Motel 6 changes it up with renovated rooms that make budget look hip

This is Motel 6? Out with the colorful bed covers printed with road-trip inspired cars and cactus. In with bold orange, turquoise or lime green accent walls and blankets.

Motel 6 last year announced a massive renovation of its motel rooms that the company called the Phoenix Project. About 75% of its 1,330 properties in the U.S. and Canada, have been reborn. By the end of 2017, all rooms should be updated with the new, hipper colors and amenities.

Updated rooms have a pedestal king- or queen-sized bed with pillow-top mattresses, a 32-inch flat-screen TV, a wood-like floor (no more carpets!), a nook for personal electronics and a multimedia panel to connect a laptop or an MP3 player.

Modern bathrooms have a walk-in shower and a sink set in a black granite countertop. Lobbies and exteriors also are getting face-lifts.

How do you know which motels have the new rooms?

Lance Miceli, chief marketing officer for parent company G6 Hospitality, offers these tips.

“Our easily navigated platform enables users to effortlessly identify our renovated properties by either viewing our renovated property map or simply inserting the desired destination into the search bar and looking for the ‘modern rooms’ notation beneath each property,” he wrote via email.

I was so excited about the upgraded rooms that I called two locations to see if modernization included USB wall plugs, which many hotels now offer.

I called Motel 6 Los Angeles LAX (5101 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood) and Motel 6 San Francisco (895 Geary St.) to find out. Alas, rooms have only standard wall outlets, so you’ll still need to pack a USB charger. Rats!

Info: Motel 6, (800) 899-9841

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FOR THE RECORD

March 28, 1:51 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said that about 75% of Motel 6’s 1,330 rooms in the U.S. and Canada had been renovated. It is 75% of the chain’s 1,330 properties.

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