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The word motel (portmanteau of "motor" and "hotel" or "motorists'
hotel") referred initially to a single building of connected rooms whose
doors face a parking lot and/or common area or a series of small cabins
with common parking. Their creation was driven by increased driving
distances on the United States highway system that allowed easy
cross-country travel.
Motels differed from hotels in their emphasis on largely anonymous
interactions between owners and occupants, their location along highways
(as opposed to urban cores), and their orientation to the outside (in
contrast to hotels whose doors typically face an interior hallway).
Motels almost by definition included a parking lot, while older hotels
were not built with automobile parking in mind.
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