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The Best And Worst of Our American Road Trip

Do not attempt these stairs after a few drinks: the Hotel Monaco Baltimore

Greetings from soggy London! After six weeks, 20 states and 7000 miles, our US road trip has finally come to an end and we are back in the city of grey. Hopefully we’ll be back to test your speed limits soon; until then, we’ll be wowing London with our awesome t-shirt collection (one for every state) and shouting “USA, USA” at every opportunity. How glad to have us back they must be.

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Tags: Hotel WiFi Week 2008 / Best Hotel WiFi 2008 / Hotel WiFi / Motel 6 / → All Tags

Remnants of Hotel WiFi Week: A Shout-Out to Motel 6

We shoved Hotel WiFi Week 2008 in your face everyday last week and it's not quite over yet. We still have a major Hotel WiFi map to unveil, it's just taking some time to get it perfect.

But until that's done we want to give a shout-out to Motel 6 Hotels for offering up WiFi. Andrew Calvo lauded the budget chain for its always reliable WiFi and yesterday we received an email from a serious road warrior who gave big-ups to Motel 6.

Keep reading for the full letter.

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Tags: Motel 6 / Accor Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Renovations / → All Tags

Is This the End of Ugly Bedspreads? Motel 6 To Get Euro-Sleek Look

Where: United States

People don't normally mention Motel 6 and "sleek design" in the same sentence. After all, the chain is known as the prototypical bare-bones roadside motel, with every material and piece of furniture in one seemingly the cheapest available in order to keep the nightly room rate below the competition's.

French parent company Accor is trying to change all that though, with "a modern, European boutique-style flair" according to the official press release.

Spin or no spin, the new room design, dubbed the Phoenix design, does sound like a major improvement:

The room includes ambient lighting, wood-effect flooring rather than carpet, and a 32-inch flat-screen TV. The flat screen TV is displayed on the entertainment unit which conceals the door-less wardrobe behind it, thus combining two needs into one unit.

Also included on the entertainment unit is a cubby for personal items and a multi-media panel allowing guests to plug in their mp3 players, CD players and laptop computers - this feature allows guests to listen to their favorite tunes or use the flat-screen TV as their computer monitor while enjoying Wi-Fi internet access in their room. The room also features pedestal beds with a new taupe-colored coverlet and pillow-top platform mattress.

And of course that WiFi will be free, despite a room rate that is 1/10 or less of the hotels charging you for access.

Construction will begin on the first prototype "in the latter half of 2008." The new prototype will then be available to franchisees starting summer 2009.

After the jump, see what a Motel 6 bedspread currently looks like.

[Photo: TravelWeekly]

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Tags: Hotel Hell / Motel 6 / → All Tags

Motel 6 Coated in Vaseline by Slippery Guest

Where: 1012 Front Street [map], Binghamton, NY, United States, 13905

So I guess Roger Chamberlin is a bit off, or just a real big fan of Burt Reynold's character in Striptease, or a little of both.  

In what is sure to be a featured story on The Tonight Show this week, Mr. Chamberlin was arrested May 17th, after police found 14 empty Vaseline jars and a motel room covered in Vaseline from stem to stern.

To make matters more bizarre when Chamberlin was taken into custody at a nearby hotel where he was found "smeared from head to foot with Vaseline".

Chamberlin was charged with criminal mischief, the Motel 6 manager says the slippery room still can't be used, and there is no word on if Motel 6 will officially change their logo to "We'll leave the Vaseline on for you".