In the 1960s, with the rise of the numbers of travelers by car, the Scandinavian governments asked for dormitories for motorists at the service stations along the highways.

A Motorby (Swedish for Motor village), is a filling station with workshop combined with a hotel specially for motorists with direct access from the parking to the rooms.

The later built Esso Motor Hotels were provided with far more features than a motorby, as a waiter served restaurant, bank, fitness room, sauna, pool and meeting rooms, mainly to satisfy business travelers.

Until the splitting at the beginning of 1973, 59 Esso Motor Hotels were opened:[3] 27 in Sweden, 3 in Norway, 2 in Denmark, 3 in the Netherlands, 3 in Italy, 8 in the United Kingdom (notably at Wembley Park, Wembley), 1 in Austria, 10 in Germany and 2 in Belgium.

The chain had an internal reservation system by which the customer could book the Esso Motor Hotel for the next stage of his journey.

The Scandinavian holidaymaker should be able to drive to the Italian coast using Esso Motor Hotels during the journey.

The Swedish-Danish bordercrossing was made by ferry at Helsingborg, from Denmark to Germany the route followed the, then new, Vogelfluglinie.

Fourteen hotels were in use in February 1968,[6] six of them in Sweden and an ambitious expansion plan has been launched.

Further expansion followed mainly in Scandinavia and with more business related hotels in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands (Antwerp and Amsterdam in 1969 and Velp in 1970).

Edinburgh still expected tourists as customers[9] but business travellers got a bigger share in Britain as well.

[11] These new beds were added to the hotel capacity already created since the mid sixties resulting in a surplus of rooms.