New motel design for truckers

Those are great ideas
But all service comes with a cost
My company (ok my dads) delivers to quite a few hotels
They work on very close numbers
Every service has its cost
Many hotels make long term guest singh an agreement that all services will not be given every day (changing the sheets)
Its amazing what it cost to keep even a two star hotel open (motel 6, super 8)
So a 5 million hotel with a 60% occupancy may not even break even, when you take into consideration compliance laws via company standards

 

Then there is the cost of insurance !

 

There's a lot of truth in the last few posts.

If you are going to offer a continental breakfast, make it a real one. A day-old muffin, a mini-box of bran flakes and a 4 oz. glass of watered down juice made from crystals is not a continental breakfast. I had rave reviews on the one I offered; fruit salad made fresh every morning, cereals (hot & cold), breads, yogurt, coffee, tea, real juice, nuts, cheese, cold cuts, fresh waffles, eggs, etc. You don't need to go that far, but offer a little more than the regular fare ... maybe even frozen waffles, but enough stuff to satisfy.

I had a contract to operate a small, luxury hotel in one of North America's top resort destinations ... you learn a lot about people. Like the fact that about 70% of people are pigs, or at least act like it because they are not at home (okay, so I'm still a little sour ). Good luck with your endeavour, good, clean, inexpensive hotels that provide real value are hard to come by.

 

just a clean place where the drive way -parking lot is big enough, and signs pointing to the right direction........

 

It's not a physical thing - that's been covered pretty darn well.

Reasonable hours. I've been to some hotel/motels where I'd check in at 11:00, and check out at 08:00 the next day, and they'd try to charge me for two days because their check out time was noon.

Special rates for drivers on a 34.

If you don't include internet in the cost of the room, price it reasonably. $10 is not reasonable for a one-day stay. The actual cost of the internet - including a T-1 loop, should be about $15/day for the entire establishment. If it's more than that, you are getting screwed. Royally. In a structure with 150 rooms, even at 10% occupancy, $2/day for internet gives you all kinds of profit.

Offer contracts to trucking companies. ( I don't know if this will fly, but it's worth a try). Offer rooms to them at a flat rate - if trucker stays, he can pay for internet, etc, but room is billed to company. (hay, we're dreaming a bit here - why not go for the gold?)

Back to physical stuff. I know that a multiple-day stay doesn't warrant changing the sheets - but at least make sure the towels get changed. Wash the blankets and covers at least once a month. Once a week would be better.

Clean carpets. I, too, have been in places where I had to wear my shoes from the bathroom to the bed - because the bottoms of my feet would turn black in that short a distance. Use a true extraction cleaning method, not one of those circular spinning fiber pad things.

Day blinds on the windows - not just heavy curtains, but blinds that are not translucent, as well. Each option leaks light, but combined it's plenty dark.

**Good soundproofing**. I do NOT want to hear what's going on in the next room, nor the room above/below me. Listening to trucks start up at any time of day or night should be un-heard in my room, too.

On site security. Not just for the trucks, either. I can't begin to count the times I've spent significant portions of my alloted sleep time having to deal with drunken twiddleheads - either fighting or just being more stupid than usual.

A/C units that really work, and don't sound like a D9 starting up.

Comfortable chairs! Drivers have just spent the past 10 hours sitting. And the past X DAYS sitting. Oddly enough, some want to sit some more. Things like Lay-Z-Boys or even just big overstuffed chairs would be tremendously appreciated.

year round swimming pool/jaccuzzi stuff would be nice, too.

 

What everyone else said, but also a fitness center. A good universal machine, treadmill, and a stationary bike would be just fine. No need to make it a Gold's Gym but good quality, maintained basics would be great.

 

Its amazing just to get the privilege to pay for the use of a corporate name it cost money and infrastructure cost
Many people think great , easy money
Open an hotel and give free breakfast
It all costs money
Free parking well it cost a couple million just for good exit space, then you still have to build
Heat and electricity two grand a month
Those are the easy part

 

access to laundry facilities.

 

Nobody has ever said it would be free. and 2 grand a month is jack. At 10% occupancy in a 150-room establishment, that's $4.50 a day/room. And since 10% occupancy is slightly unreasonable - isn't the industry standard 'assumption' on the order of 30%? - the pro-rated cost of the utilities will be significantly less.

No mention was made of getting into a franchise. In fact, that's probably a *bad* idea, since franchises have their own standards, requirements, and price structures. Far better to establish your own name, I think. In this industry word of mouth will get you more clients for something like this than all the advertising in the world.

I don't think anybody expects this to be done for $39.95 a night. But $100 is going to be too much. All in all, I'd look at a price range between $50 and $80, to be honest.

A gym had crossed my mind - even a mini-gym. While I have no problems with it, I'm not sure it's a significant draw. Unless you use something like that on a regular basis (3+ times a week) their usefulness is.. well.. limited. So I deliberately omitted it from my list of good things to have.

Assume 2million for the original construction (including interest on the loan), amortized over 15 years. That's about $2.50 per room/day. Assume payroll is $25000/month.. that's about $6 per room/day. Triple that, for only 30% occupancy, and you have base daily costs of about $25/room.

Add in power/water at $5/day/room. Internet/breakfast/just about everything else can be all rolled together for less than $10/day/room. I'm sure there's probably a good $20/day/room I've missed in costs, now that I think of it. So, approx cost of operating this thing would be (biiiiig ballpark) $9000/day ($60/room/day).

I don't think $60-$65/day for a motel designed to our specs is unreasonable