Esso Motor Hotel

Esso Motor Hotel

Native name	Motorby
Founded	1963 (1963) in Laxå, Sweden
Services	Rest stops for travelers by car

Esso Motor Hotel was a Swedish subsidiary of the American oil company Esso, for running hotels in Europe.

The Esso Motorby design presented by architect Lennart Billgren and Svenska Esso director Arne Gustafsson in 1961

History

In 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, 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.

The Esso Route

Mölndal

Glostrup

Hannover

Freiburg

Courmayeur

Brescia

The Esso Route

After the first 3 motor hotels in Sweden expansion abroad followed in 1965. The Scandinavian holidaymaker should be able to drive to the Italian coast using Esso Motor Hotels during the journey. The Hotels were situated in a one-day driving distance from each other. The northern end of this "Esso route" was Mölndal in Sweden which opened in 1966, the southern end was Brescia in Italy which opened in 1965. The Swedish-Danish bordercrossing was made by ferry at Helsingborg, from Denmark to Germany the route followed the, then new, Vogelfluglinie. In Germany the HaFraBa autobahn route was chosen and south of Basle the route of the present E25 through Switzerland, France and the new Mont Blanc Tunnel. In Italy Brescia was reached through Valle d'Aosta and the Autostrada Serenissima. The intermediate hotels were situated in Hannover, Courmayeur, Freiburg and Glostrup (Copenhagen). From Brescia the tourists could follow their way to the various resorts on the Adriatic in Italy as well as in Yugoslavia. More differentiation was created in 1967 by two more Hotels, Heidelberg and Sindelfingen in the south of Germany. In Sweden the hotels at Nörrköping and Jönköping were opened in 1967 too. These two enabled the travellers from and to Stockholm to follow the direct route from Stockholm to Helsingborg instead of the longer one via Laxå and Mölndal. In 1969 the southern end shifted to Florence, but Esso's Italian partner Pavesi built five hotels between Florence and Sicily. From the initial plan for the route from Trondheim in the North to Sicily in the South only the hotel in Trondheim was added afterwards.

Expansion

Fourteen hotels were in use in February 1968, six of them in Sweden and an ambitious expansion plan has been launched. The word "Motel" was avoided in order to emphasize the extra features the "Motor Hotel" provides compared to a normal motel. In Sweden the number of hotels should raise to 19 by half 1968, 27 by 1969 and 35 by 1970. In 1968 the British holidaymakers were connected with the Esso route from the hotel in South Mimms via the carferries to Belgium and the new hotel in Born in the Netherlands. In Denmark the hotel in Billund was opened together with Legoland. In Casteau (Belgium) a hotel was opened next to SHAPE situated in Casteau since 1 April 1967 and in Maidenhead a new hotel was combined with the Esso trainingcentre. The number of hotels had been more than doubled by the end of 1968, although the expansion in Sweden was behind schedule. After 1968 the growth slowed down and the next doubling wasn't reached until the end of 1972. Further expansion followed mainly in Scandinavia and with more business related hotels in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands (Antwerp and Amsterdam in 1969 and Velp in 1970). Edinburgh still expected tourists as customers but business travellers got a bigger share in Britain as well. From 1970 on new hotels were built with at least 100 rooms and smaller hotels were enlarged. At the beginning of 1972 many, also American, competitors from Esso Motor Hotel were building or completing several hotels in the European cities and Esso had several hotels nearing completion in Norway, Britain and Germany. These new beds were added to the hotel capacity already created since the mid sixties resulting in a surplus of rooms.

New owners

The saturation of the hotel market in the European cities and the need for cash to finance the oil exploration did Esso decide to sell the hotels outside of Scandinavia.

Crest

The hotel in Freiburg was sold, the nine remaining German and the only Austrian Hotel were leased to Crest Hotels at the end of 1972. The other hotels outside Scandinavia, including the ninth British hotel at that time under construction at Runcorn, were sold to Crest Hotels as part of the same deal. From 1976 on the 17 hotels bought by Crest were rebranded as EuroCrest Hotel. In 1976 Crest wanted to double the number of hotels in Germany and bought the leased hotels in Germany and Austria that were rebranded as Eurocrest as well. Eventually Crest sold all its "Esso Motor Hotels" to other hotel chains.

Scandinavia

After the deal with Crest at the end of 1972, 32 hotels remained in Scandinavia, 27 of them in Sweden.

