The allure of the chain hotel | Xan Brooks

To most people the Travelodges of the world lack any sort of exoticism, but there's more to them than meets the eyeTom Waits told me, a few years back, about his fondness for hotels named after obscure American presidents. "Take me to the Taft!" he'd instruct the cabbie, because "you could usually rely on finding a Taft in every town". For Waits, establishments like the Taft (or the Cleveland, the McKinley, the Harrison) are a crucial site of fresh material – faded, chintzy, last-chance saloon...

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