‘No Vacancy’ Signs Are Vanishing from America’s Highways
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Our solution was basically brand loyalty -- the Motel 6 people published a book with addresses and phone numbers of all their motels in the US. The scheme is, you get on the road, and some time around 7pm, you stop for dinner, and make a reservation (from the payphone) at the Motel 6 that's about 100 miles ahead, and off you go.
The only time it didn't work well was one time when there was a large event in Cheyenne, Wyoming (I think it was the world square-dancing championship, but my memory is uncertain), and we couldn't get a room for love or money. We pushed on to Laramie, which was a little dangerous given how long we'd been at it, but it worked out OK.
I think I was 13 the first time, and 15 the second time. Although we had a mobile phone, we didn't phone ahead, we simply turned up somewhere. Perhaps once we had to drive further than we wanted (until midnight or so), and a couple of times I think the cost was a little higher than we wanted, but considering this was a family of 5 it worked out nicely.
My parents found some interesting places, too. I've not met anyone else that's been to see the Mitchell Corn Palace. (I've only met a few Americans who've seen as much of their own country as I have, which is a pity.)
Bear in mind I don't live in the USA, so I don't meet all that many Americans.
"No Vacancy" signs were absolutely welcomed sights. They also just made it all the more visceral. Could I have pulled over, opened an app, and reserved a room online in less time and perhaps at a lower price, absolutely. Then, I could have followed the "map's" directions directly to this place and called it a day. Instead, I had to keep my eyes peeled, take in the city, maybe figure out where the main drag was.
We need to stop pushing efficiency and start making space for discovery. My trip down the middle of our country, that deep red cut of Trump support, I got to see it all. I was a Hillary voter, but, can honestly say I understand a bit of the reasons those states went the way they did. Riding an old motorcycle through the heart of our country, and then using an app to make my hotel reservation, or staying at some cookie cutter hotel instead of the local places I chose, that'd just have been a non-sequitur. I might as well not even have made the trip.
I would have missed the camp grounds, the fellow motorcyclists helping me with engine trouble, the welder that fixed my chassis, finding out that Nebraska is basically one big corn field, the super-hero of a motel clerk that let me sleep at the indoor pool when i showed up at 1am soaked and freezing and there were actually zero rooms left in the small town, the motorcycle club (shout-out to the Amber, OK Outsiders!) that put me up for a very drunk night after electrical issues, and the many other folks I met. But I didn't. It was awesome.
Maps can break down at the most critical points: multiple exits happening in quick succession, exits followed by forks, the GPS reading you the entire sign contents which just serves as a distraction more than anything, etc. Not to mention now there is a screen you have to pay attention to!
If you know where you're going and the general route to get there (i.e. which highway to get onto), following by sign is much easier. Cities are exceptionally well marked. It's a low-tech solution that just works. And yes, no worries about the signs dying or losing signal or crashing.
Duluth, MN > Autin, TX is a straight shot down I-35 the entire way. There is definitely a lot of corn growing in Nebraska but you must have been very lost or deliberately going way out of route. Sounds like a fun trip though.
These days, you're better off finding a way to get "status" from a chain so you can cancel without penalty and book a bunch of rooms. Our last road trip, I booked 4 rooms over 300 miles and cancelled in the afternoon before stopping in.
It all depends on the approach. Instead of saying "do you have any rooms available?" you could just say "I only have $AMOUNT and quite frankly I'd rather stay here than at my old Uncle's place down the road" (or a variation of which indicates 'price does not matter'. [1]
Disclosure: I am somewhat of a paid professional negotiator so techniques like this may not work if not done properly or in every context.
[1] In another business you'd be surprised at how many people simply say 'can you do any better' (which means 'you have the sale') rather even 'wow that's to high... a competitor will do it for $AMOUNT can you match that?' Edit: Emphasis on a convincing use of 'wow!'.
>Our last road trip, I booked 4 rooms over 300 miles and cancelled in the afternoon before stopping in. Oh, you're /that/ guy.
I'm following the rules.
Its obnoxious behavior, but what am I supposed to do?
If I arrive late, the hotel will happily give my room to the platinum member who rolls in or some random person, and leave my family stuck in the room designed for wheelchair bound chain smokers with pets suffering from shedding disorders.
If I book same day, the $99 motel turns into a $139 hotel. If I just show up, I roll the dice.
I also limit myself to newer nice motels.
I tend to drive mostly in the western US, specifically Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, the Dakotas, or Nebraska. Where are you trying it?
A while back I read a fun article about how online booking contracts were "unchristian". The christmas story sees a hotel manager make available a sub-standard room at a discount rate to a desperate walk-in family. Do that today and travelocity will be on your back about not publishing that "best rate" online.
Why not go with "we don't want you here", instead of something they know is a lie?
Anyway, I'll bet I'm turned away from ad hoc hotel stops 10% of the time at most.
Just curious: where exactly do you pitch a tent in a situation like that? It doesn't seem like it's that easy to find some open ground where some cop won't harass you for trespassing or something.
Alternatively, if you're in a U. S. National Forest and can find a spot off the road, you can camp anywhere you want. It's how we do the majority of our camping in our VW Westfalia, where in Washington there are a plethora of spots 90 minutes from our house (no, I'm not telling <g>).
But that's for my mode of travel, which is usually off the beaten path. If you're looking for a place to stay in SF during WWDC, my advice will do you no good. OTOH, I rode to a conference in San Diego, had some room trouble and found a campground smack in the middle of SD a few miles from the hotel. So, I dunno, there might even be a campground in SOMA I don't know about. :-) (EDIT: curiosity got me: there's one out by Candlestick Recreation Area, if you don't mind paying $89/night!)
The problem when I'm booking hotels is that:
1) I'm driving a long distance west of the Mississippi, and the stop points are very discrete and far between--so everybody wants to stop at the same point. For example, Austin to San Diego--El Paso is a bit short for the first day, so you go to Las Cruces which is a lot smaller and more likely to have fully booked up.
2) I'm doing a tourist thing which puts me in with a lot of other people.
Primitive technology like this and talking to people was the only way to really find out about your surroundings.
You were pretty isolated.
to put it another way, the "no vacancy" sign makes it more difficult to discriminate
It's weird to me how blasé Rogers and the article writer are about this abusive, anti-customer behavior.
"First, some quick historical context. It’s not clear who came up with the ingeniously simple pairing of “Vacancy” and “No Vacancy,” which allows the motel operator to simply toggle the “No” on or off, but it was probably sometime in the 1930s or before. "
NO+VACATION = there are no more rooms available.
Though I haven't just pulled into a random hotel in years, I look up hotels on my smartphone so I can not only look at vacancy but also ratings.