Editing Motel (section)

==History==
{{further|Caravanserai|Coaching inn}}
The first campgrounds for automobile tourists were constructed in the late 1910s. Before that, tourists who couldn't afford to stay in a hotel either slept in their cars or pitched their tents in fields alongside the road. These were called auto camps. The modern campgrounds of the 1920s and 1930s provided running water, picnic grounds, and restroom facilities.

===Auto camps and courts===
Auto camps predated motels by a few years, established in the 1920s as primitive municipal camp sites where travelers pitched their own tents.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|title=Hanlon before the Council is favoring a site just outside the city limits for an auto tourist camp|date=February 8, 1923}}</ref> As demand increased, for-profit commercial camps gradually displaced public campgrounds.

Until the first [[travel trailer]]s became available in the 1930s, auto tourists adapted their cars by adding beds, makeshift kitchens and roof decks. The next step up from the travel trailer was the cabin camp, a primitive but permanent group of structures. During the [[Great Depression]], landholders whose property fronted onto highways built cabins to convert unprofitable land to income; some opened [[bed and breakfast|tourist homes]]. The (usually single-story) buildings for a roadside motel or cabin court were quick and simple to construct, with plans and instructions readily available in how-to and builder's magazines.<ref name="depression-young"/>

Expansion of highway networks largely continued unabated through the depression as governments attempted to create employment, but the roadside cabin camps were primitive, basically just auto camps with small cabins instead of tents.

The 1935 City Directory for [[San Diego]], California, lists "motel"-type accommodations under tourist camps.  One initially could stay in the Depression-era cabin camps for less than a dollar per night, but small comforts were few and far between.

Travelers in search of modern amenities soon would find them at cottage courts and tourist courts. The price was higher, but the cabins had electricity, indoor bathrooms, and occasionally a private garage or carport. They were arranged in attractive clusters or a U-shape. Often, these camps were part of a larger complex containing a filling station, a café, and sometimes a convenience store. Facilities like the [[Rising Sun Auto Camp]] in [[Glacier National Park (U.S.)|Glacier National Park]] and [[Blue Bonnet Court]] in [[Texas]] were "mom-and-pop" facilities on the outskirts of towns that were as quirky as their owners. Auto camps continued in popularity through the Depression years and after World War II, their popularity finally starting to diminish with increasing land costs and changes in consumer demands.

In contrast, though they remained small independent operations, motels quickly adopted a more homogenized appearance and were designed from the start to cater purely to motorists.<ref name=MadeInUS>{{Cite book
|title=[[Made in America (book)|Made in America]]
|author=Bill Bryson
|author-link=Bill Bryson
|year=1996
|publisher=[[Harper Perennial]]
|isbn=978-0380713813}}</ref>

===Tourist homes===
{{main|Bed and breakfast}}
[[Image:Cabins for Colored.jpg|thumb|Cabins for Colored, 1939, South Carolina]]
In town, tourist homes were private residences advertising rooms for auto travelers. Unlike [[boarding house]]s, guests at tourist homes were usually just passing through.<ref name="JakleSculle2002">{{cite book|author1=John A. Jakle|author2=Keith A. Sculle|author3=Jefferson S. Rogers|title=The Motel in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXzZikNoClsC&pg=PA35|date=April 1, 2002|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-6918-1|pages=35ff|access-date=July 8, 2013}}</ref> In the [[southwestern United States]], a handful of tourist homes were opened by African Americans as early as the Great Depression due to the lack of food or lodging for travelers of color in the [[Jim Crow]] conditions of the era.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/rt66/histsig/missouricontext.htm|title=Route 66 in Missouri: Survey and National Register project S7215MSFACG SURVEY REPORT|author1=Becky Snider|author2=Debbie Sheals|date=January 14, 2003|publisher=[[National Park Service]]}}</ref>

{{blockquote|There were things money couldn't buy on Route 66. Between Chicago and Los Angeles you couldn't rent a room if you were tired after a long drive.  You couldn't sit down in a restaurant or diner or buy a meal no matter how much money you had.  You couldn't find a place to answer the call of nature even with a pocketful of money...if you were a person of color traveling on Route 66 in the 1940s and '50s.|Irv Logan, Jr.<ref>Irv Logan, Jr., "...Money Couldn't Buy", in {{cite book|title=The Birthplace of Route 66: Springfield, MO.|author=C.H. (Skip) Curtis|publisher=Curtis Enterprises|date=November 28, 2001|isbn=9780963386359|page=31}}</ref>}}

''[[The Negro Motorist Green Book]]'' (1936–64) listed lodgings, restaurants, fuel stations, liquor stores, and barber and beauty salons without racial restrictions; the smaller ''Directory of Negro Hotels and Guest Houses in the United States'' (1939, U.S. Travel Bureau) specialized in accommodations.<ref name="depression-young"/> [[Racial segregation in the United States|Segregation]] of U.S. tourist accommodation would legally be ended by the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and by a court ruling in ''[[Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States]]'' affirming that Congress' powers over [[Commerce Clause|interstate commerce]] extend to regulation of local incidents (such as racial discrimination in a motel serving interstate travelers) which might substantially and harmfully affect that commerce.<ref>{{caselaw source
 |case=[[Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States]], 379 U.S. 241 (1964)
 |findlaw=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=379&page=241
 |justia=http://supreme.justia.com/us/379/241/case.html
}}
</ref>

