By Charles Gandee and Christine AjuduaTravel + Leisure
TODAY
Design-savvy entrepreneurs are reinventing an American icon. From Palm Springs to the Florida Keys, a new generation of design-savvy entrepreneurs is reinventing an American icon — the roadside motel.
In a 1940 American Magazine article entitled "Camps of Crime," FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover waged something of a war against motels, which he labeled "a new home of crime in America, a new home of disease, bribery, corruption, crookedness, rape, white slavery, thievery and murder."
Though Hoover, as we now know, had a penchant for hyperbole, it is nonetheless true that motels — steeped in the utilitarian anonymity of the open road — have had a dubious reputation for decades. The No-Tell Motel. The Bates Motel. The Fleabag Motel. The Rooms-by-the-Hour Motel.
Recently, however, the word motel has begun to shake loose from those pejorative connotations. The credit goes to a growing number of "boutique motels," properties dating back to the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s that have been bought and completely reimagined by energetic young moteliers with a clear vision of what makes for not merely comfortable but also memorable accommodations.
Unlike boutique hotels, which offer cutting-edge design and too-cool-for-school attitude, boutique motels are personable, cozy even. There is an egalitarian quality to these places, which offer a host of communal experiences, from Jacuzzis and heated swimming pools to expansive breakfasts and cocktails at 5 p.m.
"The best surprise is no surprise," Holiday Inn crowed in the 1970s, meaning that a room in a Holiday Inn was very much like every room in every Holiday Inn. This was supposed to be a good thing, comforting news to the anxious traveler. Reassuring or not, the current generation of moteliers thumbs its collective nose at the one-size-fits-all concept. They are determined to offer distinctive experiences in one-of-a-kind motels that are not part of any chain, but instead conscientiously sui generis, one-off expressions of the moteliers' own style and sensibility.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23055514/
