The ups and downs, (mostly downs) of our first motel.

Life as a Motel Manager!

Some years ago, while living in the USA, my Husband Jim and I went to work for a Motel chain as Managers. We finished ‘Motel School’ and went off to a motel for ‘on the job’ training, which went very well. The managers of that motel became really close friends.

Then we were sent back down south to help out with two other sets of managers, at a motel in dire straits. Forget the dead dog in the swimming pool, the unlogged reservations and double bookings. The lack of decent bedding and a stroppy housekeeper who thought she owned the place. I was glad to get out of that place, at the end of a three-week stint, especially as the couple who got lumbered with it were held up twice in one week shortly afterwards. They took off and no one has heard of them since.

When we were given our own motel, we were told it had a ‘plumbing problem.’ Hmm, some problem, it turned out to be pimps directing traffic, in and out of the parking lot surrounding the motel. It seems the pimps and prostitutes had a circular route around a number of States, as they got kicked out of one city or state by the police they would move on to another, and so on. Apparently they thought our motel was a good place to hang out and work from. We also had a serious problem with drug pushers, and this was supposed to be a ‘family orientated motel!’

After a while we got to know the faces of these undesirables and tried to get help from the local police. At first they were not too willing but eventually we were advised on certain tactics we could employ. Most of the time their hands were tied and they could not do anything, except perhaps, welcome the pimps and their ladies into town and follow them around, but once in a while they were able to help out in a practical way.

Another problem we had was volcanic dust, though it was over a year since the eruption, the dust still lay all over the car park and was clogging drains and the shrubbery seepage hoses. Jim decided to try to get rid of it, he started to fill a bucket but when it was only a third full, he found he could not lift it, it was so heavy. For dust that was finer than face powder or Sahara sand, that was truly amazing. The dust still circulating in the atmosphere created some glorious sunset effects though

I hate spiders, I don’t know why but they really give me the horrors. Imagine how I felt when a Black Widow was found hiding under our registration desk. Yuk!  Thankfully I did not see any more but it made me nervous for quite a while.

Because of our many problems, we insisted on checking I.D. We would explain why over and over but when it came time for the prospective guest to show his or her driving licence it never failed to amaze me how many people had put down a false name and address on the registration slip, or altered their Licence Plate number. One day a tall, middle aged man in an expensive silk suit came to register. I explained the necessity of producing a valid ID or drivers licence to him at least four times but when it was time to produce it, he looked surprised and asked why. Again I explained and jokingly added "for all I know, you could be a Mafia Godfather." His face turned as grey as his suit, he grabbed the registration paper, shoved it into his mouth and fled! I have often wondered, just what was he up to?

We had noticed we did not get any truckers staying. One afternoon, when the office was full of people waiting to register, a trucker came in and from the back of the room yelled "I heard you have been cleaning this place up, I’m going to stay and if it’s good, I’ll tell the others!" The astonished looks on the faces of the other people in the office and my embarrassment were plain for all to see. I’m sure some of them were wondering what sort of motel we ran. Apparently, before we took over the motel the truckers had stopped coming because the ‘Ladies’ would not leave them alone, knocking on their doors at all hours, trying to ply their trade. When all the truckers really wanted was a good nights rest.

It was extremely hot that summer, like walking into a steamy hot oven whenever we set foot outside our air conditioned rooms. One of our new returning truckers was carrying a load of watermelons. He presented us with two monstrous melons, which I struggled to get into our large fridge. There was no way we could eat them ourselves so I cut them up into thick slices and wedges and kept a constant supply on the registration desk in our office. Our guests trotted in and out from the swimming pool to help themselves. Someone wrote a lovely letter to our headquarters office about it, and would you believe we got into trouble for being nice to our guests!

We had some bad moments, like the elderly man who brought a girl back to his room and was robbed and badly beaten up by her boyfriend/pimp, who had followed them back. The room was quite literally a ‘bloody’ mess, it was spattered everywhere. Some idiot brought back a blowgun from South America and practised with it, leaving the walls full of holes from the darts when he left. Then we had a fire in one of the rooms, it was unoccupied at the time but an alert guest smelled smoke and raised the alarm before it got out of hand. A workman earlier had been applying a plastic skirting board using a blowtorch, behind the wall it had caused some dust and debris to start smouldering. The fire engine arrived to find someone had parked right in front of the fire hydrant, he could not be found, so they smashed the windows of the car and put the hose straight through them!

We had one last run-in with a bunch of pimps and pushers who were particularly threatening. The police came to the motel to sort them out, two cars driving in, one at each entrance. There was a lot of banging of night sticks and a lot of yelling as the police moved them out. One of the pimps decided to try flushing a pillow down the toilet, he was so miffed. Fortunately, it didn’t work.

The Motel Company had a recruiting drive and decided to use our motel as the venue for interviewing the prospective new management applicants. We both took an instant dislike to one couple who checked in. They were both scruffy and there was something really unpleasant about the man, nothing we could put our finger on but we both felt extremely uncomfortable around him. To our surprise the interviewer told us he was impressed with them and had hired them, we could not believe it. Some weeks later we heard that the man had been picked up and arrested by the police in another of the Company’s motels, he was wanted for the molestation and murder of a ten year old girl in another State.

The months went by and we cleaned up the motel pretty well, then winter arrived and two of the three roads into the town were blocked by snow,. No one could get in or out except by the third road. Naturally our occupancy rate went down but it was still around 96% filled each day. Not good enough for our headquarters though. A director turned up unexpectedly one day and said to me "You will rent those rooms ten times a day if necessary." His meaning was obvious and I told him "Like Hell I will, we’ve cleaned this place up, and I didn’t come here to be a Madam, if that’s what you want, find yourself new managers!"

A week or so later another director appeared and we were fired on the spot, we had to pack up and leave immediately. They are so frightened that the ejected managers will do something drastic, like burning down the motel or ransacking the place.

Truth be told, I was relieved to get out of there, although our housekeepers were not happy to see us go, we had a pretty good working relationship with them, one especially, Fanny, she cried when we left. Though we had some good times and experiences and met a lot of really nice people, that motel on the whole was not a good experience. Towards the end of our time there I was fast becoming paranoid. Jim had to run security every night, it was a 24 hour a day job and I was always afraid he would be knifed or shot, it led to what I believe was a minor stroke for me shortly before we left.

We shook the dust from our shoes and headed for California, where our friends had started managing a privately owned motel. We soon found another position, down in Monterey, a much nicer motel and a lovely place to live. It was the first of several that we managed over five years in the States, and it was quite an education, in more ways than one.