lumber yards, amusement parks, roadside diners, drive-in restaurants, theaters, and countless other small roadside businesses. The automobile brought mobility and the motel could appear anywhere on the vast network of two-lane highways.
Layout
Motels are typically constructed in an "I"-, "L"-, or "U"-shaped layout that includes guest rooms; an attached manager's office; a small reception; and in some cases, a small diner and a swimming pool. A motel was typically single-story with rooms opening directly onto a parking lot, making it easy to unload suitcases from a vehicle. A second story, if present, would face onto a balcony served by multiple stairwells. The post-war motels, especially in the early 1950s to late 1960s, sought more visual distinction, often featuring eye-catching colorfulneon sign
In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in D ...
s which employed themes from popular culture, ranging from Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
imagery of cowboys and Indians to contemporary images of spaceships and atomic era
The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, The Gadget at the ''Trinity'' test in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during World War II. Although nuclear chain reacti ...
iconography. U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
is the most popular example of the "neon era". Many of these signs remain in use to this day.
Room types
In some motels, a handful of rooms would be larger and containkitchenette
A kitchenette is a small cooking area, which usually has a refrigerator and a microwave, but may have other appliances. In some motel and hotel rooms, small apartments, college dormitories, or office buildings, a kitchenette consists of a small ref ...
s or apartment-like amenities; these rooms were marketed at a higher price as "efficiencies" as their occupants could prepare food themselves instead of incurring the cost of eating all meals in restaurants. Rooms with connecting doors (so that two standard rooms could be combined into one larger room) also commonly appeared in both hotels and motels. A few motels (particularly in Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Falls is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is on the western bank of the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario, with a population of 88,071 at the 2016 census. It is part of the St. Catharines - Niagara Census M ...
, where a motel strip extending from Lundy's Lane to the falls has long been marketed to newlyweds) would offer "honeymoon suites" with extra amenities such as whirlpool baths.
History
The first campgrounds for automobile tourists were constructed in the late 1910s. Before that, tourists who couldn't afford to stay in a hotel either slept in their cars or pitched their tents in fields alongside the road. These were called auto camps. The modern campgrounds of the 1920s and 1930s provided running water, picnic grounds, and restroom facilities.Auto camps and courts
Auto camps predated motels by a few years, established in the 1920s as primitive municipal camp sites where travelers pitched their own tents. As demand increased, for-profit commercial camps gradually displaced public camp grounds. Until the firsttravel trailer
A caravan, travel trailer, camper, tourer or camper trailer is a trailer towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent (although there are fold-down trailer tents). It provides th ...
s became available in the 1930s, auto tourists adapted their cars by adding beds, makeshift kitchens and roof decks. The next step up from the travel trailer was the cabin camp, a primitive but permanent group of structures. During the Great Depression, landholders whose property fronted onto highways built cabins to convert unprofitable land to income; some opened tourist homes. The (usually single-story) buildings for a roadside motel or cabin court were quick and simple to construct, with plans and instructions readily available in how-to and builder's magazines.
Expansion of highway networks largely continued unabated through the depression as governments attempted to create employment but the roadside cabin camps were primitive, basically just auto camps with small cabins instead of tents.
The 1935 City Directory for San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
, California, lists "motel"-type accommodations under tourist camps. One initially could stay in the Depression-era cabin camps for less than a dollar per night but small comforts were few and far between.
Travelers in search of modern amenities soon would find them at cottage courts and tourist courts. The price was higher but the cabins had electricity, indoor bathrooms, and occasionally a private garage or carport. They were arranged in attractive clusters or a U-shape. Often, these camps were part of a larger complex containing a filling station, a café, and sometimes a convenience store. Facilities like the Rising Sun Auto Camp
The Rising Sun Auto Camp, also known as the Roes Creek Auto Camp, East Glacier Auto Camp or simply Rising Sun preserves a portion of the built-up area of Glacier National Park that documents the second phase of tourist development in the park. R ...
in Glacier National Park and Blue Bonnet Court
The Blue Bonnet Court, originally called the Bluebonnet Tourist Camp, is a historic motor court-style motel in north-central Austin, Texas. It is located at 4407 Guadalupe Street, Austin, Texas.
The lot where it stands originally belonged to th ...
in Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
were "mom-and-pop" facilities on the outskirts of towns that were as quirky as their owners. Auto camps continued in popularity through the Depression years and after World War II, their popularity finally starting to diminish with increasing land costs and changes in consumer demands.
In contrast, though they remained small independent operations, motels quickly adopted a more homogenized appearance and were designed from the start to cater purely to motorists.
Tourist homes
In town, tourist homes were private residences advertising rooms for auto travelers. Unlike boarding houses, guests at tourist homes were usually just passing through. In the southwestern United States, a handful of tourist homes were opened by African-Americans as early as the Great Depression due to the lack of food or lodging for travelers of color in the Jim Crow conditions of the era. ''The Negro Motorist Green Book
''The Negro Motorist Green Book'' (also ''The Negro Motorist Green-Book'', ''The Negro Travelers' Green Book'', or simply the ''Green Book'') was an annual guidebook for African American roadtrippers. It was originated and published by Afri ...
'' (1936–64) listed lodgings, restaurants, fuel stations, liquor stores, and barber and beauty salons without racial restrictions; the smaller ''Directory of Negro Hotels and Guest Houses in the United States'' (1939, U.S. Travel Bureau) specialized in accommodations. Segregation Segregation may refer to:
Separation of people
* Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space
* School segregation
* Housing segregation
* Racial segregation, separation of humans ...
of U.S. tourist accommodation would legally be ended by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and by a court ruling in ''Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States
''Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States'', 379 U.S. 241 (1964), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States holding that the Commerce Clause gave the U.S. Congress power to force private businesses to abide by Title ...
'' affirming that Congress' powers over interstate commerce
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amo ...
extend to regulation of local incidents (such as racial discrimination in a motel serving interstate travelers) which might substantially and harmfully affect that commerce.
