What is the difference between a motel and a hotel?

Da Rich 1: What is the difference between a motel and a hotel?
Also, have you ever been in a dirty motel or hotel?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Joseph
a motel usually just offers you a room, maybe a pool. a hotel offers rooms, restaurants, bars,and pools, workout centers, etc. and yes I have had to stay at some nasty motels and hotels.

Answer by Mommy of 2
Hotels usually have a central lobby and hallways. Motels usually have private entries. I’m sure there are other differences, too.

Yes, I have been in dirty hotels. I’ve never stayed at a motel.

Answer by aafromaa
Typically, yes, a hotel has indoor corridors to get to the guest rooms and a motel has guest doors that open to the outside. The word “motel” is actually a shorter form of two words “motor hotel” and the concept was that one could “motor” or drive right up to the door of their room. In recent years many new lodging establishments have begun to build the indoor corridors because of security issues and even franchises once considered to be motels no longer build properties with exterior guest room doors. It may explain why so many of them use the word “inn” in their name rather than hotel or motel – for example some of the older Hampton Inn properties have outdoor corridors but the franchise no longer allows them to be built that way. A name like Hampton Inn does not give you any indications whether it has indoor corridors or not. The designation of hotel and motel any more doesn’t really tell you that either since many people no longer know that motel used to mean “motor hotel” – for most people now the difference is that hotels (but not always) cost more. There are reasons for that too by the way. It costs more to furnish and decorate and heat and cool the interior hallways in a hotel than to put exterior walkways on a motel and typically hotels have larger lobbies and breakfast areas and need more staff to operate and provides more amenities like a full hot breakfast instead of coffee, juice, and donuts or indoor pools in many cases. Some think that hotels are classier than motels and while that is true in many cases, I have personally stayed in some beautiful motels around the country that have offered as many amenities as any hotel I have had the privilege of managing.

Hope this helps clear it up.