I stay at motels, mostly budget like this, 50 to 100 times a year. I have literally never had a room that did not have a desk or table until this stay. There was no place to eat or put a laptop. Weirdest is the food side of this. There is a fridge and microwave in the room. They are just asking for people to eat in bed. More important to me, I often work in my room, and a flat surface for my laptop and papers is most productive. I understand this doesn't apply to everyone, but to the many business travelers who feel the same -- stay away!
Brought this up to the desk clerk who said that I had a "deluxe" room and only "superior" rooms had desks. But that I couldn't change rooms because I had booked with Hotels.com. Utterly unhelpful. So I had to go out to Target to buy a TV tray.
This may be partly a Red Roof thing -- they often have small rooms and barely a table. But this was a nice big room with plenty of space. There were some other positives too, and negatives. But that ridiculous management decision soured my whole experience. Needless to say, I won't be back here. Or, in case this is company policy now, to any Red Roof.