The Danish hotels were sold as well in the seventies, in 1974 Lego bought the hotel in Billund renaming it in Vis-a-Vis Hotel and later on Hotel Legoland. In 1979 the Glostrup hotel changed to Glostrup Park Hotel. Meanwhile, the expansion in Sweden and Norway continued from 28 in Sweden in 1974 to 44 in October 1976. Besides the Esso Motor Hotels the chain created parallel markets of hotels, without motorist services, in cities branded as Esso Scandic and Esso Motels, such as Örkelljunga and Vara, with minimized services. Esso also operated roadside restaurants branded as Taverna. In 1977 Esso Motor Hotels owned 10% of the hotelcapacity in Sweden but had a 25% marketshare. In 1983 Esso decided to leave the hotel business. At that time 41 Esso Motor Hotels, 8 Esso Scandic Hotels and 6 Esso Motels were operated in Sweden. The locations in Sweden and Norway were sold to a group of investors. After the detachment from the Esso-company in 1984 the Hotel-chain changed its name in Scandic Hotels.

Esso Motor Hotels

Hotel	Place	Country	Opening	Location
Esso Motor Hotel Laxå	Laxå	Sweden	14.07.1963
Härnosand	Härnosand	Sweden	1964
Östersund	Östersund	Sweden	1965
Brescia	Brescia	Italy	1965
Mölndal	Mölndal	Sweden	1966
South Mimms	Hendon	United Kingdom	1966
Hannover	Hannover	Germany	spring 1966
Courmayeur	Courmayeur	Italy	01.10.1966
Freiburg	Freiburg im Breisgau	Germany	autumn 1966
Glostrup	Kopenhagen	Denmark	1967
Sindelfingen	Sindelfingen	Germany	1967
Heidelberg	Heidelberg	Germany	1967
Jönköping	Jönköping	Sweden	1967
Norrköping	Norrköping	Sweden	1967
Billund	Billund	Denmark	07.06.1968
Arlöv	Arlöv	Sweden	1968
Born	Born	Netherlands	1968
Borås	Borås	Sweden	1968
Casteau	Casteau	Belgium	1968
Eskilstuna	Eskilstuna	Sweden	1968
Falun	Falun	Sweden	1968
Gävle	Gävle	Sweden	1968
Kalmar	Kalmar	Sweden	1968
Kungens Kurva	Stockholm	Sweden	1968
Linz	Linz	Austria
Maidenhead	Maidenhead	United Kingdom	1968
Malmö	Malmö	Sweden	1968
Nürnberg	Nürnberg	Germany	1968
Söderhamn	Söderhamn	Sweden	1968
Södertälje	Södertälje	Sweden	1968
Amsterdam	Amsterdam	Netherlands	26.02.1969
Antwerpen	Antwerp	Belgium	1969
Firenze	Florence	Italy	1969
Hamburg	Hamburg	Germany	02.09.1969
Helsingborg	Helsingborg	Sweden	>1968
Luleå	Luleå	Sweden	> 1968
Lund	Lund	Sweden	> 1968
Örebro	Örebro	Sweden	> 1968
Ulriksdal-Järva Krog	Stockholm	Sweden	>1968
Uppsala	Uppsala	Sweden	>1968
Växjö	Växjö	Sweden	>1968
Stavanger	Stavanger	Norway	13.05.1970
Edinburgh	Edinburgh	United Kingdom	22.05.1970
Luton	Luton	United Kingdom	>22.05.1970
München	München	Germany	1970
Umeå	Umeå	Sweden
Karlstad	Karlstad	Sweden
Velp	Velp	Netherlands	1970
Köln	Cologne	Germany	1971
Høvik	Høvik	Norway	1972
Trondheim	Trondheim	Norway	10.06.1972
Hambrook	Bristol	United Kingdom	06.1972
Coventry	Coventry	United Kingdom	1972
Wembley	London	United Kingdom	1972
Frankfurt	Frankfurt am Main	Germany	08.1972
Bremen	Bremen	Germany	09.1972
Erskine Bridge	Glasgow	United Kingdom	21.11.1972
Beechwood	Runcorn	United Kingdom	20.02.1973
Vänersborg	Vänersborg	Sweden	1978
Flesland	Bergen	Norway	09.09.1980
Askersund	Askersund	Sweden
Årjäng	Årjäng	Sweden
Backadal	Göteborg	Sweden
Borlänge	Borlänge	Sweden
Fagersta	Fagersta	Sweden
Filipstad	Filipstad	Sweden
Flen	Flen	Sweden
Gränna	Gränna	Sweden
Karlshamn	Karlshamn	Sweden
Karlskoga	Karlskoga	Sweden
Linköping	Linköping	Sweden
Mora	Mora	Sweden
Nyköping	Nyköping	Sweden
Örnsköldsvik	Örnsköldsvik	Sweden
Sundsvall	Sundsvall	Sweden
Ulricehamn	Ulricehamn	Sweden
Västerås	Västerås	Sweden

See also

• List of hotels
• List of motels

References

• 115 Anni Esso Italiana 1891-2006, Rome 2006