It has to be after a day of bicycling. For this, we use the booklets that all the chains have listing their motels around the country. You can collect these as you go, but many have web sites and would probably mail you copies in advance, or you can look at the motel chain web sites as you travel if you have a laptop along. We have done some B and B'ing along the Natchez Trace because we were traveling with another couple who preferred this. Motels may be more sterile and generic, but they usually have reasonably sized rooms with phones.
Outer doors leading directly to the parking place are much easier.
We've found that a couple of the cheaper motel chains often have split-level motel design. You must haul stuff either up or down stairs. There's no option. I have loaded things in and out through a ground floor window of a subterranean room on several occasions, which means shoving furniture to the window and dismantling screens and such. For that reason, we tend to avoid these motels unless we can see the actual building.