Staybridge is my favorite - free breakfast and social hour (with alcohol) a few nights a week. The ONLY downside is the 5x points earnings vs 10x. If it wasn't for this, I would almost exclusively stay at Staybridge.

Candlewood is my go-to if I need cheap. Never had an issue, but you get what you pay for and they aren't fancy.

HI/HIX isn't that big of a difference to me. HIX breakfast has always been pretty bad to me so that doesn't matter. I find most of my stays here though because of the 10x points at these brands. HI can have some older properties as mentioned above, so you have to check reviews. Most HIX are newer it seems and generally a safe bet.