Motels for the traveling business man

The origin of motel hotels lies with the development of the motorcar or automobile. A place to stay has always been a necessity, but the earlier travelers stayed at monasteries, inns, or taverns. These provided rest and refreshments to many travelers or pilgrims as they made their way from one place to another by horse, carriage, ox cart or on foot. When the rail way started to criss-cross the country, hotels sprang up in communities all across the land. Every city, town or “whistle stop” had a respectable place to stay. If the motel hotels such as super 8 motel was filled up, a boarding house was the next option.

 The Origin of the hotel lodging motel

As the motor car revolutionized travel, other options had to be discovered if a traveler intended to stay overnight on the road. In the early 1920s, the solution was an auto camp. An individual touring around the country, usually carried a tent and supplies. An auto camp was a place where anyone could set up a tent and spend the night or longer. Although hotels might well exist in the town or city visited or passed through, many visitors did not want to go there. Motel hotels were for the well off.  They tended to be expensive, beyond the pocketbook of many travelers. Travelers simply stopped where it was convenient, put up a tent and enjoyed the surroundings. An auto camp was often a farmers’ field or lakeshore. These were “tin can tourists,” often travelling with their car, a small amount of cash and the shirt on their back.

Originally, there was no charge for camping. Local communities, as the car traffic increased, set aside free municipal campgrounds. As time went on, further controls were put into place, including a small fee. This benefited the community and discouraged inappropriate behavior while controlling access.

Super 8 motel

Out of this was to grow camps catering to automobile drivers. Buildings were constructed offering minimal services and amenities. In Kentucky, people saw the chance for a profit and, from the 1930s onwards began to construct small cottages to service auto campers. Resembling small houses, these simple structures provided all the comforts of home. Some structures were grouped together on the outskirts of town, directly along a “major” motor way. These were cabin camps or cabin camps the early model of a motel.

Mon-and-pop motor courts, tourist courts or cabin camps quickly gained a reputation as secret meeting places. Here you could expect to find the criminal sorts, lovers and bank robbers alike; larceny and lust under the same roof. In the 1940s, J. Edgar Hoover attacked motels and auto camps. Under the title “Camps of Crime,” the head of the FBI belabored them as dens of iniquity in an article published in American Magazine on February 1940.

Motels continued to dominate the landscape of the roads and byways of north America. Many a family made a pleasant living from operating one. This changed in 1952 when Kemmons Wilson 's opened the first in his chain of Holiday Inns. The result was the slow decline of the mom-and-pop motels. This was further expedited by the change in route patterns. The emergence of the interstate highway system, along with other factors, led to a blurring of the motel and the hotel and a decline of many small town motels by passed by a major interstate. San Francisco motels are some of the best and worsted in the USA!