I’ve seen a few references to the launch of a podcast by Motel 6, narrated by folksy-voiced author Tom Bodett, who also narrates the hotel chain’s radio commercials, the short-term podcast is a tongue-in-cheek series titled, “Top 6 Reasons to Stay at a Motel During the Holidays.” (Six reasons because it’s Motel 6. Get it?)

In an Adweek story about the podcast, Motel 6 advertising and promotion VP Eric Studer waxes enthusiastic about podcasting’s potential:

The podcast format allows consumers an expanded focus on topics or personalities that are not covered in traditional media. It allows us an opportunity to communicate with our existing customers and potential customers in a fun, innovative way.

While the podcast has received some ink in the usual geek places (Podcasting News, Corante, several blogs), these aren’t the places people who would stay in a Motel 6 are likely to learn about it. The obvious place to find out about it is on the Motel 6 website, but there’s no hint of the podcast there, even under the “special programs” tab. It’s on the Accor web site, the company that owns Hotel 6 and a range of other hotels. It’s not on the Accor home page, or even the Motel 6 page on the Accor site. Since there’s no search capability, you can’t find it by searching, and it doesn’t show up on the site map.

The press release announcing the podcast takes you to the Accor North America website, which is where you’ll finally find the link to the show…just where everybody would look. Why in the world isn’t a Motel 6 podcast promoted on the Motel 6 website?

It gets worse. Once you find the podcast—yep, just the one file—you can download it or subscribe to the RSS feed, but you can’t comment on what you heard because there’s no associated blog. This is the most common mistake made by businesses launching podcasts. Virtually every indie podcaster has a blog; virtually none of the business podcasters do (GM is a notable exception, tying its podcast into its Fastlane blog). The podcast therefore encourages no company-customer interaction (or, even better, the opportunity to interact with Bodett; it’ll be the rare person who grabs the podcast who figures out Bodett has his own blog, launched December 14 with two posts so far, one promoting the podcast).

It’s also not listed in any of the major podcast directories, not even iTunes.

When the Motel 6 podcast fails to generate much traffic, the company will probably claim podcasting doesn’t work. It isn’t the podcast’s fault, but rather the mindless manner in which it’s being promoted. Businesses embracing podcasts as a communication channel will have to figure out sooner or later that they need to put them where people can find them and adopt the key characteristics that have made podcasts successful in their first 18 months of existence. Plopping an MP3 file on a page buried deep within a site just won’t cut it.