Known for low-price room rates, Motel 6 has built a new prototype in North Texas featuring a "green" retrofit. The Prototype offers new flooring made of 80% pre-consumer recycled material, which defines the feel of the space, and gives it an updated, more spacious and cleaner look. Granite bathroom counters, flat screen TVs, and comfortable seating areas are also new design components of the Phoenix prototype.

Motel 6 has practiced environmental management since the early 1990s and has been recognized as an EnergyStar Partner since 2006. Today, Motel 6 reduces its carbon footprint by properly disposes of hazardous waste with a Fluorescent Light Bulb and Battery Recycling Program; reduces energy consumption in all energy management systems, including installing energy-efficient PTAC units; and reduces water consumption with low-flow aerators for faucets and shower heads and 1.6 gallon low flow toilets at all of its properties nationwide. Motel 6 strives to be in accordance with Accor’s Worldwide Hotel Environmental Charter, a 65-point set of actions that each Accor brand is encouraged to take to make their properties more energy efficient and environmentally responsible.

“We have more than 900 Motel 6 properties in the U.S. and Canada, so we are aware that our actions are likely to cause a significant impact on the environment,” said Olivier Poirot, CEO, Accor North America, Motel 6 and Studio 6. “Accor North America is constantly working to find ways to minimize its environmental footprint, and this flooring decision is just one of the many efforts we take to make our properties more environmentally friendly.”

The first new build of the Motel 6 Phoenix Prototype property will be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and is scheduled to open in 2009. Motel 6 has already begun retrofitting properties across the country, and newly renovated rooms are becoming available nationwide at select locations beginning this fall.