How U.S. Lodging Abandoned the Middle Class
Skift Take
The drive vacation is still the most realistic way for the American middle class to see their own country. We’ve spent 30 years quietly dismantling the infrastructure that made it possible.
Hotels in America have a missing middle.
On one end, you’ve got ultra-budget: the coupon-book highway motel, the $49 “we promise there’s a door” room off the interstate. On the other end, you’ve got boutique-ified, revenue-managed, Instagram-ready everything, the glamping tent with a “curated minibar,” the $450-a-night chain hotel in peak season.
What’s been hollowed out is what used to be the backbone of American middle-class travel: the drive vacation built around clean, decent, local-ish lodging at a price that doesn’t feel like a financial stunt. We talk a lot about the “missing middle” in housing. There’s a missing middle in lodging too…and it’s both a travesty and an opportunity.
The Drive Vacation, DowngradedThis has all happened while the big U.S. hotel groups went on a brand land-grab. Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Wyndham, Choice — each fields a small city of flags, sliced into micro-segments with nearly identical m
