I’m not talking about chain motels like Motel 6, I still see those around. But independent or family ran motels.
Norman bates. Definitely Norman Bates.
There are plenty out there but many of them work on the bed and breakfast model with a smaller number of rooms and a niche clientele. If you are asking why there aren’t family run hotels that look and operate something like a Motel 6, those still exist as well but there aren’t nearly as many for the simple reason that it is harder for them to advertise and get economies of scale like the major chains. I have stayed in a couple of those and a Motel 6 would seem like a luxury resort in comparison. They are pretty common in very tourist heavy areas.
People that book hotels and motels almost by definition don’t know the general area well enough to know about every little option. Like McDonalds, they just like to pick something and know basically what they are going to get. That is very easy to do using the internet and they can compare pricing with a few button clicks. There are large family-run hotels as well but those are often built around the resort model and cater to a niche market like the bed and breakfasts do.
Oh, we doin’ alright.
Over what time period are you referring to?
And do you have cites indicating that motels are actually going out of business? I’ve stayed in plenty of non-chain motels, so at least in touristy areas, they seem to be doing all right.
For what’s it’s worth, the heyday of motels was probably the 50’s. Airfare was still too expensive for family vacations, so people took to the roads. Many motels went out of business when interstates were put in, bypassing the slower but possibly more scenic routes.
I imagine there are efficiencies of scale associated with running motels as well as anything else. So the chain motels of the worlds can probably out-compete a family motel chain in terms of advertising, supplies and possibly amenities.
WAG: Many of the smaller, independent motels catered to business travelers in remote parts of the country. Nowadays, with telecommuting and reduced travel budgets, businesspeople are traveling less. The number of traveling salespeople in particular has dropped, in no small part because people just about anywhere in North America can shop online and receive prompt delivery.
I blame Ike.
Hotel Occupancy Rate, Year over Year Change
from here: Hotel RevPAR in Q1: “Worst year-over-year decline in History”
Urban motels were nothing more than temporary housing. Things like Section 8 federal rent assistance are better solutions.
The rise in popularity of recreational vehicles also took a bite, at least of the summer trade.
This, at least partially. Many 1950s-era motels were placed on roads that were major interregional traffic routes before Interstate highway system began in those areas. However, many of those motels were sited and built in the late 1950s and 1960s, after the Interstate highway system and its routes were approved. Many indie motels were destined to be by bypassed when they were built; they were doomed to failure from the start.
Many independent motels fell out of favor thanks to franchising and chains. I know Dopers hate all businesses that have two or more branches, but you have to admit that with most hotel chains, you kind of know the quality of what you’re going to be getting. With an independent, you really don’t know until you first open the door. Many of the independent properties didn’t meet the minimum standards of the franchises, whether it was size, amenities, location or cleanliness. The competition from accelerated with the chain hotel/motel construction boom of the 1990s, where older independents were now came from new, clean properties.
Chains and franchises also bring central reservation centers, national advertising, and the like. Even today, int he Internet era, many independent motels are still off-the-grid in a way, where it’s impossible to make reservations online or find out much information about the property.`
I don’t want this to be taken the wrong way, but the early days of the “Patel motel” didn’t do any favors to the reputation of independent motels. The first generation of Indian-owed motels weren’t run in the most professional manner; rooms weren’t cleaned to the standards expected by Americans, owners’ families would often cook curry at the front desk and in areas that would permeate the hallways (I know Dopers would love it, but most travelers weren’t kind to the practice), and low operating budgets resulted visible wear such as tattered linens or broken televisions. No-tell motels with hourly room rates and the like also didn’t help the reputation of indies.
Supply - excess supply of hotel rooms.
Demand - lower demand for rooms in this current market environment.
Cost of capital - mom and pop shop’s typically have a higher cost of capital than larger chains hotels.
So mom and pop are the marginal supplier of rooms, as demand falls below supply, they are the first to go out of business.
I used to live not far from Route 66 in Southern California, and there were dozens of one story motor courts. Many of them closed in the 70’s, but you can still see one here and there that has been converted into something else.
Independent motels went out simply because no one wants to take a chance on a non-name brand. You need some kind of “flag” to sell your property. Of course once you have the “flag” you have to live up to those standards and are subject to rules, and of course pay fees for it.
So you have a few rooms to sell and no central reservations system to back you up. This is very problematic. Then you need to run an 800 number to look professional.
NW of Chicago there was a hotel called the Rosemont Suites (Formerly a Radisson Suites) and they decided they could forgo the flag and so they did and changed the name. They were directly across from the Rosemont Convention center and did well for a few years.
Trouble was, I was working for a company that would sell hotel rooms for them to distressed passengers at the airport. It was virtually impossible to sell that hotel.
Rosemont Suites was beautiful. They’d offer the same rate as the Hampton Inn and Rosemont Suites were 10 times as nice. No one wanted that hotel, they’d go with the Hampton Inn, even when I told them it was a lot nicer.
Eventually after about 10 years the hotel got itself a flag.
Without some sort of “flag” for your hotel it’s very difficult to compete. Not impossible mind you but you need some back up.
The same thing that happened to mom and pop stores in all other businesses - restaurants, theaters, hardware stores, retail in general, etc.
People go with familiarity first. Non-locals go with something familiar and a “known quantity” over the mom and pop, neverheardofit. Chains get better pricing on everything through bulk purchases and such.
Yeah, but there’s been a boom in hotel construction, meaning more rooms. I wouldn’t be surprised if the total number of rooms rented hasn’t changed all that much.
What hurts the mom-and-pop motels are chains like Fairfield Inn and Hampton Inn, which have been adding new properties like crazy. Hard to compete with them.
But in tourist areas, especially ones where there are no chains, the small hotels are doing OK.
There was an article in our local rag about an independent motel near Oakland Airport closing down. They stayed in business thanks to flight crews staying there between flights - with the decline in air travel they had a big drop in this, which accounted for over 50% of their room nights, and so couldn’t make it.
The ability to book ahead now, and not hope for a vacancy the way it used to be certainly had an impact. We usually book one night in advance on our cross country trips, and it is much easier to do that for a major chain. As corporate travel offices try to cut costs, they also try to get you into places where there is a corporate contract or negotiated price, which is also going to leave the little guys out.
After 9/11 flying was down partly due to fear and some hotels/motels near Disney World had problems. The state let them pay taxes later to help but some went under anyway. Also at the same time Disney built a bunch of low cost hotels on their property which drew business away from lower end chains nearby.
Resort areas seem to have a lot of independent motels, I’ve stayed in a few lovely ones. They tend to be on the outskirts of town (the big chains usually have a monstrous huge one plonked down right in the middle), but they’re quieter and cozier IMO. Never had any problems with insects, broken TVs, or shabby towels, because an inferior motel would go out of business pretty quickly, lots of competition.
It is still pretty easy to find independent hotels/motels. I stayed in a nice one last fall in Panguitch, Utah when driving around the Southwest.