Micro Hotels Are a Rising Travel Trend In Oklahoma

On my drive back home after the holidays, I spotted a billboard for something relatively new in Oklahoma. A micro hotel.

Technically, it's a "Microtel," but since that's now a brand name for Wyndham's new chain of affordable hotel suites, micro hotel works just fine.

While it passed in and out of my mind as a curious oddity on a very long and boring drive, I remembered it late last night during a phone call. I googled it this morning and found that micro hotels have become the latest travel trend across Oklahoma.

Not really a new trend, just the latest trend.

The deeper down the hotel rabbit hole I went, the more I realized I'd seen this sort of thing before. In fact, I stumbled across a memory of my friends laughing and poking a little fun at the tiny little hotels around my hometown.

Fifteen-ish years ago, a few of the Northern Oklahoma tribes started this trend of tiny hotels. As the respective tribal lands among some tribes are smaller, any space demands a premium. While Southwest Oklahoma is more attuned to large-scale tribal casinos, the gaming outlets around my hometown part of the state are considerably smaller.

The first White Eagle Casino I can remember was located inside a double-wide trailer off Highway 177, and that was really common practice until the casino culture expanded into permanent structures by the end of the 2000s. Eventually, these casinos added little 15 to 20-room hotels next door to accommodate weekenders who wanted to let loose and not have to worry about the drive home.

This tiny hotel and casino trend caught on like wildfire across Northcentral Oklahoma.

Now, for those that want a weekend getaway without the hassle of Tulsa traffic around the Hard Rock Casino Hotel in Catoosa can go up the road to their local tiny hotel and casino near their home in rural Oklahoma.

Strike while the iron is hot.

The tiny casino hotel trend must have been more successful than anyone thought since Wyndham Hotels is trying to piggyback in on it. Their location in Perry, as part of their digital marketing strategy, specifically mentions gaming and casinos in several areas around their website.

...and...

If that isn't cultural appropriation in business, I don't know what is.

Has the big hotel chain missed the trend?

Even though Northern Oklahoma has been building tiny hotels for nearly two decades, like all trends, things tend to evolve. After all, if you're not moving forward in life, you might as well be moving backward.

The tribal casinos around my hometown have embraced a family entertainment aspect similar to how Las Vegas did twenty years ago.

The popular family attraction near my hometown is the Tonkawa Hotel and Casino. It contains a tiny hotel and casino as the name implies, but also a family-friendly entertainment attraction called The Hub.

The hotel is attached to the casino, and the casino is attached to The Hub. Inside families enjoy cheap bowling, a movie theater, and a shockingly modern arcade with a virtual reality arena inside.

Parents can enjoy their casino time, the kids can run wild in The Hub. It's brilliant and I'm not sure how this hasn't caught on in the other corners of the state.

Will micro-hotels continue springing up around the state?

I know we're a little off the original topic here, but it's a fair question. Now that nationwide and global hotel chains are embracing the less-is-more value-minded models, will they continue to spread across Oklahoma? Or will the tribes beat them to it?

That's quite literally the million-dollar question.