A Hotel Where You Park at the Door: The Motel Is Born
As road trips caught on, an architect had an idea: a place where drivers could park right next to their room. It opened in California at the end of 1925, and it gave the world a new word: motel.
In the 1920s, Americans began taking long trips by car. Nights were the problem. City hotels were expensive and had nowhere to park, so many travelers pitched tents in fields by the road.
Architect and developer Arthur Heineman built something new in San Luis Obispo, California, roughly a day's drive between Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1925 he opened the Milestone Mo-Tel.
Short for "motor hotel"
The inn was several dozen small Spanish Mission-style bungalows, each with its own little garage alongside. Heineman shortened "motor hotel" to "Mo-Tel," and the word caught on fast.
The first motel
- Name: Milestone Mo-Tel
- Opened: 1925
- Where: San Luis Obispo, California
- Price: $1.25 a night (about $24 today)
- Feature: a garage next to each bungalow
A night cost $1.25. In 1926, as Route 66 and the other highways got numbers and road trips boomed, the roadside motel became a symbol of American travel.
Sources
- Smithsonian Magazine: The world’s first motel was a luxury establishment (Heineman, 1925, $1.25, bungalows and garages, "Mo-Tel")
- Library of Congress: auto tourists camp (Aug. 1923)
Dollar conversions use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U (1926 annual average 17.7; September 2026: 336.94), a factor of about 19.
