What was the point of the thread? To make note of the type of people running motels or a commentary on the rising price of motels? Is there a connection?
Can I ask in what region the middle easern and central asian folks seem to dominate the motel business? Do you travel outside your little region to make observations throughout the country?
Since this seems to be a legitimate question --
(1) American travel is up. More people are flying in 2007 than any time since 9/11. Domestic travel is up. More folks are traveling. Some folks are being pushed to the suburbs to look for affordable rooms which pushes some people who would have stayed in the suburbs out to BFE where a lot of us end up staying. Supply/demand says that hotel room prices will go up.
More and more hotel rooms are owned by fewer and fewer large companies. While the building and property itself is franchised, many room rates are done, dictated or at least guided by the corporate parent. There doesn't have to be collusion if there are only 2 different companies owning all the hotels in a small town -- just look at the rates of the other guy and set accordingly.
Several chains are also trying to go upscale. Holiday Inn Express is one. First Holiday Inn got fancy so HI Express was introduced as a "basics" hotel (and some motels). Now HI Express has its own line of pillows, linens, and towels. Days Inn is putting the same curved shower rod in their motels that HI Express uses and calling itself upscale in the hopes of charging more money.
(2) I've noticed central Asian (not Middle Eastern myself and ever since 2001 I'm amazed some Americans don't know the difference) hotel managers in many, many states. CA, AZ, NV, IN, AL (guessing on AL based on accent over the phone) off the top of my head. That's 3 regions of the country (southwest, midwest, and south). Michael Yates, a retired Pitt economics professor commented on it in his book, "Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate," a travelogue focused on income inequality in the US. The guy's opinions are
but the book is very readable. The managers that I've had time to talk to are usually relatively young (early to mid-20s) and often students using a relatively quiet job with sometimes strange hours to earn some $$ to pay for college.
