The key with accepting a hotel near DEN airport is to consider how far away it is. The new airport is physically isolated. The closest hotels are in a cluster a few miles away, along the access road. They're all fairly new and brand name-oriented, so none of them really suck. There's another cluster of hotels a few miles farther out where the access road connects to I-70. Still mostly franchises though some are older. Then there are the "airport" hotels that were built around the old airport. What sucks about these is the distance. The shuttle bus ride could be 45 minutes each way, and the buses come around infrequently. Advise your folks to inquire about the distance to whatever hotel is offered and press for one that's within 10 miles.