===Early motels===
[[Image:MotelInnObispo.jpg|thumb|right|[[Arthur Heineman]]'s [[Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo]]]]
[[File:Dutchmaid Motel, In the heart of the Penna. Dutch country, 10 miles north of Lancaster on U.S. 222 at Ephrata, Penna. 5 miles south of Reading Interchange of Pennsylvania Turnpike (90170).jpg|thumb|Dutchmaid Motel, 10 miles north of Lancaster, Pennsylvania]]
The term "motel" originated from a lodging establishment called "[[Motel Inn|Milestone Mo-Tel]]" in [[San Luis Obispo]], California, which was constructed in 1925 by [[Arthur Heineman]]. In conceiving of a name for his hotel, Heineman combined the two words ''motor hotel'' into one word as ''mo-tel'', after he found that he could not fit the words "Milestone Motor Hotel" on the rooftop.<ref name="Seattle Times">{{cite news |url=http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=1697701&date=19930425| title=The World's First Motel Rests Upon Its Memories |author=Kristin Jackson |date=April 25, 1993 |newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |access-date=April 2, 2008}}</ref>  Therefore, the word "motel" and literally the first motel was born. Many other similar businesses followed in its footsteps and started building their own auto camps, as well as calling themselves "motels". Later, as a result of failing to obtain a [[registered trademark]] for the word "Mo-Tel" or "motel", Milestone Mo-Tel was  renamed simply as "[[Motel Inn]]".

[[File:Gateway Motel, Merced, California LCCN2017710022.tif|thumb|Gateway Motel, Merced, California, photographed by [[John Margolies]], 1987]]
Combining the individual cabins of the tourist court under a single roof yielded the motor court or motor hotel. A handful of motor courts were beginning to call themselves motels, a term coined in 1926. Many of these early motels are still popular and are in operation, as in the case of the 3V Tourist Court<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.themagnoliacafe.net/magnolia3vtouristcourts.html|title=3V Tourist Court}}</ref> in [[St. Francisville, Louisiana]], built in 1938.

During the Great Depression, those still traveling (including business travelers and traveling salespeople) were under pressure to manage travel costs by driving instead of taking trains and staying in the new roadside motels and courts instead of more costly established downtown hotels where [[bellhop|bell captains]], [[doorman (profession)|porters]], and other personnel would all expect a tip for service.

In the 1940s, most construction ground to a near-halt as workers, fuel, rubber, and transport were pulled away from civilian use for the war effort. What little construction did take place was typically near military bases where every habitable cabin was pressed into service to house soldiers and their families.

The post-war 1950s ushered in a building boom on a massive scale. By 1947, approximately 22,000 motor courts were in operation in the U.S. alone; a typical 50-room motel in that era cost $3000 per room in initial construction costs, compared to $12,000 per room for metropolitan city hotel construction.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT135 | title=Coin-ops find motor courts increasingly fertile field |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |date=March 31, 1947 |page=136}}</ref> By 1950 there were 50,000 motels serving half of the 22 million U.S. vacationers; a year later motels surpassed hotels in consumer demand.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/homeawayfromhome00marg |title=Home Away From Home: Motels in America |author=John Margolies |author-link=John Margolies |publisher=Bulfinch Press, Little Brown and Co. |isbn=0821221620 |date=November 1995 |url-access=registration }}</ref>  The industry peaked in 1964 with 61,000 properties and fell to 16,000 properties by 2012.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wood|first1=Andrew|title=The Rise and Fall of the Great American Motel|url=https://theconversation.com/the-twilight-of-the-mom-and-pop-motel-64212|access-date=July 6, 2017|work=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]|date=September 14, 2016}}</ref>

Many motels began advertising on colorful neon signs that they had "air cooling" (an early term for "air conditioning") during the hot summers or were "heated by steam" during the cold winters. A handful used [[novelty architecture]] such as [[Wigwam Motel|wigwams or teepees]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/10great/story/2012-06-28/10-great-places-to-stay-at-a-vintage-motel/55902438/1 |title=10 great places to stay at a vintage motel |author1=Doug Kirby|author2=Larry Bleiberg |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=June 28, 2012 }}</ref>

===Expansion===
The 1950s and 1960s was the pinnacle of the motel industry in the United States and Canada. As older mom-and-pop motor hotels began adding newer amenities such as swimming pools or color TV (a luxury in the 1960s), motels were built in wild and impressive designs. In-room gimmicks such as the coin-operated [[John Houghtaling#Magic Fingers|Magic Fingers vibrating bed]] were briefly popular; introduced in 1958, these were largely removed in the 1970s due to vandalism of the coin boxes. The American Hotel Association (which had briefly offered a Universal Credit Card in 1953 as forerunner to the modern [[American Express]] card) became the American Hotel & Motel Association in 1963.<ref name="AHA">{{cite web|url=http://www.ahla.com/content.aspx?id=4072|title=AH&LA history of lodging|publisher=American Hotel Association|access-date=March 27, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509034646/http://www.ahla.com/content.aspx?id=4072|archive-date=May 9, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As many motels vied for their place on busy highways, the beach-front motel instantly became a success. In major beach-front cities such as [[Jacksonville, Florida]], [[Miami, Florida]], and [[Ocean City, Maryland]], rows of colorful motels such as the Castaways, in all shapes and sizes, became commonplace.

