You can go a number of different ways of complaining and there's no reason why you wouldn't go with all of them. It doesn't appear to be illegal to charge a credit card surcharge in Alabama, but squeaky wheel gets the grease - it's a downright terrible customer experience to be slapped with all sorts of additional fees on check-in (which is why you should let the chain know).
VISA:
https://usa.visa.com/Forms/visa-rules.html
Choice Hotels:
https://www.choicehotels.com/support