
‘No Vacancy’ Signs Are Vanishing from America’s Highways - spking
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-11/-no-vacancy-signs-are-vanishing-from-america-s-highways
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reidacdc
I did the Chicago to San Francisco (and back) run fairly regularly in the
1990s, and we didn't depend on vacancy signs.

Our solution was basically brand loyalty -- the Motel 6 people published a
book with addresses and phone numbers of all their motels in the US. The
scheme is, you get on the road, and some time around 7pm, you stop for dinner,
and make a reservation (from the payphone) at the Motel 6 that's about 100
miles ahead, and off you go.

The only time it didn't work well was one time when there was a large event in
Cheyenne, Wyoming (I think it was the world square-dancing championship, but
my memory is uncertain), and we couldn't get a room for love or money. We
pushed on to Laramie, which was a little dangerous given how long we'd been at
it, but it worked out OK.

~~~
Symbiote
I travelled that route (and back) with my parents a couple of times around the
same time, as tourists.

I think I was 13 the first time, and 15 the second time. Although we had a
mobile phone, we didn't phone ahead, we simply turned up somewhere. Perhaps
once we had to drive further than we wanted (until midnight or so), and a
couple of times I think the cost was a little higher than we wanted, but
considering this was a family of 5 it worked out nicely.

My parents found some interesting places, too. I've not met anyone else that's
been to see the Mitchell Corn Palace. (I've only met a few Americans who've
seen as much of their own country as I have, which is a pity.)

~~~
selimthegrim
I've seen it. They have signs for it like 500 miles before in either
direction, no, like Wall Drug?

~~~
Symbiote
Probably.

Bear in mind I don't live in the USA, so I don't meet all that many Americans.

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throwaway98237
Last summer I bought a motorcycle in Duluth, MN and rode it down to Austin, TX
(ok, well, to Oklahoma City from where it hitched a ride in a U-Haul, hey it's
a road trip and it was a used bike off Craigslist). I was mostly unplugged
apart from the maps app (which is not how I plan on doing it next time, next
time I plan on having physical maps, maps that can't die on you, move to an
irrelevant portion of the trip, or otherwise randomly turn from a navigation
device to a screen saver).

"No Vacancy" signs were absolutely welcomed sights. They also just made it all
the more visceral. Could I have pulled over, opened an app, and reserved a
room online in less time and perhaps at a lower price, absolutely. Then, I
could have followed the "map's" directions directly to this place and called
it a day. Instead, I had to keep my eyes peeled, take in the city, maybe
figure out where the main drag was.

We need to stop pushing efficiency and start making space for discovery. My
trip down the middle of our country, that deep red cut of Trump support, I got
to see it all. I was a Hillary voter, but, can honestly say I understand a bit
of the reasons those states went the way they did. Riding an old motorcycle
through the heart of our country, and then using an app to make my hotel
reservation, or staying at some cookie cutter hotel instead of the local
places I chose, that'd just have been a non-sequitur. I might as well not even
have made the trip.

I would have missed the camp grounds, the fellow motorcyclists helping me with
engine trouble, the welder that fixed my chassis, finding out that Nebraska is
basically one big corn field, the super-hero of a motel clerk that let me
sleep at the indoor pool when i showed up at 1am soaked and freezing and there
were actually zero rooms left in the small town, the motorcycle club (shout-
out to the Amber, OK Outsiders!) that put me up for a very drunk night after
electrical issues, and the many other folks I met. But I didn't. It was
awesome.

~~~
tombrossman
> finding out that Nebraska is basically one big corn field

Duluth, MN > Autin, TX is a straight shot down I-35 the entire way. There is
definitely a lot of corn growing in Nebraska but you must have been very lost
or deliberately going way out of route. Sounds like a fun trip though.

~~~
throwaway98237
Family In S. Dakota. And taking back / farm roads all the way, because they
are much more friendly to enduro-style motorcycles. Wasn't out of way. Was't
lost. Just taking the long way home. It's kinda like you missed the entire
point of my comment.

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closeparen
It's a shame because how far you will get in a day of driving is not exactly
set in stone. If you're alert and in the zone, you may wish to go farther than
the hotel you booked. If you've hit bad weather, traffic, etc. then the hotel
you booked couple be a couple hundred miles past when you'd prefer to stop
driving for the night. It's really nice to be able to stop when you feel like
it.

~~~
Retric
Making a booking at ~4-6pm for that night works just fine. I have even made a
few bookings at like 11pm. A phone call while getting food / gas is more
convent than driving somewhere. Now, you might pay more that way, but outside
of city's hotel rooms are really cheap.

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Spooky23
My parents used to do this all if the time. Sometime in the late 90s, many
hotels started using drop in guests as people to be hustled.

These days, you're better off finding a way to get "status" from a chain so
you can cancel without penalty and book a bunch of rooms. Our last road trip,
I booked 4 rooms over 300 miles and cancelled in the afternoon before stopping
in.

~~~
gist
> many hotels started using drop in guests as people to be hustled

It all depends on the approach. Instead of saying "do you have any rooms
available?" you could just say "I only have $AMOUNT and quite frankly I'd
rather stay here than at my old Uncle's place down the road" (or a variation
of which indicates 'price does not matter'. [1]

Disclosure: I am somewhat of a paid professional negotiator so techniques like
this may not work if not done properly or in every context.

[1] In another business you'd be surprised at how many people simply say 'can
you do any better' (which means 'you have the sale') rather even 'wow that's
to high... a competitor will do it for $AMOUNT can you match that?' Edit:
Emphasis on a convincing use of 'wow!'.

