Thought I'd report back after my stay at the Holiday Inn Express near Frankfurt airport. It really turned out well for me. I purchased points and then used them for the room for 5 nights, as suggested by soitgoes post below.

HI runs an airport shuttle departing the hotel on the 1/2 hour, and picking up from the airport at 1/4 of, and 1/4 after the hour. A sign is posted in the van saying it will be a 5 Euro charge. Then there are very frequent trains between the airport and downtown. I used the shuttle from the airport 5 times and to the airport 4 times and was cheerfully planning to pay the 45 Euro, but was told at the front desk that they only charge for the last trip back to the airport. So was only charged 5 Euros. Even more cheerful!

I tried walking to a nearby small town to catch the train there (still at this point thinking I was saving 5 Euros plus getting a bit of fresh air and exercise). Bad idea. The walk is partially along a really busy highway so I ended up trudging though the adjacent snow and rough weedy terrain. Took almost 40 minutes, although it had looked a lot closer on the map. The hotel did suggest a back way walk that avoided the traffic (which I checked out when I arrived), but that took even longer. After one walk, the shuttle seemed a really great deal.

The hotel was very nice and I was kindly and well treated. Great breakfast every morning. Really comfortable bed. Front desk always either could speak English, or found someone who did. Quite a bit of road noise even with double paned windows, but I always travel with earplugs so managed that.

And they let me check in right when I arrived! Mid-morning and really dragged out from the overnight flight. I really appreciated that.

Thanks for the suggestion!!

Romelle

And I did take the train to Mainz one day and walked around a bit. An interesting charming town and I may well stay there another trip.