A century on, Aussies still love the humble motel

It’s 100 years since the first motor-hotel opened in the US. Now, motels are winning over a new generation of travellers with glam renos. 

Motels are the happy medium of hostelry. They combine the key comforts of hotels with the freedoms of self-contained living, a little resort flair (who doesn’t love a kidney-shaped pool?), and the suburban ease of being able to drive right up to your front door. And, importantly in a cost-of-living crisis, they’re more affordable than most stay options.

They’re also, obviously, the perfect fit for a road-trip stopover, which is why motor-hotels have been such a hit since the first one sprang up a century ago on California’s Highway One. The Milestone Mo-Tel (later renamed The Motel Inn) in San Luis Obispo offered unimagined luxuries, such as a laundry and en-suite bathrooms, to weary motorists making the breathtaking but tiring coastal commute between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

I’ve been a fan of motels since I moved to Sydney in the late ’90s. Instead of flying I drove up the Hume to make the move feel more real and permanent, and broke the journey in Gundagai where I stayed in the brick-veneer comfort of the Henry Lawson (or was it Banjo Paterson?) room at the Poet’s Recall Motel.

Since then it’s become pretty much an annual habit for me to make that drive and stop over at one of Gundagai’s many motels. More for the ritual than anything else. Pulling into the covered driveway, ducking into reception to pay upfront, grab the keys and a carton of milk, and get tips on where’s good to eat. Then find my car spot and transfer bags from boot to bedroom as I cast an eye over the other parked vehicles. Wondering where they’ve come from, where they’re heading to, and how we all ended up in this town together – strangers randomly united by the fact we’re travelling this same road at the same time. There’s an intimacy to motels you don’t get in hotels.

Given Australia shares America’s vast landscapes and love of cars, motels naturally became a hit here, too. There’s no firm consensus on which was our first, but contenders include the Penzance Motel, opened in Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania, in 1939. It offered chalet-style units, a honeymoon suite and a pirate-themed restaurant inspired by its location overlooking Pirates Bay.

Who doesn’t love a kidney-shaped pool? Picture: The Mysa Motel/Supplied.

Other local pioneers include the circa 1949 Lansdowne Bridge Motel located on the old Hume Highway between Bankstown and Liverpool in western Sydney. It was followed by Bathurst’s American Motel in 1954 and, in the post-Olympics euphoria of 1957, the Oakleigh Motel opened in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs. Despite being heritage-listed for its eye-catching modernist architecture, it was mostly demolished in 2010.

Those first motels were copied directly from the US, mimicking their futuristic Googie architectural style of sloping roofs, billboard façades and neon signs. But they’ve evolved over time into a uniquely Australian experience. I still get a buzz out of opening a breakfast hatch to find my order of DIY toast (two bread slices in a paper bag), mini cereal box and sachets of Vegemite and honey. Likewise the afternoon treat of a twin pack of Arnott’s biscuits (Scotch Finger and Butternut Snap is my dream duo) with a cup of Bushells tea.

Since Covid restrictions lifted there’s been an uptick in the popularity of motels, according to Accommodation Australia’s Victorian GM Dougal Hollis. “Domestic travel has been incredibly strong post-pandemic,” he says, citing an almost 40 per cent increase in spending on domestic tourism.

In the post-Olympics euphoria of 1957, the Oakleigh Motel opened in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs. Picture: Supplied.

“Once the shackles were off… the want to go and explore your local habitat was very prominent,” says Hollis. “I think there’s an inherent freedom that comes with a road trip, setting your own agenda and timing and part of the excitement is arriving at a destination and seeing what you can find.

“People realised what they’d missed. And that’s good news for motels.”

Motels are also winning over a new generation of travellers thanks to glam renos transforming them into bougie boltholes. The trend started with Halcyon House, the 1960s surfer motel in northern NSW that sparked a stampede to little-known Cabarita Beach when it reopened a decade ago with an Amalfi-inspired makeover. Today there’s a string of stylish neo-motels lining the Pacific Highway in NSW and the Gold Coast including the flamingo-pink Mysa Motel at Palm Beach and the Blue Water Motel at Kingscliff. But you can find them anywhere from Margaret River to Gippsland.

The Halcyon House sparked a stampede to little-known Cabarita Beach when it reopened a decade ago. Picture: Supplied. 

As a motel enthusiast it’s great to see these relics of another age given new life in the new century. But for me nothing beats the nostalgia of staying in a locally owned, old-school motel, ideally with a breakfast hatch.

Roadside revisit

The Milestone Mo-Tel opened on December 12, 1925, so there’s still plenty of time to mark the centenary by pulling off the highway and checking in to a friendly motor-hotel somewhere in this wide brown land.

Originally published as A century on, Aussies still love the humble motel