Originally Posted by
InkUnderNails
What folks have said above are all true. The inconsistencies within the brands are incredible. There are great Comfort Suites and there are bad ones. Same is true for Comfort Inns (different than CS). I have not found a good Quality, Travel Lodge, or Econo Lodge and I generally avoid these.
Travelodge is not part of Choice. It is part of WynhamRewards (Cendant), formerly TripRewards. Yet another inconsistent hotel family.
To which one could add Calrson's GoldPoints, which is yet another inconsistent hotel family.
I've not stayed at more than one La Quinta, but based on what I've read (and the bad experience with their miles-earning program) I'm not hopefully that it's much better.
So basically, I can't think of a single points/miles-earning hotel family in this space (a large portion of their brands being squarely lower-end) that is consistent. You seem to have to move up to hotel family's which "bottom out" at midscale to get that.
While I haven't seen a "jump up and down fantastic" Quality, I've stayed at several that were quite ok for the price (half the time which was points
) and small-town location. But these were
always ones I prescreened through
www.tripadvisor.com.
There's no "budget" hotel brand that I would consider booking "blind" based on just the brand name. I would need reviews of some sort, recommendations from travel books I trust, etc.