To quote Manny Delgado "I don't like the sound of that. A lot of amenities disappear when an H turns into an M!" He is referring to a hotel vs a motel and the lack of comfort associated with the latter. However, in these pandemic times when social distancing and access to fresh air in open air spaces is highly coveted... perhaps "a lot reappears when an H turns into an M".
Hotels have a tendency to provide dedicated outside fresh air to common corridors to pressurize the corridors and give fresh air supply to rooms via undercut doors. It is true you get thermal comfort and increased energy efficiency with rooms leading to a conditioned corridor, but the air purity is sacrificed. Motels do not present the same mixed air concerns as rooms lead to exterior walkways and do not actively draw in confined air from an interior corridor.
Perhaps the motel model will see a shift to higher up on the preferred accommodations list as priorities change in these days of COVID, and their old stigma of inferior lodgings will be re-evaluated. As long as they have a pool of course.
