Many here will probably not be old enough to remember back to the beginning of Holiday Inns. They arose from a niche in the market that someone saw as an alternative to the then ubiquitous Mom and Pop Motels where the quality varied a great deal. The basic premise of Holiday Inn was that from the East to West coast of N. America, if you stayed in a Holiday Inn anywhere, the room would be nearly identical to a room in every other Holiday Inn. In other words, you were assured of a certain level of quality and ammenities. That spelled the death of independent motels and today if you do a road trip across the USA, you would be hard pressed to find many independent hotels along the Interstates. A handful of chains dominate the market almost completely.
I use them in N. America but try to avoid them in other places like Europe where a great many equal but independent hotels still exist. No Holiday Inn, Marriott or Hilton, etc. has the same ambiance as some of the independent hotels in the same price ranges. For example, here is a 3 star boutique hotel in Switzerland where you can get a double room for $90 US per night with breakfast in June.
https://bellevuewiesen.com/hotelbellevuewiesen/ The hotel dates back to 1873 but is fully modernized and has an award winning restaurant. Europe is full of such hotels which are unique rather than 'cookie cutter' copies. You will not find that price by the way on any third party booking sites, but that's another topic.
I understand people who want to collect 'Loyalty Points' but wonder if they ever consider that it limits them and keeps them from experiencing more interesting hotels. At the higher end of the market, you will not get a room with your Hilton, Marriott, etc. points at this hotel. Sitting high above the lake with a waterfall to one side and reached by funicular from their own ferry dock, compare this to the hotels in Interlaken where the majority of tourists stay.
https://www.giessbach.ch/en/grandhotel-giessbach.html
So what about you, do you avoid chains and look for unique independent hotels when you can find them? Or do you let 'points' dominate your thinking?