By

RICHARD MULLINS

| The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 4, 2010

TAMPA – Motel 6 has long embraced its no-frills reputation, promising little more than a clean room and homespun staff to “leave the light on for you.”

Inexpensive, yes. Haven of high style and sophistication, not so much.

Now the budget motel is promising something entirely different for travelers — sleek European-style rooms with wood-effect floors, modernistic furniture, bright red blankets, granite counters in the bathroom and HDTVs with a slew of multimedia hookups.

Gone are the well-worn carpets and brown bedspreads with stain-hiding swirl patterns.

Instead, an outside design consultant replaced everything with a haute couture design more often found in the boutique hotels of Hollywood, Amsterdam or Paris – complete with a “sexy” corner couch ready for cocktail hour.

“In our research, we showed this new room design to guests, and they came back with words like ’sexy,’ ‘European,’ and ’stylish,’ and those are not words typically associated with Motel 6,” said Jeff Palmer, senior vice president of sales and marketing.

That style is turning heads in the travel world. Upscale magazine Travel + Leisure recently gave Motel 6 its annual best design award.

Meanwhile, other motel operators are thinking along similar lines.

Rival motel operators Super 8 and Red Roof Inn are starting to renovate some of their properties to similar European styling, setting up a battle for the budget traveler with high-style design as the weapon of choice.

Hotels and motels normally renovate their properties about every 10 years, and many Motel 6 properties were due for a refresh anyway, Palmer said.

But this time, Motel 6 officials decided to rethink the entire atmosphere of their hotels. Why not consider the nightclubby design of the W hotel chain or the sophistication of the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York?

So Motel 6 hired Priestmangoode, a London-based design shop that’s created everything from sleek cell phones to modernistic restaurants to first-class cocktail lounges on Lufthansa airliners.

The result is the Phoenix prototype Motel 6 room, which is the now-mandatory template for future renovations at all 1,035 company-owned and franchise properties.

Most Chicago-area hotels already have the new design. Florida properties will start seeing the renovations to the Phoenix design over the next 18 months, Palmer said, likely starting with those in the touristy areas of South Florida, Orlando and beach areas.

That all makes a great deal of sense, said Karim Rashid, a celebrity designer who has created a range of modernistic products and spaces, from cone-shaped Dirt Devil vacuums for Target to other-worldly nightclubs.

He quibbles with a couple of design choices in the new Motel 6 room and worries the wood floors will be too loud as people tromp around.

But by a large margin, “This is just a huge leap for an American hotel,” Rashid said.

The bright colors, sleek lines and investment in nice HDTVs bring Motel 6 more on par with the most modern Scandinavian hotels.

Guests will be surprised, he said, but should be very pleased and comfortable.

Americans now are soaked in TV design and home renovation shows, Rashid notes. People expect blistering-fast Wi-Fi everywhere they go, and even mainstream stores like Target and Walmart are embracing design and eco-aesthetic products.

“Everyone is walking around with iPhones, a modern laptop and using video conferencing on Skype and just empowered with creativity,” Rashid said. “Consumers are ready for anything because the digital age has afforded us experiences we never dreamed of.”

That’s what Rashid had in mind when he designed a similar low-priced motel in Bremen, Germany, called Prizeotel, with many similarities to the Phoenix room at Motel 6.

Motel chains have reason to try and set themselves apart, and build loyalty among any travelers they do host.

Occupancy rates are falling, and so are the prices motels can demand from travelers.

More than 776 new properties in the “economy” hotel segment have come online in the United States since 2004, adding 37,467 rooms to the market, according to Smith Travel Research.

Motels in that segment generally rent a room for about $50 to $60 per night.

Occupancy of those rooms seemed to peak in 2005 and 2006, especially for the heavy summer travel months when occupancy sometimes reaches near 70 percent in an aggregate pool of rooms.

Even with some travelers trading down to less expensive properties, motels have seen fewer travelers, with occupancies falling 11 percent in August 2009, for instance. Meanwhile, the average room rate started falling in 2009, from $54 per night in 2008 to $40 in 2009.

Other motels, meanwhile, are deciding sleek design could help in that struggle.

Motel giant Super 8, owned by Wyndham Worldwide, has designed a new room prototype with far more modern design. It’s available for hotel franchisees, but is not mandatory.

Red Roof Inn, based in Columbus, Ohio, is renovating its properties with a design it calls “NexGen.” Rooms will have spa-style walk-in showers, granite countertops, modern furniture and ergonomic seating.

The floors are wood-effect. The beds low-slung versions without box springs. The lighting is ambient fluorescent that aims up at the ceiling. “Minimalist. Simple. Modern. Authentic,” said company spokeswoman Alicia Rainbolt.

Even the building exterior is redesigned with a jabberwocky façade more often found in modern European buildings.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919.