I used to be a devotee of Hyatt Place - at the time the brand was introduced, I felt like they were a cut above HIX, Hampton, and Fairfield. Since status does not matter at these places, it was an easy way to diversify into Hyatt points as a mere Discoverist.

But my last couple HP stays have been disappointing. They've downgraded their breakfast quite a bit. In downtown Chicago, they were using cheap paper plates, all disposable utensils, and pre-wrapped Jimmy Dean sausage sandwiches which, aside from being incredibly unhealthy, were soggy and gross. I'm sure they were cutting costs on breakfast because, well, every chain is getting away with doing that, but it has really killed my prior notion that HP was a notch higher than the other three.

By contrast, we stayed in an HIX a couple months ago that had their full normal breakfast spread they've always had. I mean, there are limits to what you can expect out of this category - none of it is fine dining - but I appreciated that the services had not been cut from what I've historically expected from the brand.

So now I'd probably go HIX > Hampton > HP > Fairfield. That's absent any intel on the properties and equal price/location. With this whole category, I usually try to identify the newer builds and give those a bit of preference.