Wes was eating a bowl of cereal at the kitchen table when I turned the laptop toward him and said, "Look at this one." He looked for about three seconds and said, "Where's the parking lot?" That, in a sentence, is how we check a cheap motel.
January is our no-trip month, so I have spent a lot of evenings this winter planning the year ahead. And after a year of road trips, I have a routine for the cheap motels. Our 2025 beds ran from free (my brother's couch) to $28 tent sites to a $79 oceanfront motel in Myrtle Beach, $94 in Boone, $109 near Asheville and $112 in North Charleston. This year I'd love to find a few more good ones around $70 off the interstate, for the long drives where all we need is a shower and eight hours.
Here is what I check before I hand over a card number.
Recent reviews, and only recent ones
A motel with a 3.8 rating from five years of reviews could be great now or terrible now. I sort by newest and read the last two or three months only. I am looking for the same few words: clean, quiet, safe, and whether the owner or manager answers complaints like a person.
I skip the five-star reviews that say "great stay!" and the one-star reviews about a front desk clerk being rude at 2 a.m. What I want are the middle reviews, the threes and fours, because those people tell you the actual details. "Room was clean but the wifi was slow." Fine. "Found a roach in the bathroom." Not fine. "New owners have been fixing it up." Interesting.
Interior or exterior doors
A lot of older motels have doors that open straight onto the parking lot or an outside walkway. That's not a dealbreaker for us. Our $79 motel at the beach had outside doors and it was perfectly fine. But it changes what I look for.
- With outside doors, I want a second-floor room if they have one, and I ask for it when I book.
- I look for photos of the door itself. A deadbolt and a security latch, not just a knob lock.
- I check whether the windows face the lot, because some do, and I want curtains that close all the way.
- Interior hallway buildings cost a little more, usually $10 to $20 a night around here. For one night off I-95, I'll take outside doors and save the money.
The parking lot test
This is Wes's test, and he is right about it. Before we book, I pull up the street-level map photos of the motel, and if we pass by on the way, we drive through the lot before checking in. What does the lot look like? Cars from all over, pickup trucks with work racks and families with car seats are a good sign. That means people stop there on purpose.
Wes also looks at the lighting, whether the lot is fenced or wide open to the road, and whether there is room to park right in front of our door. He works on trucks all day and parks the CR-V like it is a member of the family. If the lot makes him nervous, we keep driving, even if it is late. There is always another exit.
A few more things I check:
The total with tax and every fee before I commit. A $69 rate with a $15 "service fee" and 12 percent tax is not a $69 room. I want the number I'll actually pay.
The cancellation terms. Cheap motels are often more flexible than the big hotels, but not always. I want to cancel free until at least the day before, because our plans can change with the weather or Wes's on-call Friday.
How far it is from where we'll spend the day. I will drive 15 minutes out of the way for a fair price. I will not drive 40. The gas eats the savings and the time eats the trip.
Whether there is a fridge. We bring the cooler on every trip, and a fridge means we can eat breakfast in the room for almost nothing.
None of this guarantees a good night's sleep. But in a year of motels, the checks have kept us out of every place that looked bad on paper, and every one we picked was clean. At $70 to $80 a night instead of $150, that pays for most of the gas on a weekend away.
