15 years ago, i clearly recall driving cross country (USA) and looking for either a neon “vacancies” or “no vacancies” signs just below the tall lighted hotel sign.
Now, not a single hotel has these signs.
How did that ever get adopted as a universally brilliant idea?
Now, it’s 2 am, your eyelids are heavy, while cruising I-75 in a remote area of Kentucky or TN. You see the next exit has Holiday Inn, Ramada, and a Comfort Inn. So you pull off, only to find, one by one, after getting out of your car and going in, that they have no vacancies.
If there’s a major event, like the Indy 500, you can go for miles like this, until you find a room.
20 yrs ago, you never took the exit ramp, unless you saw at least 1 no vacancy sign.
And forget calling the hotels 800 number as you drive- unless you magically know the name of the next small city on the horizon that has a Holiday Inn, they refuse to use google maps which will do that for them for free. Usually it’s some Bedouin from Pakistan on the 800 line, and they have more than once booked me in cities that were 50 miles behind me. Absolutely worthless to call while driving. I have honestly had to explain that Kentucky is above Tennessee, when driving south looking for a room.
So why was it a good idea for every hotel brand to remove these very informative signs?
I don’t know that it’s the reason, but to me they have always looked seedy with the neon light next to the ‘free HBO’. Most hotels nowadays, at least the chain ones, are trying to look cleaner and safer than their mom and pop counterparts.
I have no answer for your question, but once in a while I still do see the signs. Usually it’s at the same motels that advertise their air conditioning and color TV, though.
I see them. The only one I can remember for certain is not the best, and across the street from a strip club.
Wooden signs make me think Bates Motel. Similar to “Welcome to Happytown. Population 592.” Then the 592 is crossed out and replaced with a lower number, several times in succession.
Slight tangent: the apartment building next door has a sign that always reads “NO Vacancy”–because the manager used a marker that won’t wash off. So, when a apartment becomes available, he uses a washable marker and changes the sign to read “**NOW **Vacancy”.
That and I’m willing to bet that hotels see a lot less drop-in customers than they used to. When most of your customers called or made online reservations, cluttering your sign with a “No/Vacancies” sign makes less sense.
My Garmin GPS tells me what hotels/motels are up ahead. I then can use my smart phone to call and see if there’s an opening.
Or I can just use the smart phone to check on upcoming hotels and make an on-line reservation.
But as mentioned above, I usually make advanced reservations. The last time I didn’t was when my daughter became ill away at college. I just jumped in the car and drove. About half way there I became too tired to drive and pulled off the Interstate at an exit that had plenty of hotels. No problem.
I live in a tourist area (New England coast) and there are many, many motels with these signs. During the season, you can use them as a rough gauge of how the economy is doing.
So you drive completely unprepared for your trip. No plan, no reservations. No sense of geography.
If you are going to complain about the 800 numbers and their lack of geographical knowledge, you should know that Bedouins are not from Pakistan and Kentucky is North of Tennessee, not “above” it.
Sorry, down the street. And it’s not terribly seedy, old mainly.
If they have them, they’re not advertised. Hmm… I don’t remember seeing a place that ever proudly advertised that, but I guess they’re still around.
It’s not always because someone is taking a trip with no plan. :rolleyes:
We drive yearly to Ocean City, and leave the first day kind of open ended - we’d like to maximize our first day of driving and get there sooner on the second day. So we don’t like to make a prescribed rest point, as the distance covered can vary greatly, mostly depending on traffic in the city areas and weather in the mountains.
Last summer, we were ready to stop in a medium town in Maryland, relatively late at night. We picked an exit with a ton of hotels, and commenced driving around for another hour and eventually to a distant town, as there was some kind of softball competition in the area. Calling was a waste, since I would spend 15 minutes on hold and/or being connected through nine different operators. My smartphone Internet service was sketchy due to geography. It was actually more efficient to drive to the nearby hotel, get out and ask at the desk, than to call or attempt to navigate a website with a lousy connection.
I really wish they’d bring the signs back. I’m sure they can figure out a way to make it aesthetically pleasing.
I’m far from an expert, I generally sleep in my truck while traveling, but haven’t many motels that are no longer in “prime” locations morphed into short to medium term rentals? That is, extended stay rentals that may cater to borderline homeless people?
Most decent hotels are familiar with the others in the area, so even if you arrive at one that’s full, they can tell you which others might have room. Sometimes, they’ll call around for you to find you a place to stay.
I’m betting that the “No Vacancy” signs served the same purpose of the little “Reserved” signs on restaurant tables - if you walked in and your skin color didn’t match the upholstery, they would point to the sign and say “sorry, full up”.
I imagine most folks (by definition, business travelers) have their rooms booked in advance. Otherwise, use your cell.
That sums up my reply as well. I have reservations at the final stop, but not the via stop…like you said, I want to drive as far as I can on the first day. And bingo on the wait time when calling 800 line, by the time you give them all your info, which they should already have, you’ve already passed the exit you were calling about. Exception as of recent is Holiday inn if you are platinum…they pull your profile up on your caller ID now…why don’t they all use google maps, pin point your location and direction, then select the nearby info option? It then places red dots on all Holiday Inns within x mile radius…click on one, it give you hotel info.