When did hotel/motel rooms start to have TVs in them?

[leilaniguy]

Originally Posted by munna21977

What were the charges for Coin Operated TV sets? A Quarter for how many minutes/hours??
Hotel Rooms also had VCR???

I think at the time it was 25 cents per hour. This was in the '50's so there was no recording of any kind.

[TheLastPatriot]

I think it was early 1980s when cable TV really took off.

Prior to that, poor reception and lack of channel options made TV in a motel room not an attractive 'extra'

That's when it became the norm. I am certain TVs were in some hotel / motels 10-20yrs prior to that on a very selective limited basis.

[danielj72]

I remember traveling as a kid (1970s) when most motels were still mom and pop type places. At that time TV was standard but color TV was not a guarantee. Color TV and an outdoor pool? Fancy high livin there lol. We expect so much more from a hotel nowadays, just 30 to 40 years ago they were a lot smaller and more spartan.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by danielj72

I remember traveling as a kid (1970s) when most motels were still mom and pop type places. At that time TV was standard but color TV was not a guarantee. Color TV and an outdoor pool? Fancy high livin there lol. We expect so much more from a hotel nowadays, just 30 to 40 years ago they were a lot smaller and more spartan.

The motel chains such as Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson's, Best Western, and Quality Inn were well established before 1970. I remember staying at a Holiday Inn in Miami Beach in 1963 that had the iconic sign. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holida...:GreatSign.jpg That sign and the McDonald's Golden Arches were probably the most iconic symbols of the 1960s.

The mom and pop motels that were built post-WWII were on the decline because of the construction of the Interstate Highway system starting in the late 1950s, and other major highways that left many of these motels isolated off the major highways.

[CrazyDonkey]

I believe that Holiday Inn in the 1950s was the first motel chain to offer free in-room television. From 1959: