[HN Gopher] The Great Roadside Motel Comeback
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The Great Roadside Motel Comeback
Author : ecliptik
Score : 38 points
Date : 2021-04-29 22:14 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.texasmonthly.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.texasmonthly.com)
| cecilpl wrote:
| _Today's new motels are often branded as "boutiques" and charge
| four-star rates to match that kind of exclusive service and local
| experience._
|
| This is ridiculous... The idea of a "motel" is to be cheap. I'm
| not too fond of this article. It wasn't well written. Nothing
| great about it. Some chain hotels purchasing old motels and
| rebrand them. Whatever.
| crispyambulance wrote:
| > The idea of a "motel" is to be cheap.
|
| Says who?
|
| The stereotypical cheap motel is almost guaranteed to be an
| unpleasant experience because of the riff-raff it attracts and
| the extremely low level of service/cleaning. That said, they
| exist to serve a need, they're not going to go out of business
| anytime soon.
|
| The "rebanded" hipster motels are quite nice, I stayed at one
| in Marfa TX and also a different one somewhere in MA. Such
| motels can only exist if there's enough visitors to make them
| worthwhile, they also serve a need.
| afavour wrote:
| It's not really that ridiculous. Clearly the previous business
| model wasn't working well in the 21st century, so people are
| innovating.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| Boosting profit margin with price hikes isn't innovative.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| > The idea of a "motel" is to be cheap.
|
| The term just means "motor hotel"; a hotel oriented at
| motorists, usually with an external-facing door for each room.
|
| Even in their heyday, there were cheap ones and nice ones.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > The idea of a "motel" is to be cheap
|
| The idea of a motel ("motor hotel") is to be a convenient to
| motorists, often as a stopping point or destination on road
| trips by family vehicle. Now, that market historically has
| skewed more working class than that for "destination" hotels
| not focussed on motorists, where guests were assumed to be
| brought to and from the hotel by a driver--taxi, etc.--for the
| last/first leg, an by longer range owned or hired transport--
| air, usually, these days--so, yes, on average motels have been
| cheaper, but that is incidental rather than central to the idea
| of a motel.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| This is part of an ongoing trend of things from the 80s and 90s
| being rebranded as upscale for millennials who only have
| fleeting memories of it or family stories about it.
|
| Millennials now have real jobs and real money now so there's
| money to be made by turning things from that time period
| upscale experiences for them to relive with nostalgia.
| Syonyk wrote:
| _Millennials now have real jobs and real money now so there
| 's money to be made by turning things from that time period
| upscale experiences for them to relive with nostalgia._
|
| See TV/Hollywood. :/ Tons and tons of remakes. Some are
| decent enough (the 2017 Duck Tales was solid), but they're
| pretty clear cash/attention grabs...
| shekispeaks wrote:
| A similar article from CA-California's New Era of Roadside Motels
| http://www.californiaweekendmag.com/california-boutique-hote...
| JohnWhigham wrote:
| A bunch of these (if not all) are overpriced soulless cash-ins
| aimed at milliennials. Nothing to see here.
| neaden wrote:
| There's nothing in this article about if this is a comeback,
| there is nothing here about year to year bookings, or sales of
| motels, or anything. Just that some influencer friendly motels
| are being renovated.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| The implication is that someone wrote up a business plan in
| order to borrow money, made an argument about the near future
| state of the market that included expansion, and this was
| bought by the lender(s).
|
| Not iron-clad by any means, but not absolutely nothing either.
| magwa101 wrote:
| One word, "marfa".
| cbhl wrote:
| Apparently car rentals are also expensive now -- a combination
| of three factors: having to reduce inventory last year (see:
| Hertz) and a resurgence in demand now and supply constraints on
| new cars.
|
| So, not self-contained, but I think there is circumstantial
| evidence that suggests there could be a trend here.
| at_a_remove wrote:
| Certainly in the city here, the very last motels and motor courts
| have a rather terrible reputation, known to law enforcement and
| EMT alike, though perhaps foreign to fumigators. Further out,
| though, along the faded remnants of Route 66, you can see any
| number of ghost motel properties. Some appear shockingly well-
| kept. Others I have watched decay until finally bulldozed into
| plots of dirt which hopefully await a gas station.
|
| I do prefer a motel over a hotel: less distance to travel when
| hauling luggage, a bit more private, which I suppose contributes
| to that "seedy" reputation. It's just a shame they still seem to
| cost almost hotel prices.
| GavinMcG wrote:
| It's interesting that you associate motels with _more_ privacy.
| In a motel I feel as though everyone knows exactly where I am,
| whereas in a hotel while I may run into people in the hall,
| they often won 't be able to match me with my room. Hotels also
| seem to have fewer rooms with the parking lot and sidewalk
| right outside your window.
| fshbbdssbbgdd wrote:
| In a lot of hotels, getting to your room requires walking
| though a lobby that's attended by staff and where there might
| be other visitors milling about. If you bring an additional
| guest to your room, those people might notice.