Early motels
The term "motel" originated with the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel, which was constructed in 1925 by Arthur Heineman. In conceiving of a name for his hotel, Heineman abbreviated ''motor hotel'' to ''mo-tel'' after he could not fit the words "Milestone Motor Hotel" on his rooftop. Many other businesses followed in its footsteps and started building their own auto camps. Combining the individual cabins of the tourist court under a single roof yielded the motor court or motor hotel. A handful of motor courts were beginning to call themselves motels, a term coined in 1926. Many of these early motels are still popular and are in operation, as in the case of the 3V Tourist Court in St. Francisville, Louisiana, built in 1938. During the Great Depression, those still traveling (including business travelers and traveling salespeople) were under pressure to manage travel costs by driving instead of taking trains and staying in the new roadside motels and courts instead of more costly established downtown hotels where bell captains,porters Porters may refer to:
* Porters, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Virginia, United States
* Porters, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community in Wisconsin, United States
* Porters Ski Area, a ski resort in New Zealand
* ''Porters'' (TV ser ...
, and other personnel would all expect a tip for service.
In the 1940s, most construction ground to a near-halt as workers, fuel, rubber, and transport were pulled away from civilian use for the war effort. What little construction did take place was typically near military bases where every habitable cabin was pressed into service to house soldiers and their families.
The post-war 1950s ushered in a building boom on a massive scale. By 1947, approximately 22,000 motor courts were in operation in the U.S. alone; a typical 50-room motel in that era cost $3000 per room in initial construction costs, compared to $12,000 per room for metropolitan city hotel construction. By 1950 there were 50,000 motels serving half of the 22 million U.S. vacationers; a year later motels surpassed hotels in consumer demand. The industry peaked in 1964 with 61,000 properties and fell to 16,000 properties by 2012.
Many motels began advertising on colorful neon signs that they had "air cooling" (an early term for "air conditioning") during the hot summers or were "heated by steam" during the cold winters. A handful used novelty architecture
Novelty architecture, also called programmatic architecture or mimetic architecture, is a type of architecture in which buildings and other structures are given unusual shapes for purposes such as advertising or to copy other famous buildings w ...
such as wigwams or teepees, or used decommissioned rail cars to create a " Caboose Motel" or "Caboose Inn" in which each cabin was a rail car.
Expansion
The 1950s and 1960s was the pinnacle of the motel industry in the United States and Canada. As older mom-and-pop motor hotels began adding newer amenities such as swimming pools or color TV (a luxury in the 1960s), motels were built in wild and impressive designs. In-room gimmicks such as the coin-operated Magic Fingers vibrating bed were briefly popular; introduced in 1958, these were largely removed in the 1970s due to vandalism of the coin boxes. The American Hotel Association (which had briefly offered a Universal Credit Card in 1953 as forerunner to the modern American Express card) became the American Hotel & Motel Association in 1963. As many motels vied for their place on busy highways, the beach-front motel instantly became a success. In major beach-front cities such asJacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
, Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, and Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, officially the Town of Ocean City, is an Atlantic resort town in Worcester County, Maryland along the East Coast of the United States. The population was 6,844 at the 2020 U.S. census, although during summer weekends the city hosts b ...
, rows of colorful motels such as the Castaways, in all shapes and sizes, became commonplace.
Guidebooks
The original motels were small, locally owned businesses which grew around two-lane highways which were main street in every town along the way. As independents, the quality of accommodation varied widely from one lodge to another; while a minority of these properties were inspected or rated by the American Automobile Association andCanadian Automobile Association
The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA; french: Association canadienne des automobilistes) is a federation of eight regional not-for-profit automobile associations in Canada, founded in 1913. The constituent associations (also called "clubs") ...
(which have published maps and tour book directories of restaurants and rooms since 1917), no consistent standard stood behind the "sanitized for your protection" banner. There was no real access to national advertising for local motels and no nationwide network to facilitate reservation of a room in a distant city.
The main roads into major towns therefore became a sea of orange or red neon proclaiming VACANCY (and later COLOR TV, air conditioning, or a swimming pool) as competing operators vied for precious visibility on crowded highways. Other venues for advertising were local tourist bureaus and postcards provided for free use by clients.
A rating in the ''Directory of Motor Courts and Cottages by the American Automobile Association'' was just one of many credentials eagerly sought by independent motels of the era. Regional guides (such as ''Official Florida Guide by A. Lowell Hunt'' or ''Approved Travelers Motor Courts'') and the food/lodging guidebooks published by restaurant reviewer Duncan Hines
Duncan Hines (March 26, 1880 – March 15, 1959) was an American pioneer of restaurant ratings for travelers. He is best known today for the brand of food products that bears his name.
Early life
Hines was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the so ...
(''Adventures in Good Eating'', 1936 and ''Lodging for a Night'', 1938) were also valued endorsements.
Referral chains
The referral chain in lodging originated in the early 1930s, originally serving to promote cabins and tourist courts. A predecessor of the modern "franchise chain" model, a referral chain was a group of independent motel owners in which each member lodge would voluntarily meet a set of standards and each property would promote the others. Each property would proudly display the group's name alongside its own. United Motor Courts, founded in 1933 by a group of motel owners in the southwestern U.S., published a guidebook until the early 1950s. A splinter of this now-defunct group, Quality Courts, began as a referral chain in 1941, but was converted to a franchised operation (Quality Inn
Choice Hotels brands
Quality Inn is an American multinational chain of hotels based in Rockville, Maryland. It is a part of Choice Hotels International family of brands which has operations in more than 40 countries. Quality Inn is the foundi ...
) in the 1960s. Budget Host and Best Value Inn are also referral chains.
Best Western
Best Western International, Inc. owns the Best Western Hotels & Resorts brand, which it licenses to over 4,700 hotels worldwide. The franchise, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, includes more than 2,000 hotels in North America. ...
(1946) was a similar referral chain of independent western U.S. motels. It remains in operation as a member-owned chain, although the modern Best Western operation shares many of the characteristics (such as centralized purchasing and reservation systems) of the later franchise systems.
Ownership chains
The earliest motel chains, proprietary brands for multiple properties built with common architecture, were born in the 1930s. The first of these were ownership chains, in which a small group of people owned and operated all of the motels under one common brand. Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts, founded 1929 in EastWaco, Texas
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
, was the first such chain with seven motor courts by 1936 and more than twenty by 1955. With Simmons furniture, Beautyrest mattresses on every bed, and telephones in every room, the Alamo Plaza rooms were marketed as "tourist apartments" under a slogan of "Catering to those who care."
