The_Bouncer

Jackal, It seems you and I have very similar priorities. I don't really care where I stay, as long as it's clean, secure and reasonably quiet. A comfortable bed and a hot shower is really all I am bothered about. I have stayed in several Choice brands in the past and they are absolutely fine.

I have 5 months a year without work during the European winter, and my priority is to be able to travel for as much of that time as possible. I have stayed at the kind of "aspirational" properties that other FTers seem to obsess over and while they are nice, I would take a week on the road over a night at any of them. The bottom line is I am value conscious.

I have read the thread you mentioned and the Choice program seems to fit the bill. In fact, the more I read about it, the better it seems to get.

ChoiceHotels: Thank you for your response. It is very refreshing to see a representative from a large corporation actually reading what people write about them on travel forums and responding. I am very interested in the status match and will definitely go ahead with this.