My travel has generally been between residences which means a lot of flights, miles, etc. but not too much in the way of hotel/motel stays. For a variety of reasons I'm trending towards some more nights in hotels/motels and am wondering at what point (number of nights/year) does it make sense to commit to a certain chain/brand for rewards and whatnot? My work destinations often land me in small towns with very basic places which seems to direct me towards certain brands (Wyndham for example - I see they do the "Super 8" but also some higher end stuff). I just stayed at a Hyatt near PDX airport and it was great but I don't know what else they do?

In the last year I'd estimate I've stayed 15-20 nights in hotels/motels. Is it even worth it to try to play the whole points/freebies thing? I may have gotten a jaded view of this a few years ago as I had a bunch of nights out for work and went for Best Western Awards (or whatever it's called) and the payback was ridiculously low - as in I needed to stay 25+ nights to get anything for free so I just gave up.

Maybe a better way of asking this is what is the rate of payback? As an Alaska Airlines 100K I get a 150% bonus on miles (so 250% total) which works out to a good 25% "rebate" to put towards future travel. Am I likely to find anything close to this with hotels/motels?