===Guidebooks===
[[Image:El Rey Court, 2 miles S. W. of plaza U.S. Highway 85, Santa Fe, New Mexico.jpg|thumb|right|Guidebooks and referral chains featured in promotion for independent motels. [[El Rey Inn|El Rey Court]] in [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]] boasted [[American Automobile Association]], [[Duncan Hines]], and [[Best Western|The Best Western Motels]]' approval.]]
The original motels were small, locally owned businesses which grew around two-lane highways which were main street in every town along the way. As independents, the quality of accommodation varied widely from one lodge to another; while a minority of these properties were inspected or rated by the [[American Automobile Association]] and [[Canadian Automobile Association]] (which have published maps and tour book directories of restaurants and rooms since 1917), no consistent standard stood behind the "sanitized for your protection" banner. There was no real access to national advertising for local motels and no nationwide network to facilitate reservation of a room in a distant city.

The main roads into major towns therefore became a sea of [[neon lighting|orange or red neon]] proclaiming <span style="color:orange;">VACANCY</span> (and later <span style="color:red;">C</span><span style="color:blue;">O</span><span style="color:orange;">L</span><span style="color:purple;">O</span><span style="color:green;">R</span> TV, air conditioning, or a swimming pool) as competing operators vied for precious visibility on crowded highways. Other venues for advertising were local tourist bureaus and postcards provided for free use by clients.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/cml_search_results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/memory&CISOBOX1=Motels |title=Digital Archives |publisher=Columbus (OH) Metropolitan Library |access-date=March 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022073838/http://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/cml_search_results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=%2Fmemory&CISOBOX1=Motels |archive-date=October 22, 2013 |url-status=dead }} finds 22 entries for "motels" on [[U.S. Route 40 in Ohio|U.S. 40]], mostly archived picture postcards bearing advertisements like "40 Winks Motel -- within city limits of Columbus, Ohio. 100% fire proof construction. Restaurant and service station open 24 hours daily. Every room has the following: air conditioning - telephone - radio - Beauty Rest box springs and mattresses - private baths. Phone DOuglas 3615." (The '40 Winks Restaurant' and adjacent filling station are now long gone; the remainder of this property was shut down for one year in 2005 (per {{cite news |url=http://beta.wosu.org/news/2012/01/23/some-east-side-residents-say-neglected-motel-hinders-area-progress |title=Some East Side Residents Say Neglected Motel Hinders Area Progress |publisher=[[WOSU-FM|WOSU Public Media]] |date=January 23, 2012 |access-date=August 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507183251/http://beta.wosu.org/news/2012/01/23/some-east-side-residents-say-neglected-motel-hinders-area-progress/ |archive-date=May 7, 2012 |url-status=dead  }}) due to ongoing code violations.) <!--Any six-digit telephone numbers on these cards predate the 1950s [[North American Numbering Plan]] with its standardized-length numbers and direct-dialing of long-distance telephone calls.--></ref>

A rating in the ''Directory of Motor Courts and Cottages by the American Automobile Association'' was just one of many credentials eagerly sought by independent motels of the era. Regional guides (such as ''Official Florida Guide by A. Lowell Hunt'' or ''Approved Travelers Motor Courts'') and the food/lodging guidebooks published by restaurant reviewer [[Duncan Hines]] (''Adventures in Good Eating'', 1936 and ''Lodging for a Night'', 1938) were also valued endorsements.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/duncan-hines/lodging-for-a-night-hci.shtml|author=Duncan Hines |title=Lodging for a night |publisher=Adventures in Good Eating Inc., Bowling Green, Ky, Telephone 1219 |year=1940 |edition=3rd}} ([https://archive.org/stream/lodgingfornight00hinerich/lodgingfornight00hinerich_djvu.txt archive.org])</ref>

===Referral chains===
{{main|Referral chain}}
The referral chain in lodging originated in the early 1930s, originally serving to promote cabins and tourist courts. A predecessor of the modern "franchise chain" model, a referral chain was a group of independent motel owners in which each member lodge would voluntarily meet a set of standards and each property would promote the others. Each property would proudly display the group's name alongside its own.

United Motor Courts, founded in 1933 by a group of motel owners in the southwestern U.S., published a guidebook until the early 1950s.<ref name="depression-young">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBljswTLaIEC&pg=PA317 |title=The Great Depression in America: a cultural encyclopedia |author= William and Nancy Young |pages=315–318 |publisher=Greenwood |date=March 30, 2007 |isbn=978-0313335204}}</ref> A splinter of this now-defunct group, Quality Courts, began as a referral chain in 1941, but was converted to a franchised operation ([[Quality Inn]]) in the 1960s.<ref>Jakle, Sculle, Rogers, p. 162</ref> [[Budget Host]]<ref>Jakle, p. 149</ref> and [[Best Value Inn]] are also referral chains.