In 1935, building contractor Scott King opened King's Motor Court in San Diego, California
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...
, renaming the original property Travelodge
Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, ma ...
in 1939 after having built two dozen more simple motel-style properties in five years on behalf of various investors. He incorporated and expanded the entire chain under the TraveLodge banner after 1946.
In 1937, Harlan Sanders opened a motel and restaurant as Sanders Court and Café alongside a fuel station in Corbin, Kentucky
Corbin is a home rule in the United States, home rule-class list of Kentucky cities, city in Whitley County, Kentucky, Whitley, Knox County, Kentucky, Knox and Laurel County, Kentucky, Laurel counties in the southeastern portion of the U.S. stat ...
; a second location was opened in Asheville, North Carolina, but expansion as a motel chain was not pursued further.
Franchise chains
In 1951, residential developer Kemmons Wilson
Charles Kemmons Wilson (January 5, 1913 – February 12, 2003) was an American hotelier. He is best known for founding the hotel chain Holiday Inn in the 1950s.
Personal life
He was born in Osceola, Arkansas, the only child of Kemmons and Ruby ...
returned to Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
disillusioned by motels encountered on a family road trip to Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
In each city, rooms varied from well-kept to filthy, few had a swimming pool, no on-site restaurant meant a few miles driving to buy dinner, and (while the room itself was $8 to $10) motor courts charged $2 extra per child, substantially increasing costs of a family vacation. He would build his own motel at 4941 Summer Avenue ( U.S. 70) on the main highway (U.S. 70) from Memphis to Nashville, adopting a name from a 1942 musical film ''Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...
'' about a fictional lodge only open on public holidays. Every new Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...
would have TV, air conditioning, a restaurant, and a pool; all would meet a long list of standards in order to have a guest in Memphis to have the same experience as someone in Daytona Beach, Florida or Akron, Ohio
Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...
. Originally a motel chain, Holiday Inn was first to deploy an IBM-designed national room reservations system in 1965 and opened its 1000th location by 1968.
In 1954 a 60-room motor hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona, opened as the first Ramada (Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
for " a shaded resting place"). The Twin Bridges Motor Hotel, established in 1957 near Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
as a member of Quality Courts, became the first Marriott
Marriott may refer to:
People
*Marriott (surname)
Corporations
* Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993
* Marriott International, international hote ...
in 1959, expanding from motel to hotel in 1962.
For individual motel owners, a franchise chain provided an automated central reservation system and a nationally recognized brand which assured consumers that rooms and amenities met a consistent minimum standard. This came at a cost; franchise fees, marketing fees, reservation fees, and royalty fees were not reduced during times of economic recession, leaving most of the business risk with the franchisee while franchise corporations profited. Some franchise contracts restricted the franchisee's ability to sell the business as a going concern or leave the franchise group without penalty.
For the chain, the franchise model allowed a higher level of product standardization and quality control than was possible as a referral chain model while allowing expansion beyond the maximum practical size of a tightly held ownership chain.
In some cases, loosely-knit ownership chains (such as Travelodge
Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, ma ...
) and referral chains (such as Quality Courts, founded in 1939 by seven motel operators as a non-profit referral system) were converted to franchise systems.
Quality Courts (1939) and The Best Western Motels (1946) were both originally referral chains and largely marketed together (as Quality Courts were predominantly east of the Mississippi River) until the 1960s. Both built national supply chain and reservation systems while aggressively removing properties not meeting minimum standards. In 1963, their paths diverged. Quality Courts became Quality Inn
Choice Hotels brands
Quality Inn is an American multinational chain of hotels based in Rockville, Maryland. It is a part of Choice Hotels International family of brands which has operations in more than 40 countries. Quality Inn is the foundi ...
, abandoning its former co-operative structure to become a for-profit corporation, use shareholder capital to build entirely company-owned locations, and require its members to become franchisees, while Best Western retained its original member-owned status as a marketing co-operative.
Freeway era
With the introduction of chains, independent motels started to decline. The emergence offreeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
s bypassing existing highways (such as the Interstate Highway System in the U.S.) caused older motels away from the new roads to lose clientele to motel chains built along the new road's offramps.
Some entire roadside towns were abandoned. Amboy, California
Amboy is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, in California's Mojave Desert, west of Needles and east of Ludlow on historic Route 66. It is roughly northeast of Twentynine Palms. As of 2020, the town's business district sti ...
(population 700) had grown as a Route 66 rest stop and would decline with the highway as the opening of Interstate 40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...
in 1973 bypassed the village entirely. The ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
and its 1938 Roy's Motel and Café were allowed to decay for years and used by film makers in a weathered and deteriorated state.
Even the original 1952 Holiday Inn Hotel Courts in Memphis closed by 1973 and was eventually demolished, as I-40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...
bypassed U.S. 70 and the chain repositioned itself as a mid-price hotel brand. The Twin Bridges Marriott was demolished for parkland in 1990.
Many independent 1950s-era motels would remain in operation, often sold to new owners or renamed, but continued their steady decline as clients were lost to the chains. Often the building's design, as traditionally little more than a long row of individual bedrooms with outside corridors and no kitchen or dining hall, left it ill-suited to any other purpose.
Market segmentation
In the 1970s and 1980s, independent motels were losing ground to chains such asMotel 6
Motel 6 is a privately owned hospitality company with a chain of budget motels in the United States and Canada. Motel 6 also operates Studio 6, a chain of Apartment hotel, extended-stay hotels. The hotel brand is owned by The Blackstone Group's ...
and Ramada, existing roadside locations were increasingly bypassed by freeways, and the development of the motel chain led to a blurring of motel and hotel.
While family-owned motels with as few as five rooms could still be found, especially along older highways, these were forced to compete with a proliferation of Economy Limited Service
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
chains. ELS hotels typically do not offer cooked food or mixed drinks; they may offer a very limited selection of continental breakfast
Breakfast, the first meal of the day eaten after waking from the night's sleep, varies in composition and tradition across the world.
Africa
Breakfast in Africa varies greatly from region to region.
Algeria
Breakfast in Algeria is heavily influen ...
foods but have no restaurant, bar, or room service.
Journey's End Corporation (founded 1978 in Belleville, Ontario
Belleville is a city in Ontario, Canada situated on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, located at the mouth of the Moira River and on the Bay of Quinte. Belleville is between Ottawa and Toronto, along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. Its populat ...
