Working at the Roach Motel

My Job at the Kentucky Motel in Ashland, KY

Nearly 20 years ago, when I was 21, there was a time I was desperately in need of a job. I truly couldn't believe my luck when I found an ad that said a couple serving as motel resident managers that could live on property were needed. Rent and utilities all free as part of the salary! My husband at the time had a job but the ad didn't say that wouldn't exclude someone from getting that job too. It only took one person at a time on duty after all. So with no motel or business experience, beyond customer service, I applied for the job. Honestly I didn't think we'd get the job but I'm pretty sure the reason we were hired is that we accepted a lower salary than others would. It was $155 a week! Poverty level. The only reason we took it is that we were desperate for a place to live and a job for me. Once we found out my husband could stay with his other job we were OK.

Let me tell you a little about the Kentucky Motel. It was built sometime in the 50's as a one story motel in downtown Ashland, KY. At some point it was added on to twice to put another level on so it ended up three levels on one part of it. It really wasn't a very pretty motel. All but one of photos I show here are of actual postcards depicting the motel. People are still selling the cards on the internet.

I took this photo when I lived there.

By the time I got to be resident manager the place was falling down and yes, crawling with roaches! About half of the rooms were not useable and the ones that were had stuff that needed fixed in them. None of the rooms had enough light. All of them were decorated differently and were God aweful ugly in my opinion. In fact, I had to go to Goodwill to get bedspreads for some of the rooms! The owner was a miser. Absolutely no money was to be spent unless more money could possibly be made from it. We had to share a handyman with his other motel, yet another dive, and we didn't get him nearly as much time as they did. I had two maids, though, thank goodness. The Kentucky Motel was condemned while I was resident manager! I'd only worked there 7 months when the city actually came in, posted signs and said we had just a few days to vacate the premises. So, there went my home and my job too! Everything turned out ok for me soon after that, but not for the motel. It was demolished in 1995 and eventually turned into a parking lot.

When I worked there life was never boring. First, the motel was a cheap motel (1994, $22-$24 night) so we basically rented monthly, weekly and hourly, if you get my drift. Of course there was the occasionally legitimate guest but they wondered in accidentally I think. The monthly residents were all alcoholics. The weeklies were the ones that were there for temporary jobs or were just in town for a short stay. I was told by the maids that a couple of prostitutes had taken up residence in one of the rooms, but by the time they told me the women had already checked out. I'm pretty sure the maids knew all along and just didn't want to get them in trouble.

Newest postcard I found, no date listed

The hourly renters actually were nightly renters but they only stayed a couple of hours and checked out. So then I would just play maid (as the maids had probably gone by then), cleaned their room and re-rented it for the night again.

The Bum

There was this one guy that would come into the motel to stay every now and then, Billy. He was always dressed in layers of clothing with lots of pockets. In those pockets he had lots of money wadded up! Ones, fives and tens, who knows what else. I eventually learned that Billy was a bum. He went out most days and bummed for money, then apparently put it in his pockets like that. He always had plenty of it too. He'd easily pay for a cab, and for a week of rent sometimes. Other times he'd just pay for a night stay at the motel. Someone told me once, though, that they heard him grumbling once, complaining, when he got less than $100 one day.

A Fight, Pepper Spray and the Police

One of my jobs as resident manager was to make sure everyone paid their bills. So if someone was a week behind on their rent then they should not be in that room in my opinion. Several things caused some problems, therefore the police had to be called in to handle things that day. First, I knew this guy is a drug user and that his girlfriend is very combative, so he might be too. So when I went to the guys door to ask him to pay his bill he got belligerent and started to scare me so I sprayed him with pepper spray. Probably the wrong thing to do in hind sight but he really had looked like he was going to hit me. I went back to my apartment to calm down but then one of the maids runs to me and says the guys girlfriend is on her way to beat me up. That scares me worse because I just don't fight. I went outside and sure enough there was the woman, just waiting for me, wanting to know why I sprayed her man. Even before I could say anything she was on me, tearing clothes, hair, scraping nails, etc. Luckily I had brought the pepper spray can again and took it to her as well in order to get her off of me, including hitting her in the face with it a few times. Sadly the spray blew back into my face as well, so I got a healthy dose of it in my eyes right then. Someone had called the police, an unusual occurrence. Typically the people I'm around like to deal with things within their own group if at all possible, especially if there are drugs involved. In this case I could tell the women was high and had been smoking weed just recently. 

When the police got there they were no help to me at all. They acted as if I was the perpetrator instead of it being the woman trying to beat me up. I was questioned like I was a criminal and basically treated poorly. The other woman, pot smell and all, was treated like a princess. They just wanted to make sure she was OK, that the pepper spray didn't cause lasting damage to her. I attribute that difference in attitude to the way we looked. She was a blonde bimbo whereas I was a giant fat blob at the time. Blonde bimbo still beats out fat. Big women get no respect. 

Eventually the police went away. I believe that there was no one arrested although the couple did get a legal notice to vacate if they didn't pay up. 

I have more interesting KY Motel stories but I'll save them for another blog.