Motel 6 is an American chain of motels with locations in the United States and Canada. The chain was founded in Santa Barbara, California, in 1962 by William W. Becker and Paul Greene, and derives its name from the fact that rooms initially cost $6 USD (). Motel 6 also operates Studio 6, a chain of extended-stay hotels. Becker and Greene opened their first Motel 6 location on June 1, 1962, at 443 Corona del Mar in Santa Barbara.

Since 1986, the chain has also run radio advertisements narrated by Tom Bodett and featuring the slogan, "We'll leave the light on for you."

In 2012, The Blackstone Group acquired the hotel brand from Accor Hotels, and began managing it as part of its real estate business. In September 2024, Oyo Rooms, an Indian hospitality chain, announced an agreement to acquire Motel 6 and Studio 6 in an all-cash transaction valued at $525 million. Following the acquisition, OYO appointed Sonal Sinha as chief executive officer of G6 Hospitality. As of 2024, Motel 6 and Studio 6 collectively operated approximately 1,500 locations across the United States and Canada.

History

thumb|The first Motel 6 in [[Santa Barbara, California, which remains in business ().]]

thumb|Motel 6 in [[La Crosse, Wisconsin]]

thumb|Evening at Motel 6 with visible room price pylon

thumb|Motel 6 in [[Lima, Ohio]]

thumb|Motel 6 in [[Green River, Utah]]

Motel 6 was founded in Santa Barbara, California, in 1962, by two local building contractors: William Becker and Paul Greene. The partners developed a plan to build motels with rooms at low cost rates. They decided on a $6 room rate per night (equivalent to $ in ), which would cover building costs, land leases, and janitorial supplies.

Becker and Greene had specialized in building low-cost housing developments, and they wanted to provide an alternative to other major hotel chains, such as Holiday Inn, whose locations were becoming increasingly upscale in quality and price in the 1960s, after starting out with a budget-oriented concept. Becker and Greene spent two years formulating their business model and searched for ways to cut costs as much as possible.

During the chain's early years, Motel 6 emphasized itself as a "no-frills" lodging chain with rooms featuring coin-operated black-and-white television receivers instead of the free color televisions found in the more expensive motels, along with functional interior decor, to reduce the time it took to clean the rooms. in the Midwestern United States and Pennsylvania. Regal 8 Motels were acquired in 1991.

The company was sold by Accor to The Blackstone Group in 2012 for $1.9 billion. Blackstone announced that Motel 6 would be operated on a stand-alone basis.

On April 24, 2018, the American Customer Satisfaction Index published a study of America's most popular hotel chains, placing G6 Hospitality's Motel 6 at the bottom of the category for the second year in a row.

As of August 2022, the most expensive motel in the entire Motel 6 chain was the first one in Santa Barbara, California. It had charged $6 per night before taxes for a room when it first opened in 1962.

Controversies

Warrantless disclosure of Motel 6 occupancies

In September 2017, immigration attorneys accused Motel 6 desk clerks at two locations in the area of Phoenix, Arizona, of notifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when guests checked in with identification from Mexico. The attorneys said court records showed that federal immigration agents arrested at least 20 people at the Motel 6 locations over the course of seven months in 2017. Motel 6 said the practice was "implemented at the local level without the knowledge of senior management" and every location had been given a directive that they were "prohibited from voluntarily providing daily guest lists to ICE." Motel 6 was sued for discrimination and privacy violations in connection with the case and on November 2, 2018, agreed to settle with the plaintiffs for $7.6 million.

Additionally, Washington state filed a lawsuit in January 2018 against Motel 6 for giving the names of thousands of other motel guests to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. In April 2019, Motel 6 agreed to pay $12 million to settle the lawsuit.

Services

alt=A photo of the interior of a Motel 6 room located in Santa Barbara, California.|thumb|An updated Motel 6 room in Santa Barbara, California

In March 2008, Motel 6 began a system-wide renovation program called the "Phoenix Project" to update the look and amenities of all bedrooms. Before the remodel, most rooms had colorful road-trip inspired bed covers, carpeted floors, shower curtains, CRT televisions and beige furnishings. Stained carpets and dirty shower curtains were a common complaint on online customer reviews. The remodel was designed with an eye towards not only modernizing rooms but keeping room rates low for years to come. Designers accomplished this by making the rooms more energy efficient, easy to clean, and easier to keep clean in the long term (keeping housekeeping and maintenance costs low).

Advertising

Beginning in 1986, Motel 6 has advertised through radio commercials featuring the voice of writer and National Public Radio commentator Tom Bodett, with the tagline "We'll leave the light on for you." The ads were created by Dallas advertising agency The Richards Group. The first spots were conceived and written by David Fowler. In 1996, the ads won a Clio Award. The campaign itself has won numerous national and international awards and was selected by Advertising Age magazine as one of the Top 100 Advertising Campaigns of the Twentieth Century.

See also

References

  • Studio 6 website