Granite countertops, solar panels ... wait, is this Motel 6?

Halloween is coming, so I'm going to kick off festivities by saying one of the scariest phrases in the English language: roadside motel.

Norman Bates may be the drag queen emblem of all things horrifying, but across America, the stained bedspreads and mildewed corners of our country's motels are, unfortunately, not the stuff of fiction. The cheapest hotels in our country are, often, the most terrifying. It's been this way for so long that many of us refuse to set foot in any hotel lower on the price scale than a Hampton Inn.