Flipping through Budget Travel magazine, we noticed a small article on Motel 6 and Microtel, two budget chains that are trying to revamp their image without raising prices. Click below to see how designers made over these guest rooms for very little money...
Motel 6 hired British firm Priestman Goode to create a prototype for 900 new motel rooms. The firm used platform beds to increase the sense of openness in the space. Grungy carpeting was replaced with wood and plastic laminate floors, a corner banquette gives guests a place to have coffee and work on their laptops, and the TV unit is set inside an alcove that doubles as closet space.
Microtel invited Savannah College of Art & Design students to redesign the modern rooms. Bijal Patel won the competition and was hired to design the Microtel prototype, which will be used in 30 new hotels this year. Patel used screens to divide the bed from the sitting area and replaced the traditional motel bedspread with layered coverlets. For more information on the new redesigns, visit Motel 6's press room and Microtel's press room.
What do you think? Did the designers succeed in creating cool, modern spaces on a budget or do these still feel like cheap motel rooms?
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To me, these feel like cheap but chic hotel rooms in Europe. I'd stay in them!
They feel clean, something that cheap motels never do. I'd sleep in one.
Part of the reason I dislike cheap motels is the general dreariness of the rooms. You don't want to stay there any longer than you absolutely have to. These rooms have a lot more pop and color. The banquette really adds so much to the Motel6 room!
reminds me of ibis in europe.
Love it!
It looks clean and like I could rest there. Excellent form and function. Now if we could just get Motel 6 to revamp their old logo and identity package....
Any motel room without that awful quilted flowered bedspread and matchy-matchy landscape or floral art screwed to the wall is an improvement in my book.
As far as the flooring, I don't mind a wood look, but the tile vinyl looks cheap.
Call me cynical, but I always thought those fugly floral patterns on the bedspreads was to camoflauge stains from (censored).
So yes, anything that tosses the dismal look and feel of those rooms is welcome.
These are all great designs and of course, a vast improvement over the tired, depressing look Motel 6 has long been associated with. However, it's going to take a lot more than a design overhaul for Motel 6 to reap the benefits of a brand makeover.
It is just as crucial that they revamp their cleaning practices not to mention overhaul customer service. No one expects Ritz level design or service from a bargain motel but raising the bar even a touch will prove to be valuable to both their bottom line and more importantly, the public.
Motel 6 should rebrand it "M6" (or something like that) and start marketing towards twenty-somethings with a little bit of disposable income. They really need to shake off the skeezy roadside motel image and become the place to stay for people who are too old for hostels and too poor for fancy boutique hotels.
I would stay there as long as it was clean, had decent customer service, and a rewards program.
Since the budget hotels now cost almost as much as standard hotels, sans perks like valet and concierge, which most people don't need anyway. I think they need to update to stay in business. It is a progressive move and I agree with btoddster about the reasons for the for the awful patterns.
I agree with the others that cleaning practices are going to have to go along with any sort of revamping of furnishings. The few times I've had to stay in an ultra-budget motel, it wasn't the outdated, ugly decor that bothered me most, it was the cigarette burns in nearly everything and dirt in every crevice. Eww.
Locations will also have to change. Too often Motel 6's and other budget hotels are on the outskirts of town -- well positioned for people just passing through, but not for the budget conscious 'hipsters' this remodels seem to want to attract, who often prefer urban cores to subruban rest stops.
Any way to find out the paint colors used for the green walls?
Jaclyn, these are three times the size of the IBIS and Formule motel chains...where you get a room with a bed....often, but not always, toilet and shower down the hall...
The overall designs are nice; but if these motels don't keep the rooms immaculate, they will immediately look dated and drabby.
I can't believe it's taken Motel 6 over 20 years to decide to do a makeover ...those 19" color televisions and dark rooms are a joke! But over all ,I like the designs they have an urban look to them , If they go with the new prototype I would definitely stay in one.