) built two-story hotel buildings with no on-site amenities to compete directly in price with existing motels. Rooms were comparable to a good hotel but there was no pool, restaurant, health club, or conference center. There was no room service and generic architectural designs varied little between cities. The chain targeted "budget-minded business travelers looking for something between the full-service luxury hotels and the clean-but-plain roadside inns", but largely drew individual travelers from small towns who traditionally supported small roadside motels.
International chains quickly followed this same pattern. Choice Hotels created Comfort Inn
Comfort (or being comfortable'')'' is a sense of physical or psychological ease, often characterized as a lack of hardship. Persons who are lacking in comfort are uncomfortable, or experiencing discomfort. A degree of psychological comfort c ...
as an economy limited service brand in 1982. New limited-service brands from existing franchisors provided market segmentation
In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as ''segments'') based on some type of shared charact ...
; by using a different trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from othe ...
and brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
ing, major hotel chains could build new limited-service properties near airports and freeways without undermining their existing mid-price brands. Creation of new brands also allowed chains to circumvent the contractual minimum distance protections between individual hoteliers in the same chain. Franchisors placed multiple properties under different brands at the same motorway exit, leading to a decline in revenue for individual franchisees. An influx of newly concocted brands became a key factor in a boom in new construction which ultimately led to market saturation
In economics, market saturation is a situation in which a product has become diffused (distributed) within a market; the actual level of saturation can depend on consumer purchasing power; as well as competition, prices, and technology.
Theory ...
.
By the 1990s, Motel 6 and Super 8 were built with inside corridors (so were nominally hotels) while other former motel brands (including Ramada and Holiday Inn) had become mid-price hotel chains. Some individual franchisees built new hotels with modern amenities alongside or in place of their former Holiday Inn motels; by 2010 a mid-range hotel with an indoor pool was the standard required to remain a Holiday Inn.
Decline
In many once-prime locations, independent motels which thrived in the 1950s and 1960s were being squeezed out by the 1980s as they were forced to compete with growing chains with a much larger number of rooms at each property. Many were left stranded on former two-lane main highways which had been bypassed by motorways or declined as original owners retired and subsequent proprietors neglected the maintenance of buildings and rooms. As these were low-end properties even in their heyday, most are now showing their age.
In Canada, the pattern was most visible in the densely populated Windsor-Quebec Corridor, particularly the urban locations like Toronto's Kingston Road motel strip once bypassed by the completed Highway 401
King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one,
is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...
, and the section of Highway 7 between Modeland Road and Airport Road known as the "Golden Mile" for its plethora of motels and restaurants (as well as points of interest such as the Sarnia Airport and Hiawatha Racetrack and Waterpark) which was bypassed by Highway 402.http://www.sarnia.ca/documents.asp?DocumentID=74 p. 7 The decline of motels was also found at awkward rural locations formerly on the main road. Many remote stretches of the Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...
remain unbypassed by motorway and some independent motels survive.
In the U.S., the Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...
was bypassing U.S. Highways nationwide. The best-known example was the complete removal of Route 66 from the U.S. highway system in 1985 after it was bypassed (mostly by Interstate 40
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...
). U.S. 66 was particularly problematic as the old route number was often moved to the new road as soon as the bypasses were constructed, while Highway Beautification Act
In the United States, highway beautification is the subject of the Highway Beautification Act (HBA), passed in the Senate on September 16, 1965 and in the U.S. House of Representatives on October 8, 1965, and signed by the President Lyndon B. Jo ...
restrictions left existing properties with no means to obtain signage on the newly constructed Interstate. Some motels were demolished, converted to private residences, or used as storage space while others have been left to slowly fall apart.
In many towns, maintenance and renovation of existing properties would stop as soon as word was out that an existing highway was the target of a proposed bypass; this decline would only accelerate after the new road opened. Attempts by owners to compete for the few remaining clients on a bypassed road by lowering prices typically only worsened the decline by leaving no funds to invest in improving or properly maintaining the property; accepting clients who would have been formerly turned away also led to crime problems in cities.
By 1976 the term "cockroach motel" was well-established; a slogan for Black Flag's trademark "Roach Motel
Roach Motel is an American brand of a roach bait device designed to catch cockroaches. Although the term is the subject of a trademark registration by the insect control brand Black Flag (insecticide), Black Flag, the phrase roach motel has come ...
" bug traps would be paraphrased as "they check in, but they don't check out" to refer to these declining properties. Nancy White's 1993 "Senator Lawson at the Motel Cucaracha" (03:45) adopts this modified tag line as part of the song's chorus
In declining urban areas (like Kingston Road in Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
, or some of the districts along Van Buren Street in Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
, largely bypassed as a through route to California by Interstate 10), the remaining low-end motels from the two-lane highway era are often seen as seedy places for the homeless, prostitution, and drugs as vacant rooms in now-bypassed areas are often rented (and in some cases acquired outright) by social-service agencies to house refugees, abuse victims, and families awaiting social housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, d ...
. Conversely, some areas which were merely roadside suburbs in the 1950s are now valuable urban land on which original structures are being removed through gentrification
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
and the land used for other purposes. Toronto's Lake Shore Boulevard
Lake Shore Boulevard (often incorrectly compounded as Lakeshore Boulevard) is a major arterial road running along more than half of the Lake Ontario waterfront in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Prior to 1998, two segments of Lake Shore ...
strip in Etobicoke
Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district of, and one of six municipalities amalgamated into, the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s, and the municipalit ...
was bulldozed to make way for condominiums.
In some cases, historic properties have been allowed to slowly decay. The Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, which (as the Milestone Motor Hotel) was the first to use the "motel" name, sits incomplete with what is still standing left boarded up and fenced off at the side of U.S. Route 101; a 2002 restoration proposal never came to fruition.
Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts, the first motel chain, was sold off in pieces as the original owners retired. Most of its former locations on the U.S. highway system have declined beyond repair or were demolished. One 1941 property on U.S. Route 190 in Baton Rouge remains open with its Alamo Plaza Restaurant now gone, its pool filled in, its original color scheme painted over, its front desk behind bulletproof glass, and its rooms infested with roaches and other vermin. A magnet for criminal activity, police are summoned daily. Other Alamo sites in Chattanooga, Memphis
Memphis most commonly refers to:
* Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt
* Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city
Memphis may also refer to:
Places United States
* Memphis, Alabama
* Memphis, Florida
* Memphis, Indiana
* Memp ...