[[Best Western]] (1946) was a similar referral chain of independent western U.S. motels. It remains in operation as a member-owned chain, although the modern Best Western operation shares many of the characteristics (such as centralized purchasing and reservation systems) of the later franchise systems.

===Ownership chains===
The earliest motel chains, proprietary brands for multiple properties built with common architecture, were born in the 1930s. The first of these were ownership chains, in which a small group of people owned and operated all of the motels under one common brand.

[[Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts]], founded 1929 in East [[Waco, Texas]], was the first such chain with seven motor courts by 1936 and more than twenty by 1955.<ref>{{cite web | title=Torrance, Edgar Lee (1893-1971)| date=November 2, 2016 | publisher=The Handbook of Texas Online | url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_582.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Alamo Plaza | website=highwayhost.org | url=http://www.highwayhost.org/AlamoPlaza/alamoplaza1.htm}}</ref> With Simmons furniture, [[Beautyrest]] mattresses on every bed, and telephones in every room, the Alamo Plaza rooms were marketed as "tourist apartments" under a slogan of "Catering to those who care."

In 1935, building contractor Scott King opened King's Motor Court in [[San Diego, California]], renaming the original property [[Travelodge]] in 1939 after having built two dozen more simple motel-style properties in five years on behalf of various investors. He incorporated and expanded the entire chain under the TraveLodge banner after 1946.<ref name="motelinamerica">{{cite book |title=The Motel in America | author=John A. Jakle |author2=Keith A. Sculle |author3=Jefferson S. Rogers | page=156 | publisher=JHU Press | isbn=0801869188 | year=2002}}</ref>

In 1937, [[Colonel Sanders|Harlan Sanders]] opened a motel and restaurant as [[Harland Sanders Café and Museum|Sanders Court and Café]] alongside a fuel station in [[Corbin, Kentucky]]; a second location was opened in [[Asheville, North Carolina]], but expansion as a motel chain was not pursued further.<ref>{{cite web | title=KFC | website=roadsidearchitecture.com | url=http://www.agilitynut.com/eateries/kfc.html | access-date=March 31, 2012 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720233915/http://www.agilitynut.com/eateries/kfc.html | archive-date=July 20, 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Harland Sanders Museum and Café | publisher=Corbin KY tourism | url=http://www.corbinkytourism.com/sandersKFC.htm | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201111320/http://corbinkytourism.com/sandersKFC.htm | archive-date=December 1, 2010 }}</ref>

===Franchise chains===
[[File:Holiday Inn sign, Ellsworth, Maine LCCN2017710488.tif|thumb|right|upright|Holiday Inn's "Great Sign", used until 1982. Some remain in museums.]]
In 1951, residential developer [[Kemmons Wilson]] returned to [[Memphis, Tennessee]] disillusioned by motels encountered on a family road trip to [[Washington, D.C.]] In each city, rooms varied from well-kept to filthy, few had a swimming pool, no on-site restaurant meant a few miles driving to buy dinner, and (while the room itself was $8 to $10) motor courts charged $2 extra per child, substantially increasing costs of a family vacation.<ref>{{cite news | title=Holiday Inns: Annoyed by the inflexible pricing at America's motels, Kemmons Wilson lodged his business at the intersection where the baby boom met the open road | work=Fortune Small Business | author1=Paul Lukas |author2=Maggie Overfelt | date=April 1, 2003 | url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2003/04/01/341009/index.htm}}</ref> He would build his own motel at 4941 Summer Avenue ([[U.S. Route 70 in Tennessee|U.S. 70]]) on the main highway (U.S.&nbsp;70) from Memphis to [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], adopting a name from a 1942 [[musical film]] ''[[Holiday Inn (film)|Holiday Inn]]'' about a fictional lodge only open on public holidays. Every new [[Holiday Inn]] would have TV, air conditioning, a restaurant, and a pool; all would meet a long list of standards in order to have a guest in Memphis to have the same experience as someone in [[Daytona Beach, Florida]] or [[Akron, Ohio]]. Originally a motel chain, Holiday Inn was first to deploy an [[IBM]]-designed national room reservations system in 1965 and opened its 1000th location by 1968.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/725061/Happy-birthday-Holiday-Inn.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/725061/Happy-birthday-Holiday-Inn.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | newspaper=The Daily Telegraph | title=Happy birthday Holiday Inn | author=John Simpson | date=September 11, 2002}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 1954 a 60-room motor hotel in [[Flagstaff, Arizona]], opened as the first [[Ramada]] ([[Spanish language|Spanish]] for "[[ramada (shelter)|a shaded resting place]]"). The [[Twin Bridges Motor Hotel]], established in 1957 near [[Washington, D.C.]] as a member of Quality Courts, became the first [[Marriott International|Marriott]] in 1959, expanding from motel to hotel in 1962.

