Friday, May 15, 2009

You can check out any time you like

This is just another one of those things I don't understand.
You're looking at a picture of the Dutch Motel (not to be confused with the Dutch Oven, which probably smells better inside), located at the corner of Hillsborough and Florida avenues here in Tampa. Once upon a time, motels like this were choice lodgings for travel-weary tourist families seeking respite from long hours on the open road. Now, it's the kind of place one might choose to lay low for a while and nurse a gunshot wound or two. It's not near the beach. There's no pool. It's not even that conveniently located to the interstate. Yet somehow, decades after motels like this were supplanted by larger hotels offering more amenities at discount rates and in an economy where all kinds of companies, including proven brand names with high customer satisfaction rankings like Starbucks, are closing locations all over the country, places like the Dutch Motel survive. Now how is that possible?

3 comments:

Marissa said...

Four words: By the Hour Rates

Unknown said...

You think so? I considered that but didn't think there'd be enough of that kind of activity to sustain the place. Plus there's a whole bunch of those kinds of motels nearby. Maybe I'm naive.

Anonymous said...

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/12/02/SouthPinellas/Laws_are_creating_enc.shtml

Sex offenders are limited to where they can live. They have to resort to these establishments.