Reimagined Motor Lodge.
The Catskills pattern of the last decade: buy a 1960s motor lodge nobody wanted, keep the long-balcony geometry, gut the rooms, fill them with design. Scribner's, Graham & Co., Starlite all did some version. The appeal is the footprint — 20–40 rooms, each with an exterior-facing door, arranged around a courtyard or along a ridge. It scales small and it photographs well.
Ace Hotel & Swim Club
A 1965 Howard Johnson reimagined — 180 rooms, two pools, Kings Highway diner, the Palm Springs scene.
Anvil Hotel
A 1950s motor hotel reimagined in 2017 — Filson-collab aesthetic, Glorietta Trattoria, rooftop patio.
Atlantic Eyrie Lodge
Avalon Hotel & Bungalows
A 1958 Movie Colony hotel — 70 rooms, three pools, Kelly Wearstler-designed bungalows.
Carmel River Inn
Family-owned ranch-style cabins on the Carmel River — 43 rooms, the value play in Carmel.
Coachman Hotel
A 1972 motor lodge reimagined — 41 design-forward rooms, sauna, walking distance to Heavenly.
Earthbox Inn & Spa
A 1960s motor lodge reimagined — 18 rooms, indoor pool, family-owned.
East Rock Inn
Eighteen-room boutique motel at the base of East Rock Mountain, minutes from downtown Great Barrington.
Eastwind Windham
Scandi-mid-century lodge plus Lushna glamping cabins, with a wood-barrel sauna.
El Bonita Motel
A 1930s Art Deco motor lodge on the highway — 41 rooms, the only motel left in St. Helena.
El Rey Court
A 1936 motor court on old Route 66, reimagined 2018 — La Reina bar, saltwater pool, mezcal-scene.
Fredericksburg Inn & Suites
Family-owned — 75 rooms, indoor + outdoor pools, on Main Street's east end.
Glen Oaks Big Sur
A 1950s motor court reimagined in 2008 — 19 rooms with private fire pits, redwood-grove cabins.
Graham & Co.
Reimagined Catskills motor lodge with a wood-fired sauna, lawn games, and a Pendleton-blanket aesthetic — 20 rooms in Phoenicia.
Greenporter Hotel
An airy reworked motor inn in central Greenport — cheap, charming, walkable to the wineries.
Holiday House Palm Springs
A 1951 Herbert Burns mid-century motel restored 2016 — 28 adults-only rooms, palms and a pool.
Hotel Dylan
A Woodstock native's Novogratz-designed revival of a '70s bi-level motel. Turntables in every room.
Hotel Tybee
Oceanfront on Tybee — 209 rooms, family-owned, the largest independent on the island.
Journey East Hampton
A minimalist motor-lodge revival between East Hampton and Amagansett, playing the Piaule role for the South Fork.
L'Horizon Resort & Spa
A 1952 William F. Cody motor court restored to mid-century purity — 25 adults-only bungalows.
Mojave Sands
A five-room former 1950s motel reimagined as a design-forward retreat — courtyard pool, cacti.
Ojai Rancho Inn
A turquoise-and-adobe 1940s motor lodge — 19 rooms, outdoor fireplace, cruiser bikes free to borrow.
Rivertown Lodge
A 1920s Hudson cinema reborn as the town's most quietly confident hotel, via Workstead.
Scribner's Catskill Lodge
The original Catskills Scandi motor-lodge revival. On a hillside in Hunter.
Seesaw’s Lodge
A 1940s ski lodge above Peru, reopened as a Scandi-minimal retreat. Bromley across the road.
Silver Sands
A rejuvenated beachfront motel with 1,400 feet of private sand. Condé Nast Readers' Choice 2024.
Skyview Los Alamos
A 1959 motor lodge reimagined 2018 — 33 design-forward rooms above the Santa Ynez Valley.
Sound View Greenport
A 1950s roadside motel on the Long Island Sound, redone with a Halfcall-meets-Scandi sensibility.
Starlite Motel
Wes Anderson energy, Shaker bones, pink and turquoise doors.
The Asbury Hotel
A 1962 Salvation Army building reimagined in 2016 — rooftop bar, live music, bowling alley downstairs.
The Graham & Co.
The Catskills design-motel that started the whole thing.
The Landsby
Solvang's design-forward Scandi boutique — 41 rooms, Mad & Vin restaurant, contemporary Danish-modern.
