"No Vacancy: The Rise, Demise, and Reprise of America’s Motels" looks at the motel era through the eyes of one of New England's senior tourism investigators. 
(See chapter listing below.)
 
Author Mark Okrant sets the scene with entertaining interviews of motel proprietors and people who took family vacations before the Interstate system dominated the tourism landscape. 
Alarmed by the rate at which these properties are disappearing from the tourism landscape, Okrant conducts case studies along the old Boston Post Road, Route 66, the Las Vegas Strip, and other classic roads, searching for solutions. In the end, he offers a wide-eyed, yet optimistic view of how to keep these remnants of the 1950's and 60s from turning off their lights forever.

Mark Okrant is a professor of tourism management at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. He has been an active tourism researcher since the 1970s, and is past president of the Travel and Tourism Research Association. He is author of "Sleeping Alongside the Road" and five murder mysteries, as well as numerous journal articles, and more than 100 monographs on tourism marketing and planning.

Chapters:
Rise: Past patrons' view
Rise: Proprietors' views
Rise: A Day in the Life of a Motel Operator Couple
Demise: Maine's US Route 1, Bar Harbor
Demise: Former US 91, The Las Vegas Strip
Demise: Flagstaff Arizona's Threatened Slice of Route 66
Demise: Maine's US Rout 1, Ogunquit and Wells
Reprise: Illinois Route 66's Red Carpet Corridor
Reprise: A Declining Tourist Route Finds Help
Reprise: The Retrotour
Reprise: Preservation Opportunities for Historic Motels
Reprise: NH Preservation Alliance
Reprise: Additional Sources and Links
Reprise: Public Law 106-45
Reprise: The Last Word