~~~
SuperPaintMan
Hotel FD/Auditor here, we get to deal with all sorts of backflips for lower
rates late at night. We used to have rates as low as employee pricing but
these were being abused and had all sorts walking in over making proper
reservations. I don't negotiate, or match. Quite frankly I don't give two
shits what rooms at Motel 6 are supposedly going for. If it's past AAA you're
not getting it.

>Our last road trip, I booked 4 rooms over 300 miles and cancelled in the
afternoon before stopping in. Oh, you're /that/ guy.

~~~
op00to
Yup, the guy adhering to hotel policy.

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codazoda
I've never been able to find a room last minute by stopping in a hotel and
asking to stay the night. They always say they're full.

~~~
mikestew
I'd be curious to know the difference between your experience and mine. U. S.
here, and its rare that a motel turns me away. Now, there are several
distinguishing characteristics of my travel. First, mostly by motorcycle, and
second is that because I'm on the bike I'm probably in some out-of-the-way
place and not downtown SF. My mode of travel is important, I think, because
sometimes I think they feel sorry for me (especially when my wife's with me).
Who wants to turn away a biker when it's 10C and pissing rain? (Never mind
that I'm perfectly content to put my tent up if I don't find a room.)

Anyway, I'll bet I'm turned away from ad hoc hotel stops 10% of the time at
most.

~~~
Grishnakh
>(Never mind that I'm perfectly content to put my tent up if I don't find a
room.)

Just curious: where exactly do you pitch a tent in a situation like that? It
doesn't seem like it's that easy to find some open ground where some cop won't
harass you for trespassing or something.

~~~
mikestew
There are several phone apps that will tell you where the campgrounds are.
Personally, I've never tried to camp where I'm not allowed (I don't count
sleeping on a picnic table at a rest stop). One can often (usually?) find a
campground either actually in town, or a few miles down the road. To my
knowledge, I've never been turned away with a tent; there's always a 10x10'
spot of grass to rent me.

Alternatively, if you're in a U. S. National Forest and can find a spot off
the road, you can camp anywhere you want. It's how we do the majority of our
camping in our VW Westfalia, where in Washington there are a plethora of spots
90 minutes from our house (no, I'm not telling <g>).

But that's for my mode of travel, which is usually off the beaten path. If
you're looking for a place to stay in SF during WWDC, my advice will do you no
good. OTOH, I rode to a conference in San Diego, had some room trouble and
found a campground smack in the middle of SD a few miles from the hotel. So, I
dunno, there might even be a campground in SOMA I don't know about. :-) (EDIT:
curiosity got me: there's one out by Candlestick Recreation Area, if you don't
mind paying $89/night!)

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nickthemagicman
This is powerful metaphor for me. Before cell phones you were truly
disconnected from life if you took a road trip.

Primitive technology like this and talking to people was the only way to
really find out about your surroundings.

You were pretty isolated.

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debt
"If people come in asking for a room, and you think they look like
trouble—rowdy college students, say—if you have ‘Vacancy’ out there, you’re
kind of obligated to give them a room,”

to put it another way, the "no vacancy" sign makes it more difficult to
discriminate

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PhasmaFelis
> _“The chains [...] want you to walk in not knowing whether a room is
> available. So if they’re full, they can send you to another one of their
> properties in the vicinity and keep the business in-house. It’s a strategic
> decision.” In addition, Rogers said, omitting vacancy indicators allows for
> overbooking (“If it’s late and you’re fully booked, but someone with a
> reservation hasn’t shown up, you can sell the same room twice”) and gives
> managers wiggle room when sizing up questionable customers. [...] “Without
> the sign, you can just say, ‘Sorry, we’re full,’ even if you’re not.”_

It's weird to me how blasé Rogers and the article writer are about this
abusive, anti-customer behavior.

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jordache
wow author really reaching here.. How's the no vacancy sign any different than
the Open/Close sign at the front of every business front?

"First, some quick historical context. It’s not clear who came up with the
ingeniously simple pairing of “Vacancy” and “No Vacancy,” which allows the
motel operator to simply toggle the “No” on or off, but it was probably
sometime in the 1930s or before. "

~~~
blacksmith_tb
Well, I agree that it exaggerates the importance of the (No) Vacancy sign, but
it is different in precisely the sense the author is talking about - you have
an on/off switch for NO, and another for VACANCY. While presumably no one
wants or needs to turn on OPEN and CLOSED simultaneously.

~~~
jordache
Open+CLOSED doesn't me anything.

NO+VACATION = there are no more rooms available.

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Belenus
Soon, most likely, even overbooking will vanish. There might be apps that
actually see if an inn or motel is actually vacant. Most likely.

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jtfairbank
I just sleep in my car in walmart parking lots. Saves money, and there's
almost always a walmart within a reasonable distance.

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coldcode
The average US hotel is 70% full for tonight, the only night that matters. Not
sure why people put these signs up other than maybe bringing people in with
more neon.

~~~
pessimizer
So are you trying to say that tonight 7 out of 10 hotels are completely full
and 3 out of 10 are completely empty, or any of an infinite range of other
things?

~~~
krallja
It's not infinite. There are a discrete number of rooms available in the
world, and the number of permutations is therefore finite.

