How America’s Motels Became Hipster Havens

JLL Real Views | August 30, 2018

In the heart of Palm Springs, a once nondescript Howard Johnson motel with an on-site Denny's restaurant is now the Ace Hotel & Swim Club, replete with outdoor fireplaces, live music by the pool, a vintage photo booth and Middle East-meets-California fusion dining. The Drifter, once a rundown, dodgy edifice in New Orleans, now offers specialty coffees from La Colombe and poolside craft cocktails for guests staying in minimalist-style rooms. The Vagabond in Miami, a former dive motel built in 1953, today has rooms with hypo-allergenic Italian bedspreads and stenciled geometric wall art. Across the United States, hoteliers and develop...