Motel rate isn’t whole story

When my colleagues learned I was planning to stay at a Motel 6 on my recent trip to Dallas, they shrieked with laughter.

They shouldn’t have. My $43 room was in a new building with high-tech touches: a triangular bathroom that had every convenience; a television hung from a corner of the ceiling so you could watch it in bed; and a recorded wake-up call featuring a familiar and faintly sarcastic voice: “Hi, I’m Tom Bodett. And if you think this wake-up call is early, you should have seen how early I had to get up to make it.”

The venerable Motel 6 chain, one of the original economy motels, is now owned by the giant Accor Hotels company (Sofitel, Novotel, Ibis, Etap, Formula 1) of France. Accor is the third-largest hotel firm in the world; it also owns Red Roof Inns.

Accor has sunk millions of dollars into rejuvenating the older Motel 6s and building new ones modeled after the highly successful, moderately priced chain of Ibis hotels in Europe. Of the 850-odd Motel 6s, at least 100 are of totally new construction, and they compare well with similarly priced competitors. While I’ve recently seen only a handful of the older Motel 6s, I’ve been advised that most have been freshened and modernized. And although none of them any longer charges $6 a room (the original formula), their prices are among the lowest of the motel chains’ and often average $45 for a single, $50 for a double -- a steal.

Motel 6 isn’t the only chain of rock-bottom-priced motels to occupy new buildings. Mike Leven’s fast-expanding Microtel chain consists only of new construction, and it is increasingly popular. Sleep Inns, Comfort Inns, Super 8s and others frequently give you all the comforts you’d want -- other than room service. Many have swimming pools. I can’t understand why it’s necessary to spend $30 or $40 more to occupy a higher-category lodging that doesn’t provide additional comfort.

On a recent trip to Southern California, I stayed at a well-known upscale chain hotel only one level down from a Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton. (I didn’t choose it; it was booked for me by the hosts of a program at which I delivered a speech.) The carpet of my room was scarred by cigarette burns, the mattress swaybacked, the furniture rickety, the lighting gloomy.

The experience confirmed that, apart from deluxe five-star properties, America’s higher-category hotels don’t always provide a better experience than you might have in a modest motel. There are clunkers among the top brands. What matters is often the age of the hotels rather than their official category.

A brand-new motel can occasionally be a better property than a much older hotel of a higher category and price.

As happens so often in travel, the difference between a budget facility and a first-class one can be psychological. You are impressed by a bigger lobby, personnel in uniforms and other touches irrelevant to a good night’s sleep. Once you enter the high-priced room, you often find it is amazingly similar to the room you could have had for a much smaller expenditure in a modern, low-cost property.

Budget is beautiful.