No-Tell Motel
Here are some edited excerpts from an online article about auto hotels in Mexico. More online............
Would You Stay at a Sex Hotel if it Were Really, Really Nice?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/would-you-stay-at-a-sex-hotel-if-it-were-really-really-nice/ar-BBocyt7?li=BBnbklE
As they drove to the Hotel La Marina in Tampico, Allen steeled herself for what she assumed would be bare-bones accommodations; she just hoped their room would be clean. But when they pulled up to the hotel, "it was glorious," she says. "Like a really posh resort.” The room, she says, was “gleaming” and double the size of a standard hotel room.
As it turns out, Mexican auto hotels don’t only cater to long-distance truckers and pet-laden gringos looking for a place to sleep. In fact most of the people staying at auto hotels aren’t there to sleep at all: they’re there to have sex. In a country in which many generations live together under one roof, auto hotels give amorous adults privacy (not to mention props that range from stripper poles to sex chairs). Often located on the outskirts of towns, auto hotels have long catered to a specific crowd, but the ones in Mexico are gaining best-kept-secret status among travelers willing to overlook their no-tell reputation in exchange for a clean, safe place to lay their heads and secure parking for their vehicles.
The experience of staying in an auto hotel, however, is definitely different from most hotel visits. “We pulled into the garage, and the guy pulled the garage door closed behind us,” Allen says, describing the check-in procedure at Hotel La Marina. There was a connecting door leading from the garage to their room, and when she opened it and saw the oversized room, which included a separate sitting area and beautiful bathroom, she says, “I was blown away."
Another expat living in Akumal who often stays at auto hotels when she’s on the road in Mexico, has a housekeeper who blushed when she spotted a monogrammed auto-hotel towel that she had inadvertently swiped. Turns out her housekeeper goes there with her husband every Saturday night because they have three adult children and two grandchildren who live with them.
In fact, travelers cite the security at auto hotels as part of its appeal. an American ex-pat who frequently travels with a packed vehicle, says that auto hotels offer a level of safety that most others in the country lack. "It's kind of like a fortress," he says of the often-gated hotels. "If you haven't paid to come in, you're not coming in."
Cost is another key attraction. There seems to be little variance in the rates, with both luxury and less-refined accommodations going for roughly $12 to $20 a night, "which is nothing compared to a hotel," says a vet tech who spent a year in Mexico with her husband and three dogs. Even the food is generally cheap and "remarkably good.
Pet lovers have a particular affinity for auto hotels because "98 percent of them allow pets" in a country of hotels that often have no-pet policies.
Of course not every auto hotel is going to have an in-room lap pool and open-air skylight. Some of the smaller ones offer only a shower curtain as a garage door and the sheets, though usually clean, are well-worn. "I think you can judge what you're going to get by the signs. Don't be afraid, she says, to ask to see a room.
Would You Stay at a Sex Hotel if it Were Really, Really Nice?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/would-you-stay-at-a-sex-hotel-if-it-were-really-really-nice/ar-BBocyt7?li=BBnbklE
As they drove to the Hotel La Marina in Tampico, Allen steeled herself for what she assumed would be bare-bones accommodations; she just hoped their room would be clean. But when they pulled up to the hotel, "it was glorious," she says. "Like a really posh resort.” The room, she says, was “gleaming” and double the size of a standard hotel room.
As it turns out, Mexican auto hotels don’t only cater to long-distance truckers and pet-laden gringos looking for a place to sleep. In fact most of the people staying at auto hotels aren’t there to sleep at all: they’re there to have sex. In a country in which many generations live together under one roof, auto hotels give amorous adults privacy (not to mention props that range from stripper poles to sex chairs). Often located on the outskirts of towns, auto hotels have long catered to a specific crowd, but the ones in Mexico are gaining best-kept-secret status among travelers willing to overlook their no-tell reputation in exchange for a clean, safe place to lay their heads and secure parking for their vehicles.
The experience of staying in an auto hotel, however, is definitely different from most hotel visits. “We pulled into the garage, and the guy pulled the garage door closed behind us,” Allen says, describing the check-in procedure at Hotel La Marina. There was a connecting door leading from the garage to their room, and when she opened it and saw the oversized room, which included a separate sitting area and beautiful bathroom, she says, “I was blown away."
Another expat living in Akumal who often stays at auto hotels when she’s on the road in Mexico, has a housekeeper who blushed when she spotted a monogrammed auto-hotel towel that she had inadvertently swiped. Turns out her housekeeper goes there with her husband every Saturday night because they have three adult children and two grandchildren who live with them.
In fact, travelers cite the security at auto hotels as part of its appeal. an American ex-pat who frequently travels with a packed vehicle, says that auto hotels offer a level of safety that most others in the country lack. "It's kind of like a fortress," he says of the often-gated hotels. "If you haven't paid to come in, you're not coming in."
Cost is another key attraction. There seems to be little variance in the rates, with both luxury and less-refined accommodations going for roughly $12 to $20 a night, "which is nothing compared to a hotel," says a vet tech who spent a year in Mexico with her husband and three dogs. Even the food is generally cheap and "remarkably good.
Pet lovers have a particular affinity for auto hotels because "98 percent of them allow pets" in a country of hotels that often have no-pet policies.
Of course not every auto hotel is going to have an in-room lap pool and open-air skylight. Some of the smaller ones offer only a shower curtain as a garage door and the sheets, though usually clean, are well-worn. "I think you can judge what you're going to get by the signs. Don't be afraid, she says, to ask to see a room.