, and Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
have simply been demolished.
The American Hotel and Motel Association removed 'motel' from its name in 2000, becoming the American Hotel and Lodging Association. The association felt that the term 'lodging' more accurately reflects the large variety of different style hotels, including luxury and boutique hotels, suites, inns, budget, and extended stay hotels.
Modernization
In the late 20th century, a majority of motels in the United States came under the ownership of people of Indian descent, particularlyGujaratis
The Gujarati people or Gujaratis, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who reside in or can trace their ancestry or heritage to the present-day western Indian state of Gujarat. They primarily speak Gujarati, an Indo-Aryan language. While G ...
as the original "mom and pop" owners retired from the motel industry and sold their properties. However, some families still kept their motels, and to this day, one can find a motel that is owned by the same family who built and ran it originally (i.e. the Maples Motel in Sandusky, Ohio) with a subsequent generation continuing the family business.
Amenities offered have also changed, with motels that once touted color television as a luxury now emphasizing wireless Internet, flatscreen television, pay-per-view or in-room movies, microwave ovens, and minibar fridges in rooms which may be reserved online using credit card
A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...
s and secured against intruders with key card
A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, security token or coin), by supplying secret information (such as a number or letter permutation or pas ...
s which expire as soon as a client checks out.Traditionally, motels used a with the motel's address, room number, and "return postage guaranteed — drop in any mailbox". Anyone finding a lost or stolen key had full access to the room, a security issue. Many independent motels add amenities simply to remain competitive with franchise chains, which are taking an increasing market share. Long-time independent motels which join existing low-end chains to remain viable are known as "conversion" franchises; these do not use the standardized architecture which originally defined many franchise brands.
While many former motel chains left the low-end of the market to franchise mid-range hotels, a handful of national franchise brands (Econo Lodge
Econo Lodge is an economy motel chain based in the United States and Canada. Econo Lodge is one of the larger brands in the Choice Hotels system. It aims to provide affordable rooms to budget travelers. The properties contain a minimum of 40 gu ...
, Travelodge, Knights Inn and Magnuson Hotels
Magnuson Hotels (also Magnuson Worldwide) is a hotel conversion brand in the US, UK and Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its h ...
lowest tier M-Star) remain available to owners of existing motels with the original drive-up-to-room motor court architecture.
Most of these establishments, previously called motels, may still look like motels but are now called hotels, inns, or lodges.
Revitalization and preservation
In the early to mid 2000s, much original 1950s roadside infrastructure on now-bypassed U.S. highways had fallen into decline or was being razed for development. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Wildwoods Shore motel district in New Jersey in its 2006 list of America's Most Endangered Historic Places America's 11 Most Endangered Places or America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is a list of places in the United States that the National Trust for Historic Preservation considers the most endangered. It aims to inspire Americans to preserve e ...
and included the Historic Route 66 Motels from Illinois to California on its 2007 list.
Preservationists have sought to list endangered properties on various federal or state historic registries, although in many cases a historic listing gives a building little or no protection from alteration or demolition.
The Oakleigh Motel in Oakleigh, Victoria
Oakleigh is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 14 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Monash local government area. Oakleigh recorded a population of 8,442 at the 2021 census.
Once ...
, Australia, constructed using Googie architecture
Googie architecture ( ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular in th ...
during the 1956 Summer Olympics as one of the first motels in the state, was added to the Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...
in 2009. The building was gutted by developers in 2010 for a row house development; only the outer shell remains original.
The Aztec Motel
The Aztec Motel, also known as the Aztec Auto Court or Aztec Lodge, was a historic motel located on former U.S. Route 66 in the Upper Nob Hill neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Until its demolition in 2011 it was the oldes ...
in Albuquerque, New Mexico (built in 1932) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 and listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties The New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties is a register of historic and prehistoric properties located in the state of New Mexico. It is maintained by the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultura ...
as the oldest continuously operating U.S. Route 66 motel in New Mexico. It was demolished in 2011. While listing the Coral Court Motel near St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, on the National Register of Historic Places failed to prevent a 1995 demolition, one of the cabins survives as part of an exhibit at the National Museum of Transportation
The National Museum of Transportation (NMOT) is a private, 42-acre transportation museum in the Kirkwood suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1944, it restores, preserves, and displays a wide variety of vehicles spanning 15 decades of Amer ...
after being painstakingly dismantled by volunteers for relocation.
U.S. Route 66
The plight of Route 66, whose removal from the United States Highway System in 1985 turned places like Glenrio, Texas and Amboy, California
Amboy is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, in California's Mojave Desert, west of Needles and east of Ludlow on historic Route 66. It is roughly northeast of Twentynine Palms. As of 2020, the town's business district sti ...
into overnight ghost towns, has captured public attention. Route 66 associations, built on the model of Angel Delgadillo's first 1987 association in Seligman, Arizona
Seligman ( yuf-x-hav, Thavgyalyal) is a census-designated place (CDP) on the northern border of Yavapai County, in northwestern Arizona, United States. The population was 456 at the 2000 census.
Geography
Seligman is located at (35.328199, − ...
, have advocated preservation and restoration of the motels, businesses, and roadside infrastructure of the neon era. In 1999, the National Route 66 Preservation Bill allocated $10 million in matching fund grants for private restoration and preservation of historic properties along the route. The road popularized through John Steinbeck's ''The Grapes of Wrath
''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award
and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Priz ...
'' and Bobby Troup
Robert William Troup Jr. (October 18, 1918 – February 7, 1999) was an American actor, jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. He wrote the song " Route 66" and acted in the role of Dr. Joe Early with his wife Julie London in the television prog ...
's "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
"(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" is a popular rhythm and blues song, composed in 1946 by American songwriter Bobby Troup. The lyrics relate a westward roadtrip on U.S. Route 66, a highway which traversed the western two-thirds of the U.S. from Ch ...
" was marketed not as transportation infrastructure but as a tourism destination in its own right.
