Motels

A motel was a cousin of the hotel. It arose out of a very real and perceived need. It did not exist without predecessors. These include inns, taverns, hotels and the lesser known auto camps, cabin camps, cottage courts and motor courts.  The origin of the motel lies with the increased mobility of the American public and their fascination with the automobile.

Although hotels existed when the car first began to run the roads, they served a different crowd. Hotels, located in the cities and at railroad meeting places, addressed the needs of an urban traveller. Hotels satisfied the needs of travelers by train and boat but were not, originally, intended to meet the needs of an automobile public.

There was also the question of expense. Hotels had reputations of being for the well-to-do. For the most part, they catered to a moneyed public. They remained for days treated as honoured guests. Staying at a hotel became a formal affair where certain codes of conduct, including attire, made some people uncomfortable.

 Arguably, the first motor motel originated with Arthur Heinman, in 1925. He constructed the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo. Motels were different from the beginning. The origins were not grand or lofty. Motels developed from a lineage of auto camps, cabin camps, cottage courts, and motor courts. They moved from open air lots turned into paid travel camps to cabin camps and cottage courts. Eventually, these inexpensive groups of housing became motels.

They began as small mom-and-pop cottage industries. There was no standard model or rigid code of dress. Motels existed as small cottages grouped together to provide a stop over for automobile travelers. They populated the highways outside of the towns and cities. Although not rural, motels had a certain informal rural appeal.

Unlike the personal and even intrusive ostentatiousness of large hotels, motels were small, cozy offering anonymity. Even the design indicated the orientation. Hotels had corridors faced by doorways. A large suite on the top of the building would face an elevator or atrium. In a motel, all doors faced the outside world. Even when part of integral units, the doors looked directly out to the parking lot and the automobiles parked there.

It was not until after World War II, the word Motel became common and accepted usage. The dictionary then defined motel as a single building of connected rooms with doors all facing a parking lot and/or common area. Alternatively, the dictionary defines a motel as a series of small cabins with common parking. The typical structure of a motel is an “I”, “L” or “U.” It featured rooms, an attached manager's office, and sometimes a small diner. After the war, neon signs became a popular eye-catching symbol, the lights blinking and glowing to announce the availability or rooms for a weary traveler.

In 1952, the motel concept underwent a major change. Charles Kemmons Wilson created the first Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee. This corporate giant-to-be eliminated much of the mom-and-pop competition by providing a uniform version of the motel. Under this new model, motels assumed a similarity and conformity in both structure and content.

Today, motel chains claim to offer the same services across the country. Independent motels, however, lack this uniformity, adding an element of risk when booking.Furthermore, motels located on strip joints or near strip clubs can be seedy indeed. They frequently charge by the hour, offering only the basic services. Some of these cheap motels act as “flop houses” for those too poor to afford any other type of housing.

Motels are a common staple of many a hard-boiled detective movie or film noir. The most famous motels exist in the worlds of popular fiction. The Bates Motel emerges from the pages of a book to appear in Psycho. The Sunshine Motel exists only on a route outside of Gallup Mexico in the mini series The Lost Room. The British soap opera, Crossroads, also features a well-known fictional motel. This is the Crossroads Motel near Birmingham, England.