For individual motel owners, a franchise chain provided an automated central reservation system and a nationally recognized brand which assured consumers that rooms and amenities met a consistent minimum standard. This came at a cost; franchise fees, marketing fees, reservation fees, and royalty fees were not reduced during times of economic recession, leaving most of the business risk with the franchisee while franchise corporations profited. Some franchise contracts restricted the franchisee's ability to sell the business as a going concern or leave the franchise group without penalty.<ref name="google1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_nxcSS1TfUC&pg=PA92  |title=Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream |author=Pawan Dhingra |page=92 |date=April 25, 2012 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804782029 |access-date=August 15, 2012}}</ref>

For the chain, the franchise model allowed a higher level of product standardization and quality control than was possible as a referral chain model while allowing expansion beyond the maximum practical size of a tightly held ownership chain.

In some cases, loosely knit ownership chains (such as [[Travelodge]]) and referral chains (such as Quality Courts, founded in 1939 by seven motel operators as a non-profit referral system) were converted to franchise systems.

Quality Courts (1939) and The Best Western Motels (1946) were both originally referral chains and largely marketed together (as Quality Courts were predominantly east of the Mississippi River) until the 1960s. Both built national supply chain and reservation systems while aggressively removing properties not meeting minimum standards. In 1963, their paths diverged. Quality Courts became [[Quality Inn]],<ref name="AHA"/> abandoning its former co-operative structure to become a for-profit corporation, use shareholder capital to build entirely company-owned locations, and require its members to become franchisees, while Best Western retained its original member-owned status as a [[marketing co-operative]].

===Freeway era===
With the introduction of chains, independent motels started to decline. The emergence of [[freeway]]s bypassing existing highways (such as the Interstate Highway System in the U.S.) caused older motels away from the new roads to lose clientele to motel chains built along the new road's offramps.

Some entire roadside towns were abandoned. [[Amboy, California]] (population 700) had grown as a Route 66 rest stop and would decline with the highway as the opening of [[Interstate 40]] in 1973 bypassed the village entirely. The [[ghost town]] and its 1938 [[Roy's Motel and Café]] were allowed to decay for years and used by film makers in a weathered and deteriorated state.

Even the original 1952 [[Holiday Inn|Holiday Inn Hotel Courts]] in Memphis closed by 1973 and was eventually demolished,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/americas/room-at-the-holiday-inn-how-an-american-icon-was-reinvented-for-the-21st-century-1897256.html | title=Room at the Holiday Inn: How an American icon was reinvented for the 21st century | author=Harriet O'Brien | newspaper=[[The Independent]] | date=February 13, 2010}}</ref> as [[Interstate 40 in Tennessee|I-40]] bypassed [[U.S. Route 70 (Tennessee)|U.S. 70]] and the chain repositioned itself as a mid-price hotel brand. The Twin Bridges Marriott was demolished for parkland in 1990.

Many independent 1950s-era motels would remain in operation, often sold to new owners or renamed, but continued their steady decline as clients were lost to the chains. Often the building's design, as traditionally little more than a long row of individual bedrooms with outside corridors and no kitchen or dining hall, left it ill-suited to any other purpose.

===Market segmentation===
In the 1970s and 1980s, independent motels were losing ground to chains such as [[Motel 6]] and Ramada, existing roadside locations were increasingly bypassed by freeways, and the development of the motel chain led to a blurring of motel and hotel.

While family-owned motels with as few as five rooms could still be found, especially along older highways, these were forced to compete with a proliferation of [[Hotel#Economy and limited service|Economy Limited Service]] chains. ELS hotels typically do not offer cooked food or mixed drinks; they may offer a very limited selection of [[continental breakfast]] foods but have no restaurant, bar, or room service.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sup.org/pages.cgi?isbn=0804778833;item=Excerpt_from_the_Introduction_pages;page=15 |title=Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream |first=Pawan |last=Dhingra |page=15 |year=2012 |access-date=August 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415230918/http://www.sup.org/pages.cgi?isbn=0804778833;item=Excerpt_from_the_Introduction_pages;page=15 |archive-date=April 15, 2013 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]}}</ref>

[[Journey's End Corporation]] (founded 1978 in [[Belleville, Ontario]]) built two-story hotel buildings with no on-site amenities to compete directly in price with existing motels. Rooms were comparable to a good hotel but there was no pool, restaurant, health club, or conference center. There was no room service<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/11/business/real-estate-a-no-frills-hotel-rises-in-manhattan.html | title=Real Estate; A No-Frills Hotel Rises in Manhattan | author=Shawn G. Kennedy | date=January 11, 1989 | newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> and generic architectural designs varied little between cities. The chain targeted "budget-minded business travelers looking for something between the full-service luxury hotels and the clean-but-plain roadside inns", but largely drew individual travelers from small towns who traditionally supported small roadside motels.

