Motel 6 may be best known for one of the great ad campaigns in hospitality history - the use of spokesman Tom Bodett and the tagline, "We'll leave the light on for ya." It's still running after more than 30 years.

Springtime concerns about travel bans hampering summer travel faded, and as summer 2017 draws to a close, it seemed on track to equal or surpass the strong summer travel seasons of recent years. From a digital perspective, a SimilarWeb analysis of traffic to travel sites - which is highly seasonal, peaking in the summer - showed this summer's peak of 1.07 billion visits in July is almost exactly the same peak as in July 2016. The future continues to look bright, as consumer enthusiasm for travel, and experiences more generally, continues to grow.

Millennials and baby boomers are constantly at the center of media and marketing attention. Older consumers have the experience, status and spending power; younger consumers are digital natives, focused on "experiences" and traveling by the masses. But what about the group squeezed in the middle: the 35- to 54-year-olds?