Editing Motel (section)

===Modernization===
In the late 20th century, a majority of motels in the United States came under the ownership of people of Indian descent, particularly [[Gujarati people|Gujaratis]]<ref name="NYT1">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/04/magazine/a-patel-motel-cartel.html?pagewanted=all | title=A Patel Motel Cartel?| author=Tunku Varadarajan | date=July 4, 1999 | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | access-date=September 1, 2010}}</ref><ref name="BBC1">{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3177054.stm | title=America's Patel Motels| author=Chhavi Dublish | date=October 10, 2003 | work=[[BBC News]] | access-date=February 16, 2012}}</ref> as the original "mom and pop" owners retired from the motel industry and sold their properties. However, some families still kept their motels, and to this day, one can find a motel owned by the same family who built and ran it originally (e.g. the Maples Motel in [[Sandusky, Ohio]]) with a subsequent generation continuing the family business.<ref>{{cite book |title=Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream |author=Pawan Dhingra |isbn=978-0804778831 |year=2012|publisher=Stanford University Press }}</ref>

Many low-end independent motels have had to adapt in order to remain competitive with [[Hotel#Economy and limited service|Economy Limited Service]] franchise chains that continue to gain market share. For instance, motels that once touted color television as a luxury now come standard with numerous amenities comparable to economy limited service hotels, including flatscreen television, pay-per-view or in-room movies, microwave ovens, minibar fridges, and wireless Internet. Similar to modern hotels, motel rooms are now required to be reserved online using [[credit card]]s so guests cannot remain anonymous, and secured against intruders with [[key card]]s which expire as soon as a client checks out.<ref group="Note">Traditionally, motels used a {{cite web|title=metal key on a preprinted plastic tag|date=June 6, 2008|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/25373834@N08/2559442515/in/photostream/}} with the motel's address, room number, and "return postage guaranteed — drop in any mailbox". Anyone finding a lost or stolen key had full access to the room, a security issue.</ref> Long-time independent motels which join existing low-end chains to remain viable are known as "conversion" franchises; these do not use the standardized architecture which originally defined many franchise brands.

While many former motel chains left the low-end of the market to franchise mid-range hotels, a handful of national franchise brands ([[Econo Lodge]], Travelodge, [[Knights Inn]] and [[Magnuson Hotels]] lowest tier M-Star<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.costar.com/|title=CoStar &#124; # 1 Commercial Real Estate Information Company|website=CoStar}}</ref>) remain available to owners of existing motels with the original drive-up-to-room motor court architecture.

Due to the negative stigma associated with "motel", many surviving motel establishments which retain their original layout have since rebranded to "hotel", "inn", or "lodge".