International chains quickly followed this same pattern. Choice Hotels created [[Comfort Inn]] as an economy limited service brand in 1982. New limited-service brands from existing franchisors provided [[market segmentation]]; by using a different [[trademark]] and [[brand]]ing, major hotel chains could build new limited-service properties near airports and freeways without undermining their existing mid-price brands. Creation of new brands also allowed chains to circumvent the contractual minimum distance protections between individual hoteliers in the same chain. Franchisors placed multiple properties under different brands at the same motorway exit, leading to a decline in revenue for individual franchisees.<ref name="google1"/> An influx of newly concocted brands became a key factor in a boom in new construction which ultimately led to [[market saturation]].

By the 1990s, Motel 6 and [[Super 8 Worldwide|Super 8]] were built with inside corridors (so were nominally hotels) while other former motel brands (including Ramada and Holiday Inn) had become mid-price hotel chains. Some individual franchisees built new hotels with modern amenities alongside or in place of their former Holiday Inn motels; by 2010 a mid-range hotel with an indoor pool was the standard required to remain a Holiday Inn.

===Decline===
[[File:Grand West Courts, Chicago.jpg|thumb|Abandoned Grand West Courts in Chicago, demolished in September 2013]]
In many once-prime locations, independent motels which thrived in the 1950s and 1960s were being squeezed out by the 1980s as they were forced to compete with growing chains with a much larger number of rooms at each property. Many were left stranded on former two-lane main highways which had been bypassed by motorways or declined as original owners retired and subsequent proprietors neglected the maintenance of buildings and rooms. As these were low-end properties even in their heyday, most are now showing their age.

In Canada, the pattern was most visible in the densely populated [[Windsor-Quebec Corridor]], particularly the urban locations like [[Hotels in Toronto#Motel era|Toronto's Kingston Road motel strip]] once bypassed by the completed [[Ontario Highway 401|Highway 401]], and the section of [[Ontario Highway 7|Highway 7]] between Modeland Road and Airport Road known as the "Golden Mile" for its plethora of motels and restaurants (as well as points of interest such as the [[Sarnia Airport]] and Hiawatha Racetrack and Waterpark) which was bypassed by [[Ontario Highway 402|Highway 402]].<ref name="sarnia.ca">http://www.sarnia.ca/documents.asp?DocumentID=74 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630010247/http://www.sarnia.ca/documents.asp?DocumentID=74 |date=June 30, 2015 }} p. 7</ref> The decline of motels was also found at awkward rural locations formerly on the main road. Many remote stretches of the [[Trans-Canada Highway]] remain unbypassed by motorway and some independent motels survive.

In the U.S., the [[Interstate Highway System]] was bypassing [[U.S. Highway]]s nationwide. The best-known example was the complete removal of Route 66 from the U.S. highway system in 1985 after it was bypassed (mostly by [[Interstate 40]]). U.S.&nbsp;66 was particularly problematic as the old route number was often moved to the new road as soon as the bypasses were constructed, while [[Highway Beautification Act]] restrictions left existing properties with no means to obtain signage on the newly constructed Interstate. Some motels were demolished, converted to private residences, or used as storage space while others have been left to slowly fall apart.<ref>{{cite news |author=Justin Juozapavicius |title=Route 66 motels endangered |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/hotels/2007-05-19-route66_N.htm |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=May 19, 2007 }}</ref>

In many towns, maintenance and renovation of existing properties would stop as soon as word was out that an existing highway was the target of a proposed bypass; this decline would only accelerate after the new road opened. Attempts by owners to compete for the few remaining clients on a bypassed road by lowering prices typically only worsened the decline by leaving no funds to invest in improving or properly maintaining the property; accepting clients who would have been formerly turned away also led to crime problems in cities.

By 1976 the term "cockroach motel" was well-established; a slogan for [[Black Flag (insecticide)|Black Flag]]'s trademark "[[Roach Motel (insect trap)|Roach Motel]]" bug traps would be paraphrased as "they check in, but they don't check out" to refer to these declining properties.<ref group="Note">[[Nancy White (singer-songwriter)|Nancy White]]'s 1993 "Senator Lawson at the Motel Cucaracha" (03:45) adopts this modified tag line as part of the song's chorus</ref>

[[Image:Abandoned motel room - 3206 Ontario Highway 2 - Pittsburgh Township.jpg|thumb|left|An abandoned room]]
In declining urban areas (like [[Kingston Road (Toronto)|Kingston Road]] in [[Toronto]], or some of the districts along [[Van Buren Street (Arizona)|Van Buren Street]] in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]], largely bypassed as a through route to California by [[Interstate 10 in Arizona|Interstate 10]]), the remaining low-end motels from the two-lane highway era are often seen as seedy places for the homeless, prostitution, and drugs<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/real-estate/article1282406.ece| title=It's check-out time for Scarborough's storied motel strip | author=Dave LeBlanc | newspaper=[[The Globe and Mail]] | date=September 10, 2009}}</ref> as vacant rooms in now-bypassed areas are often rented (and in some cases acquired outright) by social-service agencies to house refugees, abuse victims, and families awaiting [[social housing]]. Conversely, some areas which were merely roadside suburbs in the 1950s are now valuable urban land on which original structures are being removed through [[gentrification]] and the land used for other purposes. Toronto's [[Lake Shore Boulevard]] strip in [[Etobicoke]] was bulldozed to make way for [[Condominium (living space)|condominium]]s.

