On the Inskirts of Town

The downtown hotel is feeling the pinch of a new kind of competition: the motel. For years glued to the roadsides of the nation, the motel is moving into town. San Francisco, where only one conventional hotel has been built in 30 years, has acquired 52 "motor inns," as the intown motels are called nowadays; in Manhattan, which last summer got its first new hotel in 30 years, there are three big new motor inns and two more abuilding; a new motor inn in Washington, six blocks from the White House, is one of five built in the past five years. These --and scores of others like them in big and little cities--are doing a flourishing business, with as much as 90% occupancy.

Secret of the motor inn's success is its convenience and the fact that the U.S. citizen hates to be far separated from his car. Once the motorist arrives at the usual hotel, his car is taken from him and deposited in some costly limbo, from which he must bail it out with what seems like an everlasting stream of tips and usually a sizable garage bill.

At the motor inn, things are different. The motorist can drive up, sign in, and often keep his car right outside his door. In some multifloored motor inns, the guest drives his car up ramps and leaves it outside his room: in other cases, it is parked directly beneath. From the moment he checks in, the guest has direct access from room to car, never has to clean up the children to run the gamut of a lobby, never has to wait for an attendant to bring the car around from the garage.

Motor inns are cheaper to build (relatively fewer and more modest public rooms) and cheaper to run. With the savings, most new downtown motor inns can offer such added conveniences as a swimming pool, instant coffeemakers in the rooms, and free laundry machines. And if ice is needed for drinks, there is always a serve-yourself ice machine in a nearby corridor.

Taking a lesson from the motor inn's book, the handful of new hotels built or building in recent years make the care and storage of automobiles a major feature.

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