Esso Motor Hotel
Esso Motor Hotel was a Swedish subsidiary of the American oil company Esso , which managed hotels in Europe.
history
In Scandinavia , with the emergence of car traffic in the 1960s, the desire for overnight accommodation for drivers also arose. The Esso petrol station on the E 20 in Laxå , Sweden , halfway between Stockholm and Gothenburg , was the first to offer bedrooms until a Motorby (Swedish for motor village) opened there in 1963 and Esso Motorhotell AB was founded. This was followed by Motorbys in Härnosand, Östersund and Vara and a motel in Örkelljunga. A Motorby combines a gas station and workshop with catering, such as a self-service restaurant and kiosk, and bedrooms that are directly accessible from the parking lot. Later Esso Motor Hotels were better equipped with a restaurant, bank, sports room, sauna, swimming pool and meeting rooms, especially for business travelers. The first three Motorbys were upgraded to the Esso Motor Hotel, but the branches in Vara and Örkelljunga remained in the lower quality level as Esso Motel.
A total of 59 Esso Motor Hotels had opened by 1973: 32 in Scandinavia, eight in Great Britain , ten in Germany, two in Belgium, three in the Netherlands, one in Austria and three in Italy. The hotels outside Scandinavia were managed by Esso Motor Hotel Inc. in London.
The Esso route
 
| ||||||
The ESSO route |
After the opening of the first three hotels in Sweden, expansion abroad followed in 1965 with the branch in Brescia . The route from Sweden to the Italian coast was to be equipped with hotels so that Scandinavians could drive to Italy in their own car. From Mölndal (Gothenburg) the route led over the ferry at Helsingborg to Glostrup (Copenhagen) and from there on over the then new bird flight line to Germany. In Germany, Esso chose the HaFraBa route and, south of Basel, today's E 25 through the Mont Blanc tunnel . In Italy the route led through Valle d'Aosta and via the Autostrada Serenissima to Brescia. The hotels were built at intervals of about one travel day. A reservation system made it possible to book at the next hotel along the route. The hotel in Hanover was the first to open in Germany in spring 1966, followed by Freiburg im Breisgau in autumn 1966 . With the opening of the hotels in Copenhagen (Glostrup) and Courmayeur , it was possible to travel all the way from Sweden to Brescia with overnight stays in Esso Motor Hotels. After this north-south route, four more houses followed in 1967: two in Germany ( Sindelfingen , Heidelberg ) and two in Sweden. The two Swedish houses in Jönköping and Norrköping were built along the road from Stockholm to Helsingborg so that travelers from Stockholm could save themselves the detour via Laxå and Mölndal.
growth
At the beginning of 1968 there were 14 hotels in operation, 6 of them in Sweden, and a major construction project was underway. According to the plan, there should be 19 Esso Motor Hotels in Sweden by the summer of 1968, and eight additional hotels each should be opened in 1969 and 1970. Instead of motel , the name Motor Hotel was chosen to emphasize the better facilities. The Swedish branches in Vara and Örkelljunga were continued as simple motels and have therefore never been referred to as Motor Hotels. Outside Sweden, the British branch in South Mimms was connected to the Esso route via the ferries to Belgium and the house in Born (Netherlands). In Denmark, the house in Billund (now the Legoland Hotel ) opened in June 1968 together with the Legoland theme park . In Maidenhead (England) a new Motor Hotel was built together with the Esso Education Center and the first hotel in Belgium was opened in Casteau near SHAPE . During 1968 the number of Motor Hotels doubled, but only nine new hotels were opened in Sweden and the foundations were laid for another five hotels. The next doubling was only achieved in early 1973.
After 1968, more and more business travelers came into consideration and new hotels, five of them in Germany, were built in or near commercial cities. From the end of 1969 new houses got at least 100 rooms and existing houses were expanded. In 1970 the house opened in Edinburgh, which was still expecting tourists as customers, but the proportion of business travelers also rose in Great Britain. In 1972, in addition to Esso Motor Hotel, there were still many, mostly American, competitors in the European hotel business, and Esso Motor Hotel had various properties under construction in Norway, Great Britain and Germany. These new beds were added to the number of beds that had grown significantly since the mid-1960s.
sale
When there was a surplus of hotel beds in the early 1970s and Esso needed money for oil exploration drilling, Esso decided to exit.
Crest
In 1972 nine of the ten hotels in Germany and the Linz branch were leased to Crest Hotels. The house in Freiburg was not taken over by Crest. The remaining non-Scandinavian properties, including the hotel under construction in Runcorn, were sold to Crest Hotels . In 1976 the name was changed to Eurocrest and Crest wanted to expand in Germany. Six new branches were to be added and Crest acquired the ten leased houses. The previous Esso Motor Hotels and the six new ones continued to be operated as Eurocrest, like the houses bought in 1972. Crest later sold its hotels to other hotel chains.
The 32 Scandinavian branches were initially operated by Esso after the business with Crest. The Danish houses were later also sold. In 1974 Lego bought the hotel in Billund, and in 1979 Glostrup continued to operate as an independent Glostrup Park Hotel. In Sweden, further hotels were built as Esso Motor Hotel from 1973. In 1974 there were 28 branches in Sweden, in October 1976 there were 44. In addition to Esso Motor Hotels, Esso also operates Esso Scandic Hotels in Sweden , hotels in the city center without a petrol station and workshop, Esso motels , such as Örkelljunga and Vara, with minimal equipment and Taverna , rest stops along the Reichsstrasse. In 1977 Esso Motor Hotel had 10% of Swedish hotel beds but 25% market share. In 1983 there were 41 Esso Motor Hotels, 6 Esso Motels and 8 Esso Scandic Hotels in Sweden. In 1984 Esso ended the entire hotel business and sold the Swedish subsidiary to Scandinavian investors, whereupon the name was changed to Scandic Hotels .
Esso Motor Hotels
swell
- 115 Anni Esso Italiana 1891-2006, Rome 2006
- ^ Der Spiegel, Jan 1, 1973, p. 33
- ↑ Motorby
- ↑ Mölndal opening
- ^ Aruba Esso News, Oct 7, 1966
- ↑ Automobil Revue - newspaper no. 8/1968, 22 Feb 1968 page 37
- ↑ Die Zeit 1967 nr.40, 6 Oct 1967 "Total self-service"
- ^ Concrete Quarterly, No. 79, Oct-dec 1968, Londen Dec 1968
- ↑ Glasgow Herald, May 22, 1970
- ↑ Glasgow Herald, Nov 22, 1972
- ↑ Die Zeit 1972 no.17, April 28, 1972, "No money for German beds"
- ↑ Glasgow Herald, Feb. 20, 1973
- ↑ Die Zeit 1976 no.50, 3rd Dec 1976, "Golden Crest Times"
- ↑ Die Zeit 1976 no.43, October 15, 1976, "Sweden asks itself cheaply"