In some cases, historic properties have been allowed to slowly decay. The Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, which (as the Milestone Motor Hotel) was the first to use the "motel" name, sits incomplete with what is still standing left boarded up and fenced off at the side of [[U.S. Route 101]]; a 2002 restoration proposal<ref>{{cite web | title=Motel Inn restoration proposal (2002, never implemented) | year=2002 | publisher=King Ventures (Apple Farm Inn) | url=http://www.kingventures.net/applfrm_motinn/restore_rehab.htm | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305002516/http://www.kingventures.net/applfrm_motinn/restore_rehab.htm | archive-date=March 5, 2016 }}</ref> never came to fruition.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2006/08/15/worlds-first-motel-a-sight-worth-saving/ | title=World's first motel a sight worth saving | publisher=[[Chicago Tribune]] | date=August 15, 2006 | author=Eric Zorn }}</ref>

[[Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts]], the first motel chain, was sold off in pieces as the original owners retired. Most of its former locations on the U.S. highway system have declined beyond repair or were demolished. One 1941 property on [[U.S. Route 190]] in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]] remains open with its Alamo Plaza Restaurant now gone, its pool filled in, its original color scheme painted over, its front desk behind bulletproof glass, and its rooms infested with roaches and other vermin. A magnet for criminal activity, police are summoned daily.<ref>{{cite news | title=After dark, it gets ugly | author=Chuck Hustmyre | date=October 25, 2007 | work=225 Baton Rouge | url=http://www.225batonrouge.com/news/2007/oct/25/after-dark-it-gets-ugly | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120501070538/http://www.225batonrouge.com/news/2007/oct/25/after-dark-it-gets-ugly/ | archive-date=May 1, 2012 }}</ref> Other Alamo sites in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]],<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.chattanoogan.com/2010/8/17/182093/Remembering-the-Alamo-Plaza-Hotel-and.aspx | title=Memories: Remembering the Alamo Plaza Hotel and Courts | date=August 17, 2010 | author=Harmon Jolley | newspaper=The Chattanoogan}}</ref> [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]],<ref>{{cite journal | title=Remembering the Alamo — Plaza, That Is | author=Vance Lauderdale | journal=Memphis Magazine | date=December 1, 2008 | url=http://www.memphisflyer.com/AskVanceBlog/archives/2008/12/01/remembering-the-alamo-plaza-that-is }}</ref> and [[Dallas]]<ref>{{cite news | title=Alamo Plaza, an Oak Cliff landmark, falls to wrecking ball today | author=Tom Benning | newspaper=[[The Dallas Morning News]] | date=December 14, 2010 | url=http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20101214-alamo-plaza-an-oak-cliff-landmark-falls-to-wrecking-ball-today.ece }}</ref> have simply been demolished.

The American Hotel and Motel Association removed 'motel' from its name in 2000, becoming the [[American Hotel and Lodging Association]]. The association felt that the term 'lodging' more accurately reflects the large variety of different style hotels, including luxury and boutique hotels, suites, inns, budget, and extended stay hotels.

===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".

===Revitalization and preservation===
[[File:4 Seasons Motel.jpg|thumb|right|upright|The 4 Seasons Motel sign in [[Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin]] is an excellent example of [[googie architecture]].]]
[[Image:Lorraine Motel 02 15 MAR 2012.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Lorraine Motel]], site of the 1968 [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]], is part of the [[National Civil Rights Museum]].]]
In the early to mid 2000s, much original 1950s roadside infrastructure on now-bypassed U.S. highways had fallen into decline or was being razed for development. The [[National Trust for Historic Preservation]] named the [[Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District|Wildwoods Shore motel district in New Jersey]] in its 2006 list of [[America's Most Endangered Places|America's Most Endangered Historic Places]] and included the Historic Route 66 Motels from Illinois to California on its 2007 list.<ref>{{cite web | title=National Trust Names Historic Route 66 Motels One of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places: Treasured "Mother Road" Motels Meet the Wrecking Ball or are Forgotten and Abandoned | date=June 14, 2007 | url=http://www.preservationnation.org/about-us/press-center/press-releases/2007/national-trust-names-historic-1.html | publisher=[[National Trust for Historic Preservation]]}}</ref>

Preservationists have sought to list endangered properties on various federal or state historic registries, although in many cases a historic listing gives a building little or no protection from alteration or demolition.

