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Holiday Inn 'Great Sign'

Exterior of a Howard Johnson's motor lodge.

The word motel originates from the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, constructed 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 driven by increased driving distances on the United States highway system that allowed easy cross-country travel. Image File history File links Nuvola_apps_browser. ... Motto: (traditional) In God We Trust (official, 1956–present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at the federal level; English de facto Government Federal Republic  - President George W. Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence - Declared - Recognized... Download high resolution version (1000x775, 241 KB)Centar [Taken by Mirza [mizi] Causevic] This work is copyrighted. ... Download high resolution version (1000x775, 241 KB)Centar [Taken by Mirza [mizi] Causevic] This work is copyrighted. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 811 KB) Summary Exterior of Rockingham Hall, a dormitory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 811 KB) Summary Exterior of Rockingham Hall, a dormitory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. ... A dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, France/Free France, United States, China, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Greece, Norway, Honduras, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma, Slovakia Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military... Current U.S. Highway shield The United States Highway System is an integrated system of roads in the United States numbered within a nationwide grid. ...

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. General Name, Symbol, Number neon, Ne, 10 Chemical series noble gases Group, Period, Block 18, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 20. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Ariane 5 lifts off with the Rosetta probe on 2nd of March, 2004. ...

The 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. A small business may be defined as a business with a small number of employees. ... Road warrior may refer to: Road Warriors Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior Road warrior: a person who travels significantly for his/her work, especially in North American and Western societies. ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Bonnie Parker Bonnie and Clyde clowning. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... Hoover in 1961 John Edgar Hoover KBE (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was the founder of the FBI in its present form and its director from May 10, 1924 until his death in 1972. ... 1917 issue The American Magazine was founded in June of 1906 stemming from failed publications that had been purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie and operated between 1904 and August of 1905 as Leslies Magazine then until May of 1906 as the American Illustrated 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 an interior hallway). A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. ... Highway in Pennsylvania, USA A highway is a major road designed for automobile travel that connects cities, places, other highways, or other significant points of interest. ... Urbanization (or Urbanisation see here) is a natural expansion of an existing population, namely the proportion of total population or area in urban localities or areas (cities and towns), or the increase of this proportion over time. ...

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. 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. Kemmons Wilson (January 5, 1913 – February 12, 2003) was the founder of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels. ... Holiday Inn is a brand name applied to hotels within the InterContinental Hotels Group. ... Interstate Highways in the lower 48 states. ...

In seedy areas, motels also tend to be located near strip clubs. These motels sometimes charge an "hourly" rate instead of a "nightly" rate. Motels with low rates sometimes serve as housing for people who are not able to afford an apartment. For the book or movie Striptease see Striptease (book) and Striptease (movie) A striptease is a performance, usually a dance, in which the performer gradually removes their clothing for the purposes of sexually arousing the audience, usually performed in nightclubs. ...

The largest budget motel chain is Motel 6. Motel 6 is a large budget motel chain in the United States and Canada. ...

See also

• Days Inn
• Motel 6
• Super 8 Motels
• List of lodging types

Days Inn is a hotel chain headquartered in the United States. ... Motel 6 is a large budget motel chain in the United States and Canada. ... Super 8 Motels Inc. ... This is a selected list of types of lodging. ...

External links

• Motel Americana - a page devoted to history, narratives, and design of postwar motels
• "Motel Memories" - from the Oct. 9 - Oct. 15, 1997 issue of Tucson Weekly
• Motel Signs - A collection of motel signs from around the US
• "America's Patel Motels"