The other day I went down a rabbit hole of looking at vintage motel postcards online. And it hit me that there aren’t really any new motels being built anymore, as far as I know. There are plenty still operating, but they’re typically older establishments that were built decades ago. Any lodging built within the last two decades at least, maybe longer, is built as a hotel with a central lobby and the rooms accessed by interior hallways, as opposed to a motel where the rooms are accessed from the outside and you can often park right by your door.
I guess the motel had its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, but it seemed like some motel-style places were still being built in the 1980s into the early 1990s, mostly by the budget level chains. But it seems like even they are using the contemporary cookie cutter hotel layout for their newer properties now. In fact I think Motel 6 is the only chain that still uses the word “motel”.
Anyway, those are just my random musings. I imagine anyone who works in the hospitality industry or travels a lot probably already knew that, but it’s something that I never really thought about until now.
Change in model. Budget hotels/motels are not really built anymore, but higher end ones are ‘downgraded’ to more and more budget friendly ones over time as they become dated. Since the move is towards interior corridors that’s what some budget places have now, which is too bad as when they hit that level of decay, interior coordors really add to the creepiness of the place.
But yes the drive up to the door model had it’s heyday and had some advantages, but at the cost of aesthetics.
I was wondering if there was some perception that places with interior corridors are more “secure” than motels where your room opens to the outside. Although I don’t know if they actually are – every place I’ve stayed in the US you could just walk right past the front desk and down the hall to where the rooms are without anyone stopping you. I guess I have stayed some places where the elevator wouldn’t operate unless you tapped your key card, but those were mostly in Europe.
Motels (a.k.a. “motor lodges”) were designed to serve car traveler, allowing you to park your ‘motor coach’ outside your room (sometimes actually including a carport or garage). That also means that room is not separated from all of the noise and sound from other customers driving in and out. That was probably fine when motels had a couple dozen rooms or less, but less palatable with modern hotels that typically have a few hundred rooms, and a ground floor motel takes up far more real estate that is often at a premium. It is also more costly from a heating and cooling standpoint versus central HVAC in a hotel with interior facing rooms and a well-insulated exterior. Most modern hotels secure all side doors, requiring a keycard, and I’ve stayed in many that even secure the main lobby entrance after normal hours.
In the hotels I’ve stayed at, you might get questioned if you just wandered in and tried to get past the front desk, although the Uber Eats/Doordash drivers were able to get to my room. And many of the high-rise hotels in the US require a room keycard to get the elevator to stop at guest room floors.
I agree that I can’t think of any new, classicly-structured motels built since the 80s, but some of the resorts at Disney World were built in the 1990s and early 2000s and have outward-facing doors.
In fact, resorts are the only place where I still see outward-facing doors up close these days, since I haven’t stayed at a small old motel in a while. Some resorts, not only at Disney World, otherwise still project an upscale attitude, at least in price, but do not have interior corridors for most of their rooms.
(I, however, think of less-upscale hotels that do not have food service other than breakfast and have ample parking to be “motels”, since there are few of the old-school motels left anymore. They serve the same function of a cheap place to sleep with little if any bells and whistles.)
In the spirit of the OP, allow me to introduce you to “The Gobbler”, a once upscale Wisconsin motel with great dreams that came to naught as times changed. This is all from the journalist James Lileks, who runs a number of interesting blogs on a diverse range of subjects that he illustrates with a mix of nostalgia and humorous disdain. He writes:
This site is an appreciation of a lost slice of American architecture and design - a period when just about everything had run off the rails, and good taste, restraint and classic traditions were utterly abandoned. There was an informal architectural style called Googie, named for a coffee-shop chain in LA; the diners had heaps of rough stone, cantilevered roofs, odd modern touches side-by-side with kitschy anachronisms. Well, this is Post-Googie. The jet-age futurism of the 60s had turned into the cheap, Logan’s-Run modernism of plastic chairs; the experimentation with different materials had ended up in a smothering expanse of mass-produced carpet. This is a style that can go absolutely nowhere. It’s the look of the future for at least a week.
FTR, the breathless promises in the publicity brochures were mostly actually built, then fell into disrepair, and it was all eventually demolished.
That site was partly what inspired this thread, although not the Gobbler specifically.
With the current trendiness of midcentury modern design, a lucky few surviving motels from that era have gotten revitalized as nostalgic “boutique motels”.
The place above is about 30 minutes from where I live. I’ve always loved their vintage neon signs, and it looks like the place recently changed owners who undertook extensive renovations. It looks like they’re getting rave reviews online now.
In my experience, the doors to the rooms in many motels open to the outside, and you can park right in front of your door (if the lot isn’t too crowded). When we go to Southern California, we usually stop in Anderson, CA at the Best Western Anderson Inn. (If I’m driving alone, I’m apt to just drive the whole 1,200 miles without sleeping.) In SoCal, we stay at the Best Western Raffles Inn in Anaheim. Both of those have outside doors and room-front parking. On our trip out to Mesa Verde National Park, our accommodations had exterior doors and room-front parking. Except for one place in Oregon, just above the California border, every place I’ve stayed has not been of the lobby-and-hallway variety.
[NB: When I travel, I need a bed, a toilet, and a shower. So I tend to stay at cheap places.]
I stayed at the iconic Madonna Inn in San Luis Opispo, CA twice - once driving the California coast from San Francisco to LA with my parents and siblings when I was about 10, and then again with my wife and kids two years ago.
I reserved in advance - I’m a planner for trips generally, here especially because staying at the Madonna Inn was part of the whole drive the PCH plan.
It looks like the weekends are busy in May/June, the rest of the time they seem to have availability. I’m sure they are always happy to sell you a walk up rate room if they have one.
I’m always on the lookout for older properties (and those with a “classic” feel) when I’m on the road. Many of the owners have taken great pride in keeping the places looking good and making sure everything works. On my last trip the standouts were Tucumcari’s Blue Swallow Inn, the Stearns Hotel in Ludington MI and the Green Creek Inn of Wapiti WY.
I’ve stayed at a few from the linked article. The Dream Inn in Santa Cruz used to be a “secret” choice on Priceline and you could score a room for $75…but those days are long gone. Humphreys Half Moon Inn is not only great for the south seas vibe, but they have a concert venue that hosts some great shows in the summer and fall. And the Wigwam in Rialto is really well-maintained…the teepee rooms are small, but it’s just so cool to spend the night in one.