The Oakleigh Motel in [[Oakleigh, Victoria]], [[Australia]], constructed using [[Googie architecture]] during the [[1956 Summer Olympics]] as one of the first motels in the state, was added to the [[Victorian Heritage Register]] in 2009.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/47280/Oakleigh_Motel_Report_final.pdf | title=Oakleigh Motel, final report | publisher=Heritage Council, [[Victoria, Australia]] | access-date=April 12, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708181953/http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/47280/Oakleigh_Motel_Report_final.pdf | archive-date=July 8, 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref> The building was gutted by developers in 2010 for a [[townhouse|row house]] development; only the outer shell remains original.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.adonline.id.au/buildings/oakleigh-motel | title=Oakleigh Motel| publisher=Melbourne Buildings (blog) | author=Adam Dimech | date=November 19, 2011}}</ref>

The [[Aztec Motel]] in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]] (built in 1932) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/aztec_auto_court_albuquerque.html | title=Aztec Auto Court--Route 66: A Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary | publisher=[[National Park Service]]}} indicates that, in 2003, the Aztec Motel received a cost-share grant from the NPS Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to restore neon signage. The motel was demolished eight years later; only the sign remains.</ref> and listed on the [[New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties]] as the oldest continuously operating U.S. Route 66 motel in New Mexico. It was demolished in 2011.<ref name=linthicum>{{cite news | author=Leslie Linthicum | title=History Takes a Lick on Route 66 | newspaper=Albuquerque Journal | date=June 16, 2011 | page=A1 |url=http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/06/16/upfront/history-takes-a-lick-on-route-66.html }}</ref><ref name=tomlin>{{cite news | author=Alex Tomlin | title=Historic Route 66 motel demolished | url=http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/historic-route-66-motel-demolished | access-date=August 16, 2011 | newspaper=KRQE News | date=June 10, 2011 }}</ref> While listing the [[Coral Court Motel]] near [[St. Louis, Missouri]], on the National Register of Historic Places failed to prevent a 1995 demolition, one of the cabins survives as part of an exhibit at the [[National Museum of Transportation]] after being painstakingly dismantled by volunteers for relocation.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5zpVF9hwF1cC&pg=PA10 |title=Missouri Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places |author=Patti DeLano |page=10 |date=October 14, 2008 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780762748747 |access-date=April 29, 2012}}</ref>

====U.S. Route 66====
[[File:Wigwam motel 3.jpg|thumb|[[Wigwam Motel]] No. 6, a unique motel/motor court on [[historic Route 66]] in [[Holbrook, Arizona]]]]
The plight of [[U.S. Route 66|Route 66]], whose [[Decommissioned highway|removal]] from the United States Highway System in 1985 turned places like [[Glenrio, Texas]] and [[Amboy, California]] into overnight ghost towns, has captured public attention. [[Route 66 association]]s, built on the model of [[Angel Delgadillo]]'s first 1987 association in [[Seligman, Arizona]], have advocated preservation and restoration of the motels, businesses, and roadside infrastructure of the neon era. In 1999, the National Route 66 Preservation Bill allocated $10 million in matching fund grants for private restoration and preservation of historic properties along the route.  The road popularized through [[John Steinbeck]]'s ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' and [[Bobby Troup]]'s "[[(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66]]" was marketed not as transportation infrastructure but as a tourism destination in its own right.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Route "66" The Mother Road - Back in Time - General Highway History - Highway History |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back0303.cfm |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Federal Highway Administration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Travel Route 66 |url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/travelroute66/index.htm |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=U.S. National Park Service |language=en}}</ref>

To many small towns bypassed by Interstate highways, embracing 1950s nostalgia and historic restoration brings in badly needed tourism dollars to restore sagging local economies. Many vintage motels, some dating to the cabin court era of the 1930s, have been renovated, restored, and added to the U.S. [[National Register of Historic Places]] or to local and state listings.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/listofsites66.html |title=Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary: Route 66 |work=[[U.S. National Park Service]] |publisher=[[U.S. Department of the Interior]] |access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref> While a handful were repurposed as either low-income housing, [[boutique hotel]]s, [[apartment]]s, or commercial/office space,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://renaissancecenters.com/virtual-office/ |title=The most prestigious addresses in Louisville, KY |work=Renaissance Business Centers |first=John |last=Cassidy |access-date=August 21, 2018 |year=2016}}</ref> many were simply restored as motels.

While some modern amenities (such as wi-fi or flatscreen TV) may appear in the newly restored rooms, exterior architecture and neon highway signage is meticulously restored to original designs.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://route66news.com/category/motels |work=Route 66 News |first=Ron |last=Warnick |year=2014 |access-date=August 21, 2018 |title=Motels Archives |editor-first=Emily |editor-last=Priddy}}</ref> By 2012, Route 66 travelers were spending $38 million/year visiting historic places and museums in communities on the former highway, with $94 million annually invested in heritage preservation;<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/dalebuss/2012/03/28/americans-still-getting-their-kicks-along-route-66 |first=Dale |last=Buss |journal=[[Forbes]] |date=March 28, 2012 |title=Americans Are Still Getting Their Kicks Along Route 66 |access-date=August 21, 2018}}</ref> ''The Motels of Route 66'' was announced as an upcoming [[documentary]] film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://themotelsofroute66.com |title=The Motels of Route 66 (documentary) |first=Simon |last=Cantlon |work=The Motels of Route 66 |publisher=Vive le Rock Productions |agency=Cut Company |access-date=August 21, 2018 |year=2013}}</ref>