To many small towns bypassed by Interstate highways, embracing 1950s nostalgia and historic restoration brings in badly needed tourism dollars to restore sagging local economies. Many vintage motels, some dating to the cabin court era of the 1930s, have been renovated, restored, and added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
or to local and state listings. While a handful were repurposed as either low-income housing, boutique hotels, apartments, or commercial/office space, many were simply restored as motels.
While some modern amenities (such as wi-fi or flatscreen TV) may appear in the newly restored rooms, exterior architecture and neon highway signage is meticulously restored to original designs. By 2012, Route 66 travelers were spending $38 million/year visiting historic places and museums in communities on the former highway, with $94 million annually invested in heritage preservation; ''The Motels of Route 66'' was announced as an upcoming documentary film.
International variations
The early motels were built in the southwestern United States as a replacement for the tourist camps and tourist cabins which had grown around the U.S. highway system. In Australia and New Zealand, motels have followed largely the same path of development as in Canada and the United States. The first Australian motels include the West End Motel in Ballina, New South Wales
Ballina () is a town in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, and the seat of the Ballina Shire local government area. Ballina's urban population at June 2018 was 26,381. The town lies on the Richmond River and serves as a g ...
(1937) and the Penzance Motel in Eagle Hawk, Tasmania (1939).
Motels gained international popularity in countries such as Thailand, Germany, and Japan but in some countries the term "motel" now connotes either a low-end hotel (such as Hotel Formule 1
HotelF1 (stylised hotelF1; formerly Formule 1) is a French economy hotel brand owned by Accor. Created by Accor in 1984 in France under the name Formule 1, it was renamed HotelF1 in 2007 and later revamped as a road trip-themed hotel brand. Hote ...
in Europe) or a no-tell motel.
Canada
As in the U.S., the initial 1930s roadside accommodations were primitive tourist camps, with over a hundred campgrounds listed in Ontario alone on one 1930 provincial road map. While most of these provided access to the most basic of amenities (like picnic tables, playgrounds, toilet facilities and supplies), fewer than a quarter offered cottages in the pre-Depression era, and the vast majority required travelers bring their own tents. In Canada's climate, these sites were effectively unusable outside the high season.
Because cabins and camps were ill-suited to a Canadian winter, the number and variety of motels grew dramatically after World War II, peaking just before freeways such as Ontario Highway 401 opened in the 1960s. Due to Canada's climate and short tourist season, which begins at Victoria Day
Victoria Day (french: Fête de la Reine, lit=Celebration of the Queen) is a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated on the last Monday preceding May 25. Initially in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday, it has since been celebrated as the offi ...
and continued until Labour Day or Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
, any outdoor swimming pool would be usable for little more than two months of the year and independent motels would operate at a loss or close during the off-season.
By the 1980s, motels were losing ground rapidly to franchises such as Journey's End Corporation and the U.S.-based chains. The section of Highway 7 between Modeland Road and Airport Road, known as the "Golden Mile" for its plethora of motels and restaurants was bypassed once Highway 402 was completed in 1982, however the Golden Mile still retains points of interest such as the Sarnia Airport and Hiawatha Racetrack and Waterpark.
Much of Canada's population is crowded into a few small southern regions. While the Windsor-Québec corridor was bypassed by motorways relatively early, in more sparsely populated regions (including much of Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...
) thousands of kilometers of mostly two-lane Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...
remain undisturbed as the road makes its lengthy journey westward through tiny, distant and isolated communities.
Europe
The original concept of a motel as a motorist's hotel which grew up around the highways of the 1920s is of American origin. The term appears to have initially had the same meaning in other countries, but has since been used in many places to refer either to a budget-priced hotel with limited amenities or a love hotel
A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sexual activities. The name originates from "Hotel Love" in Osaka, which was built in 1968 and had a rotating s ...
, depending on the country and language. The division between motel and hotel, like elsewhere, has been blurred, so many of these are low-end hotels.
In France, motel-style chain accommodations of up to three stories (with exterior hallways and stairwells) usually reach the "one-star" rank in France's national tourism agency classification of tourist hotels. The Louvre Hôtels chain operates Première Classe (1 star) as a market segmentation
In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as ''segments'') based on some type of shared charact ...
brand in this range, using other ''marques'' for higher or mid-range hotels. The use of "motel" to identify any budget-priced roadhouse hotel (''Rasthaus'', ''Raststätte'') also exists in the German language; some French chains operating in Germany (such as Accor
Accor S.A. is a French multinational hospitality company that owns, manages and franchises hotels, resorts and vacation properties. It is the largest hospitality company in Europe, and the sixth largest hospitality company worldwide.
Accor ope ...
's Hotel Formule 1
HotelF1 (stylised hotelF1; formerly Formule 1) is a French economy hotel brand owned by Accor. Created by Accor in 1984 in France under the name Formule 1, it was renamed HotelF1 in 2007 and later revamped as a road trip-themed hotel brand. Hote ...
) offer automated registration and small, Spartan rooms at reduced cost.
In Portuguese, "motel" (plural: "motéis") commonly refers not to the original drive-up accommodation house for motorists but to an "adult motel" or love hotel with amenities such as whirlpool baths, in-room pornography, candles and oversize or non-standard-shaped beds in various honeymoon-suite styles. These rooms are available for as little as four hours, and minors are excluded from these establishments."Motéis de Portugal" ("Motels of Portugal", www.moteisdeportugal.com) is a listing of what elsewhere would be classed as adult motels; see also "Motel
A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionarie ...
" (in Portuguese) in that language's Wikipedia. (The Portuguese-language term "rotel" had brief usage in 1970s Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
, Brazil for a similar concept, ro- for rooms through which clients rotate in a matter of hours instead of overnight.)
A similar association of "motel" to short-stay hotels with reserved parking and luxury rooms which can be rented by couples for a few hours has begun to appear in Italy, where the market segment has shown significant growth since the 1990s and become highly competitive.
