This is the first of a series of reviews about Second Life Motels. These will be a bit different, and generally shorter, than the ones I do about hotels and resorts, but hopefully each will still give you a good overview of what to expect.

As with hotels, I'll say if it's recommended or not, and then from that I intend to soon produce a list of the top Motels in Second Life.

I'm starting with the Motel Nowhere, where my friend Delilah Winters came with me, and appears in these photos

Editor’s note - After publishing, this review I was contacted by members of the Mother Road community saying that the design of Motel Nowhere was taken from Mother Road, and implying that this was not amicable. I’ve since spoken to both the owners of Mother Road and Motel Nowhere and provided a summary at the end of this article.

Introduction

The Motel Nowhere is a desert themed motel built on a sky platform. If you think it looks familiar when first visiting, you'd be right, in fact the owners admit that it was inspired by Paul Cutter's Mother Road.

A dozen or so rooms in two buildings flank a pool, while there's also a diner and a trailer park.

The rooms

Especially when you consider that they are free to use, the rooms are really well designed. Owner Tay did a great job, and both Delilah and myself were hugely impressed with the detail that went into them.

The rooms also include bathrooms - sometimes many free motel / hotel places simply don't bother with - and a variety of adult furniture ranging from Ruckus to Bazar adult beds (it seemed to vary by room).

The facilities

As mentioned, the facilities include a pool and a diner.

Other considerations

This is very much an adult place, and we encountered a number of adult RP-ers while we were there. If you think you will be offended by adult open chat from the next room, this place is not for you.

The rooms are free, but that also means there is no privacy.

A huge plus is being able to rez poses, even without a group tag. This makes it a good photo spot.

Conclusion

Some of the adult open RP was a little annoying along with the accompanying sound effects, but otherwise we really enjoyed our time here.

Given the privacy issue, I am not sure I'd stay here with a significant other, but given the really high design value of the rooms, I would definitely come back to use it as a photo location.

Motel Nowhere SLURL

Added Information on Mother Road and Motel Nowhere

When visiting Motel Nowhere I was aware that the inspiration was Paul Cutter’s Mother Road. Indeed as Tay, the owner of Motel Nowhere is quite overt about this and even makes a note of it on the parcel details, I worked on the assumption that the background to this was amicable.

After being contacted by members of the Mother Road community, I’ve since spoken to both Paul and Tay. I’ve added a short summary of what each told me here. I will then leave it up to the reader to decide on whether to visit Motel Nowhere.

Paul Cutter says that he originally caught the owner of Motel Nowhere “in the act” of copying without permission, but then came to an informal arrangement where Motel Nowhere could remain provided he got credit and certain content changes were made to take account of the fact that a few things are exclusive to his build.

In response, Tay claims that she worked with Paul to make her build unique enough for him to be OK with it. and says that it is now just a “rough facsimile that was inspired by the ambiance of the original.”

Mother Road is on my motels review list, so I’ll be posting separately about it soon.,