The Lark Bozeman
A 1950s motor court reimagined — 38 design-forward rooms on Main Street, taco truck out front.
The Laylow
A retro-Hawaiian-design boutique — 251 rooms, banana-leaf wallpaper, Waikiki's design escape.
The Parker Palm Springs
Jonathan Adler's design tour-de-force — 144 rooms on 13 acres, Mister Parker's restaurant.
The Rabbit Ears Motel
Steamboat's neon-pink 1952 motor lodge — 45 rooms, family-owned, the original Steamboat motel.
The Sands Hotel & Spa
A 1940s motor court reimagined as a Moroccan oasis — 46 rooms, mint-tea-on-arrival, hookah lounge.
The Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club
A 1960s Waikiki motel reimagined — 112 rooms, Mahina & Sun's restaurant, the design-set's Honolulu pick.
Thunderbird Hotel
A 1959 motor court reimagined by Liz Lambert — 24 rooms, courtyard pool, Marfa's original design hotel.
Tourists
A 1960s motel reimagined by Wilco's bassist and a Brooklyn design crew. Sea Ranch on the Hoosic River.
Wall Street Suites
A 1960s motor court reimagined — 33 suites, hot tub, dog-friendly, walking distance to Drake Park.
Zey Hotel
Zach Erdem's art-forward 10-room boutique — the opposite of generic Southampton chintz.
The Catskills pattern of the last decade: buy a 1960s motor lodge nobody wanted, keep the long-balcony geometry, gut the rooms, fill them with design. Scribner's, Graham & Co., Starlite all did some version. The appeal is the footprint — 20–40 rooms, each with an exterior-facing door, arranged around a courtyard or along a ridge. It scales small and it photographs well.
What this looks like
The bones are the giveaway. A motor lodge has a recognizable shape: single-story or two-story, exterior doors, parking right at the door, a pool in the middle, an office at one end. When you reimagine one, you're working with a constraint — you can't easily change the footprint, you can only change what's inside it.
Most reimagined motor lodges keep the original signage, often re-lit. Pools stay. The fire pit is a 2014-and-later addition that nearly every property has now adopted. Inside the rooms, the conversions split into two camps: the warm-Scandi register (Scribner's, Eastwind, Silver Sands) and the saturated-retro register (The Asbury, Mojave Sands, Caravan Outpost). Both work; they're after different feelings.
The standouts
- Scribner's Catskill Lodge (Hunter, NY) — the original Catskills Scandi motor-lodge revival.
- Rivertown Lodge (Hudson, NY) — a 1920s Hudson cinema reborn through Workstead. Quietly confident.
- Tourists (North Adams, MA) — a 1960s motel reimagined by Wilco's bassist and a Brooklyn design crew. Sea Ranch on the Hoosic.
- Journey East Hampton (East Hampton, NY) — a minimalist motor-lodge revival between East Hampton and Amagansett.
- Silver Sands (Greenport, NY) — a beachfront motel rejuvenated with 1,400 feet of private sand.
- The Asbury Hotel (Asbury Park, NJ) — a 1962 Salvation Army building reimagined in 2016. Rooftop, bowling, live music.
- Mojave Sands (Joshua Tree, CA) — a five-room former 1950s motel with a courtyard pool and cacti.
- East Rock Inn (Great Barrington, MA) — eighteen-room boutique motel at the base of East Rock Mountain.
When to come / who it's for
Three-day weekends are what these properties were designed for. The geometry is a road-trip geometry — pull up, check in, walk to the room without going through a lobby. Friday-evening arrivals are easy. Couples and small friend groups are the dominant guest profile. Solo travelers do well too; the courtyard scale makes it easy to make incidental conversation without forcing it.
What you give up: square footage. Original motel rooms run small (250–350 sf) and the conversions mostly preserve that. Bring less luggage. What you gain: price, character, and proximity to places — most motor lodges sit on highways for a reason and that reason still holds. Restaurants, hiking trails, towns are usually 5–15 minutes off-property.
Adjacent origins
Reimagined Motor Lodge overlaps heavily with the Retro Motor Lodge vibe (when the saturation stays in) and the Scandi Catskills vibe (when the interior is cleaned up to blonde pine and wool). It's structurally distinct from New-Build Contemporary — same end of the price tier in some cases, totally different relationship to constraint.