Hotscot

http://money.msn.com/business-news/a...24&id=17551224

MMcD

I like the placement of that article on the web page

Location of the motel it describes is no more ironic than its web page placement beside the stocks column to the right.

Click on the associated articles and there's reassurance that all is for the best (here) in this best of all possible worlds.

robin1234

It must be hard work trying to make a living from a mom and pop motel where you only get $40 or so for a room. You've got to wonder about standards of safety and cleanliness in places like that ... and then having guests who can't pay, must be soul destroying.
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich covers similar ground to this article, it's about low wage workers some of whom live in motels on a permanent basis. I think one of the places she profiled was Key West.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed

Pulaski

If you think of it as $280/wk for a tiny apartment, that is very good, but leaves little for cleaning and servicing the rooms, and if the occupants are using the room as a warehouse for their possessions and furniture, then cleaning the rooms is clearly impossible. Obviously when people don't pay, that is another major problem.

RICH

I lived in such a place for 5 weeks a few years ago, in between moving out of the ex's condo and closing on my house. It was billed as a Holiday hotel, about 20 units, ancient, and basic, run by a lovely Indian chap.

It was January in Fl, and only 5 or 6 units were occupied, by people who seemed permanent. One did maintenance, and took the rent money when the owner was on vacation for a week or 2. (I think he went somewhere exotic, and he drove a BMW).

I think I paid $240 a week,cash in advance. The room was adequate for a family of 4.

I assume he makes money in the summer months, but he was happy to have me as long as I wanted. Not a terrible experience.

Sally Redux

That must be tough on a permanent basis though.

sir_eccles

Shades of Alan Partridge and his stay at the "Linton Travel Tavern".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Alan_Partridge

MMcD

They can frolic in the sun, sand and surf.

Sally Redux

It's all about the frolicking.
great show.

RICH

Well, yes. There are a lot of homeless in Florida for exactly that reason. Even with good intentions, if you are unemployed and broke, there are worse places to end up on the streets. You won't freeze to death.

robin1234

Yup give me Norfolk over Florida any day!

sir_eccles

Now for some reason I'm thinking of Reginald Perrin.

Michael

I'm not sure it is so drastically different from the UK. A while ago, I was reading about a single woman on the MBTTUK forum that was placed in an apartment with a single mother of 4 where the place was a mess and she had to sleep on the floor. After two weeks, she could no longer stand it and hopped on the first plane back to the US.

Also there is several million waiting on consul housing.

MMcD

Well there you go...."art" imitates life imitates ......? (you can fill it in)(or not)
Reality TV of another era

Sally Redux

Consul housing sounds pretty swanky.