Madonna Inn

About Madonna Inn

The Madonna Inn is a motel of flamboyant style in San Luis Obispo, California. Opened for business in 1958, the motel was the creation of Alex Madonna, who died in April 2004, and his wife Phyllis. The motel is a monument of unremitting kitsch, a Swiss-Alp exterior, and lavish pink common rooms. Each room in the Madonna Inn is uniquely designed and themed. Its famed rock waterfall urinal is a fixture along California's Central Coast. Many tourists come to visit the urinal, to the embarrassment of males who genuinely need to use the facilities.

In 1966, the Inn's original units were burned to the ground in a dramatic fire. It was reopened a year later, and by the end of the decade, all of the rooms had been rebuilt in all their luridness as they are known today. There are 109 rooms.

Back in 1982, the Madonna Inn was already world-renowned and the New York Times interviewed Alex Madonna about his eponymous creation. "Anybody can build one room and a thousand like it," he defended with pride. "I want people to come in with a smile and leave with a smile. It's fun. What fun do you think Paul Getty got out of his life."