What is the difference between a hotel and motel?

And does a person HAVE to pay with a credit card?What is the difference between a hotel and motel?
There is a lot of differences of opinion as to these terms. Most would agree that a motel is a combinations of motor and hotel, thus most people that stay in motels drive there.





A Hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services, some have restaurants, some do not.





Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel (portmanteau of ';motor and hotel'; or ';motorists' hotel';) referred initially to a single building of connected rooms whose doors face a parking lot and/or common area or a series of small cabins with common parking. Their creation was driven by increased driving distances on the United States highway system that allowed easy cross-country travel.





Most extended stays are at hotels and most one night stays are at motels.





Motels differed from hotels in their emphasis on largely anonymous interactions between owners and occupants, their location along highways (as opposed to urban cores), and their orientation to the outside (in contrast to hotels whose doors typically face an interior hallway). Motels almost by definition included a parking lot, while older hotels were not built with automobile parking in mind.





As far as your question regarding payment by a credit cards, that is not necessary. It may seem like it as most properties want a guarantee versus the standard 4:00pm hold on the room that use to govern the industry. Some require some type of deposit, especially if the hotel or motel is heavily booked or during a premium period.





You can pay with a cash deposit upon check-in and even use the credit card upon check in, then pay cash at check out.





Some hotels DO NOT accept credit cards at all and only deal in cash! Imagine!What is the difference between a hotel and motel?
Usually a motel is a sprawling structure with parking spaces close to the rooms, sometimes right in front of the rooms, unless you're one of the lucky ones that get rooms right in front of the pool.





A hotel is a structure, usually several stories high, with a lobby and an elevator that takes you to your rooms. The parking is in a lot located around the hotel.





The reason it is called a motel is because they combined the word ';motor'; with the word ';hotel.'; Thus a motel is simply a motor hotel, where you can drive right up to the door.





As time has passed and motels have been popular, many of them have changed their structure, grown upward into several stories, providing many of the luxuries found in hotels, etc. But, at first, they were simply one story affairs with a parking lot and a room.





You don't have to pay with a credit card, but if you are calling for rooms in advance, they will need a credit card number or you will have to mail in the money. If you pop in, cash will do just fine.
I think that now they are the same thing.





Used to be a motel had parking right outside the room. A hotel, you had to park and take your stuff inside and up to your room.
a hotel the rooms are accesed by a hallway from the inside,





A motel the rooms are accessed by the outside.





Most places for securuty reasons do require tha you pay by credit card but i believe if you prepay you don't have to in some places.
a hotel is also a pub/bar


a motel is just rooms, sometimes some extras.





And no, you don't always have to pay by credit card
I don't know for sure, but from all the traveling I have done, this is what I have figured out.


Hotel: usually has a main lobby area, you can access the room by walking down the hallways from the inside of the building, and is usually classier than the motel


Motel: can access the rooms directly from the parking lot and you register at a small office


Credit card: Varies by hotel/motel. Some you can reserve a room using a credit card, and then later pay in cash. Its always good to ask first. Some places will ask for a refundable cash deposit if you insist on using cash.
Hotel is more upscale and usually the place you stay once you reach your destination.





Motels are named for the combination of the words motor and hotel. These are places you stay along your trip to a destination.





Yes, it is best to pay with a credit card. Watch out for those hourly rates!