What is "roach motel"

n. (context derogatory English) A low-priced motel in a state of disrepair.

Roach Motel is a brand of a roach bait device designed to catch cockroaches. Although the term is the subject of a trademark registration by the insect control brand Black Flag, the phrase roach motel has come to be used as a reference to all traps that use a scent or other form of bait to lure cockroaches into a compartment in which a sticky substance causes them to become trapped. Introduced in late 1976 in response to the success of d-CON's roach trap, the Roach Motel quickly became a successful entrant in the industry. By 1979, New York Magazine reported:

Early versions of the Roach Motels used food-based bait, but later designs incorporated pheromones. The widely known tagline of the Roach Motel was, "Roaches check in, but they don't check out!" ( Saturday Night Live spoofed this in their "Roach Brothel" parody. "The roaches make out, but they don't check out.")

Black Flag also marketed a related insect trap, the "Flyport," designed to deal with unwanted flying insects like houseflies, with the tagline, "Lots of arrivals, but no departures!" It was less successful than the Roach Motel.

The name "Roach Motel" is United States federal trademark No. 1,059,314, for which Black Flag claims a date of earliest use of May 7, 1976.

Roach motel may mean:

• a low-priced motel or comparable lodging facility, usually a considerably older property in disrepair, not affiliated with a major chain, and located in a decaying area of town
• Roach Motel (insect trap), a device used to catch cockroaches
• Roach Motel business model, a business model in which it is easy to begin using a service but difficult to stop for a technical reason
• In computers:
  • a proprietary file standard -- "you can check your data in, but you can't check it out".
  • a property of the Java Memory Model, which lets compilers and Java Virtual Machines move accesses to memory into synchronized blocks, but not to move them out
  • a type of dark pattern -- "tricking a computer user into taking an undesired action", such as clickjacking or scareware