If you are most interested in points that have high value compared to the cost of collecting them, and less in hotel perks or hotel fanciness, it's hard to beat the constatnt rich promos from Choice coupled with the low hotel rates of their properties.

And it so happens Choice properties about in small town USA.

The only issue is: Their quality varies widely, so you have to check TripAdvisor before choosing a property (unlike Hampton, where you might be willing to book "blindly").

And the elite status mostly gives you redemption benefits (opens up the window during which you can do redemptions), not in-hotel benefits.

The second best on points that have high value compared to the cost of collecting them is IHG's Priority Club. There you have properties which are more in line with HHonors. The big difference, though, is that while HHonors guanratees elite perks (Gold and Diamond) at all brands, there's no such thing at IHG. Some hotels give Platinum benefits, lots don't. So, again, youhave to decide if lots of points you can actually use is more important to you than elite perks.

Priority Club properties are not as easy to find in small town USA as Choice, but about as as easy as Hilton (with Holiday Inn Express roughly the equivalent of Hampton).

Note: You won't get tons of points from Priority Club unless you monitor points promos on FlyerTalk. You can "stack" mumltiple points promos at the same time, but Priority Club itself will not notify you of most of these "stackable" promos; you have to find them on FT.

Marriott isn't as rich on points promos as IHG, but Fairfield Inn is also in the Hampton category and easier to find in smaller cities, so that's another program you may want to consider.

And, btw, since elite levels at these programs won't do much for you in-hotel, you might as well sign up for several programs, and stay in each program only when it has a good promo, and only until you "max out" that promo. THen move to the next best promo that's active at that time. The points you earn from promos dwarf the points you earn from normal stays in these programs (Choice, Priority Club, and Marriott).