Esso Motor Hotel

Story

Esso Motor Hotel was a Swedish subsidiary of the American oil company Esso, for running hotels in Europe.HistoryIn the sixties of the twentieth century, with the rise of the numbers of travelers by car, the Scandinavian governments asked for dormitories for motorists at the service stations along the highways. The first that offered bedrooms to motorists was the Swedish Esso filling station along the E20 in Laxå, halfway between Stockholm and Göteborg, resulting in a complete Motorby in 1963 and the establishing of Esso Motor Hotel AB. A Motorby (Swedish for Motor village), is a filling station with workshop combined with a hotel specially for motorists with direct access from the parking to the rooms. All rooms and services, as a shop and cafeteria, are situated at ground floor level. The first motorby at Laxå was followed soon by motorbys at Härnosand, Östersund and Vara and a motel in Örkelljunga. The later built Esso Motor Hotels were provided with far more features than a motorby, as a waiter served restaurant, bank, fitness room, sauna, pool and meeting rooms, mainly to satisfy business travelers. The first three motorbys were upgraded to Esso Motor Hotel, but Vara and Örkelljunga were rated as Esso Motel with minimized services.Until the splitting at the beginning of 1973, 59 Esso Motor Hotels were opened: 27 in Sweden, 3 in Norway, 2 in Denmark, 3 in the Netherlands, 3 in Italy, 8 in the United Kingdom (notably at Wembley Park, Wembley), 1 in Austria, 10 in Germany and 2 in Belgium. The chain had an internal reservation system by which the customer could book the Esso Motor Hotel for the next stage of his journey. The hotels outside Scandinavia were managed by Esso Motor Hotel inc. in London.