A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel, coined as a portmanteau of "motor hotel", originates from the Milestone Mo-Tel of San Luis Obispo, California, which was built in 1925. The term referred to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms whose doors faced a parking lot and in some circumstances, a common area or a series of small cabins with common parking. Motels are often individually owned, though motel chains do exist.
Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, and a brand of InterContinental Hotels Group, which has its headquarters in Denham, Buckinghamshire. Founded as a U.S. motel chain, it has grown to be one of the world's largest hotel chains, with 1,173 active hotels and over 214,000 rentable rooms as of September 30, 2018.
Motel 6 is a privately owned hospitality company with a chain of budget motels in the United States and Canada. Motel 6 also operates Studio 6, a chain of extended-stay hotels. The hotel brand is owned by The Blackstone Group's real estate business. Blackstone purchased the business in 2012 from Accor Hotels, which established G6 Hospitality as the management company for Motel 6 and Studio 6.
Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter was an American architect and designer. She was one of the very few female American architects in her day. She was the designer of many landmark buildings and spaces for the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad, notably in Grand Canyon National Park. Her work had enormous influence as she helped to create a style, blending Spanish Colonial Revival and Mission Revival architecture with Native American motifs and Rustic elements, that became popular throughout the Southwest. Colter was a perfectionist, who spent a lifetime advocating and defending her aesthetic vision in a largely male-dominated field.
Glenrio, formerly Rock Island, is an unincorporated community in both Deaf Smith County, Texas, and Quay County, New Mexico, United States. Located on the former U.S. Route 66, the ghost town sits on the Texas–New Mexico state line. It includes the Glenrio Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Taos Plaza is a center of shops and monuments within the Taos Downtown Historic District in Taos, New Mexico.
The historic U.S. Route 66 ran east–west across the central part of the state of New Mexico, along the path now taken by Interstate 40 (I-40). However, until 1937, it took a longer route via Los Lunas, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe, now roughly New Mexico State Road 6 (NM 6), I-25, and US 84. Large portions of the old road parallel to I-40 have been designated NM 117, NM 118, NM 122, NM 124, NM 333, three separate loops of I-40 Business, and state-maintained frontage roads.
The Pueblo Revival style or Santa Fe style is a regional architectural style of the Southwestern United States, which draws its inspiration from Santa Fe de Nuevo México's traditional Pueblo architecture, the Spanish missions, and Territorial Style. The style developed at the beginning of the 20th century and reached its greatest popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, though it is still commonly used for new buildings. Pueblo style architecture is most prevalent in the state of New Mexico, it is often blended with the Territorial Revival architecture.
El Rancho Hotel, Gallup, New Mexico, is a historic hotel built by R.E. “Griff” Griffith, the brother of film director D.W. Griffith. The pair encouraged early film production in the surrounding area. It is located on old U.S. Route 66 and became the temporary home for many Hollywood movie stars.The rambling, three-story hotel building has a large portico with a central balcony reminiscent of the Southern Plantation style. The National Park Service describes it as having a “rusticated fantasy appearance.” Materials include brick, random ashlar stone, and roughewn wood with a wood shake roof and brick and stone chimneys. The lobby features a spectacular walk-in fireplace made of brick and random ashlar stone surrounded by twin stairways made of split logs that lead to the second floor guest rooms. The slogan “Charm of Yesterday, Convenience of Tomorrow” is rendered in neon above the main entrance.
The Hermosa Inn is a small boutique hotel located in the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley near 32nd Street and Camelback Road. Though not as well known as some of the larger resort hotels in Phoenix, the Hermosa Inn has been highly rated by AAA and Fodor's.
AmericInn is an American hotel franchise founded in 1984 in the suburban Twin Cities. The chain is a mid-priced, limited-service hotel. As of December 31, 2018, it consists of 204 locations with 12,072 rooms throughout the United States, with the majority located in the Midwestern United States.
The Blue Swallow Court in Tucumcari, New Mexico, United States, is a 12-unit L-shaped motel listed on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico as a part of historic U.S. Route 66. Original architectural features included a façade with pink stucco walls decorated with shell designs and a stepped parapet, on-site office and manager's residence, and garages located between the sleeping units for travelers to park their motorcars. It is one of the longest continuously operated motels along New Mexico's slice of Route 66.
The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States, founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.
The Wagon Wheel Motel, Café and Station in Cuba, Missouri, is a 19-room independently owned historic U.S. Route 66 restored motel which has been serving travelers since 1938. The site opened as a café in 1936; the motel has remained in continuous operation since 1938. The motel rooms were fully restored in 2010, adding modern amenities such as HDTV and wireless Internet.
La Fonda on the Plaza is a historical luxury hotel, located at 100 E. San Francisco Street and Old Santa Fe Trail in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico adjacent to the Plaza. La Fonda simply means "the inn" in Spanish, but the hotel has been described as "the grand dame of Santa Fe's hotels."
The El Vado Auto Court is a historic motel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, located along former U.S. Route 66. Built in 1937, it operated until 2005 and reopened in 2018 after renovations. The motel was listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and National Register of Historic Places in 1993, and was also designated an Albuquerque city landmark in 2008.
La Posada de Santa Fe, formerly known as La Posada Inn, is a hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico that dates back to a mansion built in 1882.
The Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza, formerly known as the Santa Fe Hilton Hotel Inn, is a hotel that opened in 1973 in the historic center of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The hotel was built on a four-acre parcel that included two 18th-century adobe houses associated with one of the city's oldest families. The Nicholas Ortiz III house was converted into the hotel's gift shop, and the Antonio Jose Ortiz house became the hotel's restaurant and lounge.
