Dictionary

roach motel en · NOUN

Etymology

Since low-cost motels are frequently associated with substandard conditions, including potential problems such as cockroach infestations. The phrase describing a situation as “easy to enter, but is difficult or costly to leave” originates from the American cockroach bait product known as Roach Motel, which was marketed using the slogan, “Roaches check in, but they don’t check out.”

Meanings

1. (derogatory, slang) A low-priced motel in a state of disrepair.
2. (figuratively, slang) Something that is easy to enter, but is difficult or costly to leave.
   • Ever signed up for something online and then found it very difficult to unsubscribe? Then you've been to a roach motel - one of many web design tricks employed by some firms to drum up more trade. 2016 June 8, Zoe Kleinman, “Is the web full of nasty tricks?”, in BBC News:
   • CAVOLI: If you do not know, 390 was a specific New York Stock Exchange rule that disallowed member organizations from trading off exchange, as late as 2001. MAHONEY: In the beginning, the NYSE was truly the roach motel. 2022, Robert A. Schwartz, John Aidan Byrne, Eileen Stempel, 40 Years of Experience with the National Market System (NMS), page 51:
   • 8.3.1 The Importance of Easy Access: Avoid the “Roach Motel!” In Chapter 6, we discussed what a “roach motel” was. You can get data into a “roach motel”, but you can't easily get it out. 2010, William H. Inmon, Bonnie O'Neil, Lowell Fryman, Business Metadata: Capturing Enterprise Knowledge, page 141:
   • The research was conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, and the findings point to one conclusion: “Amazon Prime’s subscription model is a “roach motel,” where getting in is almost effortless, but escape is an ordeal.” 2022 December 9, Itu Rathore, “Is Amazon employing a deceptive strategy to keep its Prime members subscribed?”, in dazeinfo briefs:
   • The “Roach Motel” is a broad category of Dark Pattern that subsumes most types listed on this site. Put simply, a Roach Motel makes it very easy for a user to get into a certain situation, but then makes it hard for them to get out of it when they realize it is undesirable. 2015, Scot R. Wheeler, Architecting Experience: A Marketing Science and Digital Analytics Handbook, page 186:
   • Don't hope for a better shake from Apple, either. Apple's longstanding love-affair with proprietary formats and lock-ins will very likely make the iPad every inch the roach motel that the Kindle is 2011, Cory Doctorow, Context, page 102:
3. (qualifier:genericized trademark) A cockroach trap.

Forms

wikipedia: Roach Motel