The word motel originates from the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo , first built in 1925 by Arthur Heinman . Entering dictionaries after World War II, the motel (aka the motor hotel) referred initially to a single building of connected rooms whose doors face a parking lot and/or common area, and their creation was the outcome of the creation of the United States highway system which predated the Interstate highway system and allowed easy cross-country travel.

Unlike their predecessors, auto camps and tourist courts, motels quickly adopted a homogenized appearance. Typically one would find an 'I' or 'L' or 'U' shaped structure that included rooms, an attached manager's office, and perhaps a small diner. Even so, postwar motels often featured eye-catching neon signs which employed pop culture themes that ranged from Western imagery of cowboys and indians to contemporary images of spaceships and atomic symbols.

The modern motel began in the 1920s as mom-and-pop motor courts on the outskirts of a town. They attracted the first road warriors as they crossed the U. S. in their new automobiles. They usually had a grouping of small cabins and their anonymity made them ideal trysting places (or the "hot trade" in industry lingo). Even the famous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde were frequent guests, using motels as hideouts . The motels' potential for breeding lust and larceny alarmed then FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who attacked motels and auto camps in an article he penned called "Camps of Crime", which ran in the February 1940 issue of American Magazine .

Motels differed from hotels in their emphasis on largely anonymous interactions between owners and occupants, their location along highways (as opposed to urban cores), and their orientation to the outside (in contrast to hotels whose doors typically face a hallway).

With the 1952 introduction of Kemmons Wilson's Holiday Inn, the 'mom and pop' motels of that era went into decline. Eventually, the emergence of the interstate highway system, along with other factors, led to a blurring of the motel and the hotel. Today, family owned motels with as few as five rooms may still be found along older highways, but their lifespans appear to be short. The quality and standards of every independent motel differ so it is always wise to cruise around for good motel before settling in a room.

In seedy areas, motels also tend to be located near strip clubs, for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity. Motels are often places of prostitution and drug crime. Motels are also often inhabited by down-and-out and low-income people as well.

The largest and the more well-known budget motel chain is Motel 6. It has numerous locations throughout the United States and southern Ontario, Canada.

In the United States, many, but certainly not all, motels and other lodging establishments (especially small and medium-sized ones) nowadays are owned and operated by immigrants from India - particularly Gujaratis, many of whom are surnamed Patel, which as a result has become a slang synonym of sorts for "motel" in some localities. According to an article in USA Today, more than 17,000 motels and hotels in the U.S. are owned by Asian Indian entrepreneurs.

Some other well-known motel chains include:

• Days Inn
• Super 8
• Travelodge

See also: List of types of lodging

External links

• Motel Americana - a page devoted to history, narratives, and design of postwar motels

• Panorama Motel- a family owned motel built in 1955 which lies on the Vermont and New York border.

• "Motel Memories" - from the Oct. 9 - Oct. 15, 1997 issue of Tucson Weekly