|
| In a motel, the door to your room is probably facing a
| parking lot. It might be visible from the street, and less
| private in that sense, but there's less possibility of
| somebody noticing who entered the room vs. who checked in.
| nwatson wrote:
| In Brazil and probably many other places a "hotel" is a
| reputable place of lodging to which you might take your
| family, a "motel" is where you go for whatever you might
| consider "illicit amorous encounters." I just found a book
| [1] that purports to explore the nature of motels in
| contemporaneous Brazil.
|
| "..., continuam situados em um espaco liminar, associado a
| transgressao. Como o modelo de motel norte-americano - um
| simples hotel de beira de estrada - transformou-se em love
| hotel ao chegar ao Brasil no fim dos anos 1960?" ...
| "[motels] ... continue occupying the fringes, associated with
| transgression. How did the model of the North American motel
| - a simple hotel by the roadside, transform into a 'love
| hotel' when it arrived in Brazil at the end of the 1960s?"
|
| Might be an interesting read, I always was curious about that
| as a teen.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/Motel-Brasil-Antropologia-
| Contemporan... ... "Motel Brasil - Uma Antropologia
| Contemporanea"
| throwhalflife wrote:
| It'd be an interesting challenge to make Breezewood, PA cool
| again.
| mewse-hn wrote:
| Ah young people with money, surely a grand business strategy
| esaym wrote:
| I remember traveling from Texas to Florida back in 1997 with my
| family to go to Disney World. We stayed in motels all the way and
| I remember the signs out front saying $25 per night.
|
| I never stayed in a motel/hotel since then until 2010 when some
| friends and I were planning a road trip. Trying to figure a
| budget, I figured if I paid doubled the rate I was familiar with
| for a motel ($25), that we could live like kings. So I asked
| everyone if our daily motel/hotel budget was around $50 per night
| and got laughed at pretty bad. Then I did some research and was
| absolutely shocked.
| CommieBobDole wrote:
| You can definitely still sleep in motels for ~$50/night on a
| road trip the US. But you're going be staying in a lot of
| likely-sketchy independent motels next to the highway outside
| of large urban areas.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Those days are long gone. Also, governments around the country
| recognized they could raise taxes on a certain population that
| cannot vote against them. So now, hotel taxes everywhere are
| 15%+.
|
| I laugh when Oregon claims to have no sales tax, and yet hotel
| room nights have 15% sales tax.
|
| Also, no government/populace is going to approve new
| construction of cheap motels that could invite drugs and
| prostitution. So the only new ones have to be ones that cost
| $5M+ to build. Close to $10M or more in any popular area.
| noahtallen wrote:
| > I laugh when Oregon claims to have no sales tax, and yet
| hotel room nights have 15% sales tax.
|
| I mean, let's be fair. No sales tax is extremely nice when
| buying almost anything, including cars, computers, groceries,
| furniture, etc. I think it's pretty great! I'd rather have no
| sales tax across the board and then a handful of individual
| items with higher tax.
| jpindar wrote:
| New Hampshire is like that - no sales tax on most things,
| but there is tax on things like hotel rooms, restaurant
| meals, gasoline, and, in effect, liquor (since you can only
| buy it in state owned liquor stores).
|
| Tourism is one of New Hampshire's main industries. Is it a
| coincidence that these are things often purchased by
| tourists? I think not!
| boomboomsubban wrote:
| Admittedly I live in the middle of nowhere, but I was looking
| at local motel/hotel prices earlier this week and could get a
| weekday room for $60. So your route taken might always have
| been a major factor in the cost, the route to Disney World
| likely has more cheap lodging than many other routes.
| blt wrote:
| No Schitt's Creek mention? I wouldn't be surprised if that show
| inspired a few real-life motel renovation projects.
| throw0101a wrote:
| The actual motel is for sale:
|
| * https://deadline.com/2021/03/schitts-creek-motel-on-sale-
| for...
|
| * https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/owner-of-real-
| life...
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| reading it, really does seem like Johnny Rose's business plan
| brought to life.
|
| And really I guess in every organization doing this someone
| must be familiar with the show, I would think creative
| marketing ideas / tie-ins might pop up.
| RaceWon wrote:
| I have Vastly different and Very fond memories of Motels from my
| teenage years: firstly with my future soon to be ex-wife; and
| later some of her "surrogates". Just sayin.
| pram wrote:
| IDK how most of these are considered motels. Lone Star Court, for
| example, is basically located in a Mall and it isn't cheap in any
| sense. Is it just because the doors open to the outside? Really?
| solarmist wrote:
| Yup. I think so. My understanding is that enclosed hallways is
| the differentiating factor.
|
| The other thing that goes along with that is a lack of common
| areas and services (except housekeeping and maybe a pool)
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Yes, no interior hallways and exterior facing doors such that
| you can go straight from your motorcar to your room = motor
| hotel = motel.
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(page generated 2021-04-30 23:02 UTC)