Latin America
In Latin America, a "motel" (in Mexico, "Motel de paso") is an establishment often associated with extramarital encounters and rented typically for a few hours (15 minutes to 12 hours). In Ecuador, any establishment with the title "Motel" is related to extramarital encounters; in Argentina and Peru these hotels for couples are called "albergue transitorio" ("temporary shelter") and offered for anything from a few hours to overnight, with décor based on amenities such as dim lights, a whirlpool and a king-size bed. In other Spanish-speaking countries these establishments have other slang names like "mueble", "amueblado" ("furniture", "furnished rental") or "telo". In the Dominican Republic, "cabins" (named for their cabin-like shape) have all these amenities (such as a whirlpool bath, oversize bed and HDTV) but generally do not have windows, and have private parking for each room individually. Registration is handled not in a conventional manner but, upon entering the room, by delivering a bill with the registration through a small window that does not allow eye contact to ensure greater discretion. The connotations of "motel" as adult motel or love hotel in both the Spanish and Portuguese languages can be awkward for U.S.-based chains accustomed to using the term in its original meaning, although this issue is diminishing as chains (such as Super 8 Motels) increasingly drop the word "motel" from their corporate identities at home.Crime and illicit activity
Many auto camps were used as havens and hide-outs for criminals of the 1920s; Bonnie and Clyde had a shootout in the infamousRed Crown Tourist Court
The Red Crown Tavern and Red Crown Tourist Court in Platte County, Missouri was the site of the July 20, 1933 gun battle between lawmen and outlaws Bonnie and Clyde and three members of their gang. The outlaws made their escape, but would be tracke ...
near Kansas City on July 20, 1933. Courtney Ryley Cooper
Courtney Ryley Cooper (October 31, 1886 – September 29, 1940) was an American circus performer, publicist and writer. During his career he published over 30 books, many focusing on crime; J. Edgar Hoover considered him at one time "the be ...
's 1940 ''American Magazine
''The American Magazine'' was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded ''Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly'' (1876–1904), ' ...
'' article "Camps of Crime" attributed to J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation â ...
a denunciation of tourist courts as bases of operation for gangs of desperadoes, claiming that "a large number of roadside cottage groups appear to be not tourist camps but assignation camps" and alleging that "marijuana sellers have been found around such places."
Ultimately, efforts to curb the unconstrained growth of tourist courts were futile as motor courts (as motels were called in the 1930s and 1940s) grew in number and popularity.
Motels have served as a haven for fugitives in the past as the anonymity and a simple registration process helped fugitives to remain ahead of the law. Several changes have reduced the capacity of motels to serve this purpose. In many jurisdictions, regulations now require motel operators to obtain ID from clients and meet specific record-keeping requirements. Credit card transactions, which in the past were more easily approved and took days to report, are now approved or declined on the spot and are instantly recorded in a database, thereby allowing law enforcement access to this information.
Motels which allow a room to be rented inexpensively for less than one full night's stay or which allow a couple not wishing to be seen together publicly to enter a room without passing through the office or lobby area have been nicknamed "no-tell motels" due to their long association with adultery. Even where rooms were rented overnight to middle-class travelers (and not locals or extended-stay clients) there have been ongoing problems with theft of motel property by travelers; everything from waterbed
A waterbed, water mattress, or flotation mattress is a bed or mattress filled with water. Waterbeds intended for medical therapies appear in various reports through the 19th century. The modern version, invented in San Francisco and patented in 1 ...
s to television sets to bedspreads and pillows have routinely gone missing in what one 1970s Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
report labelled "highway robbery".
The least costly motels sometimes serve as temporary housing for people who are not able to afford an apartment or have recently lost their home. Motels catering to long-term stays occasionally have kitchenettes or efficiencies, or a motel room with a kitchen. While conventional apartments are more cost-effective with better amenities, tenants unable to pay first and last month's rent or undesirable due to unemployment, criminal records or credit problems do seek low-end residential motels because of a lack of viable short-term options.
Motels in low-income areas are often plagued with drug activity, street prostitution or other crime. Some correctional officials temporarily place newly paroled convicts into motels if upon release they have nowhere to stay. These motels have daily to monthly rates.
According to the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing,
The annual number of calls for service to police departments per room ("CFS/room") as a metric has been used to identify motels with poor surveillance of visitors, inadequate staff or management unwilling to pro-actively exclude known or likely problem tenants. Motels with lax security in bad neighborhoods attract disturbances (including guests who will not leave or pay), robbery, auto theft and theft from rooms or vehicles, vandalism, public intoxication and alcoholism, drug dealing or clandestine methamphetamine laboratories, fighting, street gang activity, pimping and street prostitution or sexual assaults.
As severe unlawful conduct issues impact the neighborhood as a whole, some municipalities have adopted a nuisance abatement strategy of using public health and fire safety violations or taxation laws as pretexts to shut down bad motels. City bylaws such as Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
's "Chronic Nuisance Properties" ordinance have also been used to penalize owners or shut down a business entirely.
In popular culture
The Bates Motel is an important part of '' Psycho'', a 1959 novel by Robert Bloch, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film adaptation. '' Psycho II'', ''Psycho III
''Psycho III'' is a 1986 American slasher film, and the third film in the ''Psycho'' franchise. It stars Anthony Perkins, who also directs the film, reprising the role of Norman Bates. It co-stars Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey, and Roberta Maxwell. ...
'' and '' Psycho IV: The Beginning'', sequels to the film, also feature the motel, as does Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of the original film. A comedic 1987 television movie '' Bates Motel'' and the 2013 television series '' Bates Motel'', a prequel to the films, both use the name of the motel as a title. In the 2010 Halloween TV special
Special or specials may refer to:
Policing
* Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force
* Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer
Literature
* ''Specia ...
''Scared Shrekless
''Scared Shrekless'' is a 26-minute computer-animated Halloween horror comedy television special, set shortly after the events of ''Shrek Forever After'', that premiered on the American television network NBC on October 28, 2010. ''Scared Shrekle ...
'', Puss in Boots
"Puss in Boots" ( it, Il gatto con gli stivali) is an Italian fairy tale, later spread throughout the rest of Europe, about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for ...
tells a cautionary tale about the "Boots Motel".
The scenario of an isolated motel being operated by a serial killer, whose guests subsequently become victims, has been exploited in a number of other horror films, notably '' Motel Hell'' (1980) and '' Mountaintop Motel Massacre'' (1986). More recently, the genre has been revived with such films as ''Mayhem Motel'' (2001), ''Murder Inn'' (2005), ''Vacancy'' (2007), and its direct-to-video prequel, '' Vacancy 2: The First Cut'' (2009).
