This is What the 6 in Motel 6 Stands For

No, it wasn’t the founder’s favorite number.

Courtesy Motel 6
A lot goes into making hotel reservations. You want to choose the ideal location, the best amenities , and a free breakfast never hurt. But back when Motel 6 opened, people went there for its name. Sounds strange, but perhaps not as out there as some of the world’s most unique hotels.

Originally contractors who worked on low-cost housing projects, Paul A. Greene and William W. Becker wanted transfer their price-dropping skills over to the world of hospitality. The idea was to start a motel that charged unbeatably low prices but still raked in a profit.

According to Funding Universe, the duo started formulating their plans in 1960 and planned to charge $4 per room. When their research concluded that price was too low, they raised it to $5 and later landed at $6 as the ideal room rate. It was low enough to attract guests and would still cover building costs, janitorial supplies, and land leases. So when their first motel officially opened in 1962 in Santa Barbara, California, they aptly dubbed it Motel 6. Everything guests needed to know about the place—what kind of establishment it was and how much it cost—was right there in the name. At the time, it likely would’ve ranked among some of these hotels in America with the best values.

Of course, that name’s not completely relevant now. For one, there’s no flat rate for every room in every location, and prices have definitely gone up from $6. The Motel 6 website shows that prices per room can vary from $39.99 in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, to $149.49 at a location near Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. To be fair, $6 in 1962 is equivalent to $48.78 in 2017. Locations with rates around that price are roughly as affordable as they were 55 years ago. And compared to the most expensive hotels in the world, any Motel 6 sounds like a pretty good deal to us.

[Source: Funding Universe]

Claire Nowak
Claire is a writer, editor and digital strategist with more than 10 years of experience reporting on facts, trivia and quotes. Her natural curiosity lends itself to stories on history, trivia and "Did you know?" curiosities, and her work has appeared in Taste of Home, The Family Handyman, The Healthy and iHeart Media. A former editor at Reader's Digest and proud Marquette University grad, she lives in Milwaukee with her fiancé and their corgi and enjoys binge-listening to true-crime podcasts.