Hill Top Motel in Kingman adds 30-day bookings on Airbnb site

Travelers who want to stick around Kingman, Arizona, for a few weeks can book via Airbnb the historic Hill Top Motel for long-term stays there.

The Airbnb listing can be seen below:

The listing indicates the earliest booking available is in the second week of November.

Makenzie Baker told Route 66 News via Facebook messenger that eight suites or rooms at the motel are available from Airbnb for 30 days or longer.

When asked about offering overnight stays, Baker replied: “Not at this moment,” and added: “We’re not quite set up for it yet.”

Baker and Francisco Sinopoli, who both are chiropractors, acquired the property in spring 2018 for $157,500 after the motel was foreclosed. They had planned to spend about $500,000 on renovations.

According to Kingman resident Jim Hinckley in fall 2019, the owners had planned to reopen the motel in January 2020 after replacing the property’s plumbing and electrical system. It’s likely the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the reopening.

The Hill Top in 2019 also received a $30,000 cost-share grant from the federal Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program to restore its neon sign and swimming pool.

John Mescheid built the motel in 1954. The Hill Top went through several sets of owners, including longtime proprietor Dennis Schroeder, who ran it from 1981 to 2017.

The Hill Top Motel remains infamous for Room 119, where Timothy McVeigh stayed for four days in 1995 before bombing the federal building in Oklahoma City a few weeks later. The terrorist act killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. The registration card McVeigh filled out at the motel later was entered into evidence during his death-penalty trial.

Incidentally, the prosecutor at the McVeigh’s trial, Merrick Garland, now is the U.S. attorney general.

(Image of the Hill Top Motel sign in 2006 by Curtis Gregory Perry via Flickr)

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