Several of these horror films also incorporate the sub-theme of voyeurism, whereby the motel owner spies on (or even films) the sexual exploits of the guests. This plays on the long-established connotations of motels and illicit sexual activity, which has itself formed the basis for numerous other films, variously representing the thriller, comedy, teen film, and sexploitation genres. Stephen C. Apostolof's ''Motel Confidential'' (1967) and the porn film ''Motel for Lovers'' (1970) were two notable early examples. More recent manifestations include ''Paradise Motel'' (1985), ''Talking Walls'' (1987), '' Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel'' (1991), and the Korean films ''Motel Cactus'' (1997) and '' The Motel'' (2005).
In countless other films and TV series, the motel—invariably depicted as an isolated, run-down, and seedy establishment—has served as the setting for sordid events often involving equally sordid characters. Examples include ''Pink Motel'' (1982), ''Motel Blue 19'' (1993), ''Backroad Motel'' (2001), ''Stateline Motel'' (2003), ''Niagara Motel'' (2006), and ''Motel 5150'' (2008).
In the film ''Sparkle Lite Motel'' (2006) and the TV miniseries ''The Lost Room
''The Lost Room'' is a 2006 science fiction television miniseries that aired on the Syfy Channel in the United States. The series revolves around the titular room and some of the everyday items from that room which possess unusual powers. The sh ...
'' (2006), the motel made forays into the realms of science fiction. In the Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...
animation ''Cars'' (2006), a clientele of solely anthropomorphic vehicles requires all hotels be motels where clients drive directly to their rooms; allusions to real Route 66 motels on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places abound in the film. The Cozy Cone Motel design is the Wigwam Motel
The Wigwam Motels, also known as the "Wigwam Villages," is a motel chain in the United States built during the 1930s and 1940s. The rooms are built in the form of tipis, mistakenly referred to as wigwams. It originally had seven different locatio ...
on U.S. Route 66 in Arizona
U.S. Route 66 (US 66, Route 66) also known as the Will Rogers Highway, was a major United States Numbered Highway in the state of Arizona from November 11, 1926, to June 26, 1985. US 66 covered a total of through Arizona. T ...
with the neon "100% Refrigerated Air" slogan of Tucumcari, New Mexico
Tucumcari (; ) is a city in and the county seat of Quay County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 5,278 at the 2020 census. Tucumcari was founded in 1901, two years before Quay County was established.
History
In 1901, the Chicago, ...
's Blue Swallow Motel
The Blue Swallow Court in Tucumcari, New Mexico, United States, is a 12-unit L-shaped motel listed on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico as a part of historic U.S. Route 66. Original architectural features included a façade w ...
; the Wheel Well Motel's name alludes to the restored stone-cabin Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri
Cuba is a city in Crawford County, Missouri, United States. The population was 3,356 at the 2010 census. Cuba is the largest city situated entirely in Crawford County.
History
Cuba was platted in 1857 when it was certain the railroad would be ...
. A long-defunct "Glenn Rio Motel" recalls Route 66 ghost town Glenrio, New Mexico and Texas
Glenrio, formerly Rock Island, is an unincorporated community in both Deaf Smith County, Texas, and Quay County, New Mexico, United States. Located on the former U.S. Route 66, the ghost town sits on the Texas–New Mexico state line. It include ...
, now a national historic district on the state line. Glenrio once boasted the "First Motel in Texas" (as seen when arriving from New Mexico) or "Last Motel in Texas" (the same motel, its signage viewed from the opposite side).
In computer gaming, ''Murder Motel'' was an online text game by Sean D. Wagle, hosted on various dial-up bulletin board systems (1980s, originally Color64, ported to various other platforms). The object was for each player to attempt to brutally kill all fellow guests in each room of a motel using a variety of weapons.
In theatre, the seedy motel room has been the setting for two-hander
A two-hander is a term for a play, film, or television programme with only two main characters. The two characters in question often display differences in social standing or experiences, differences that are explored and possibly overcome as ...
plays such as '' Same Time, Next Year'' (1975) and ''Bug'' (2006). Both were later adapted as films. Broadway musicals have also paid homage to the lowbrow reputation of motel culture, demonstrated by songs such as "The No-Tel Motel" from ''Prettybelle
''Prettybelle'' is a musical with a book and lyrics by Bob Merrill and music by Jule Styne. It was adapted from Jean Arnold's darkly comic novel ''Prettybelle: A Lively Tale of Rape and Resurrection'' (Dial Press, 1970). It starred Angela Lansbu ...
'' and "At the Bed-D-by Motel" from ''Lolita, My Love
''Lolita, My Love'' was an unsuccessful musical by John Barry and Alan Jay Lerner, based on Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel ''Lolita''. It closed in Boston in 1971 while on a tour prior to Broadway.
Production history
''Lolita, My Love'' was init ...
''
The British soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
'' Crossroads'' was set in a motel in the English Midlands which was originally based on American-style motels with chalets but later was transformed into a luxury country hotel.
A run-down motel was used as the relocated residence of the unfortunate Rose family in the Emmy-award winning series Schitt's Creek
''Schitt's Creek'' (stylized as ''Schitt$ Creek'') is a Canadian television sitcom created by Dan Levy and his father, Eugene Levy, that aired on CBC Television from 2015 to 2020. It consists of 80 episodes spread over six seasons. Produced ...
. As the show progressed, Eugene Rose and Stevie Budd venture into turning old motels into authentic boutique motels. In one episode, a presidential suite is seen complete with era-correct furniture.https://www.cbc.ca/schittscreek/
See also
*List of motels
This is a list of motels. A motel is lodging designed for driving, motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles. Entering dictionary, dictionaries after World War II, the word motel, coined in 1925 as a portmanteau of ''motor'' and ...
* List of defunct hotel chains
This is a list of defunct hotel chains. This list also includes defunct motel chains.
Defunct hotel chains
* Adam's Mark
* Admiral Benbow Inn
* Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts
* Albert Pick
* AmeriHost Inn
* AmeriSuites
* Crest Hotels
* Cross Count ...
– includes motels
Notes
References
External links
Motel Americana
– a page devoted to history, narratives, and design of post-war motels {{Authority control 1925 introductions Hotel types Tourist accommodations