Hotel pricing is nuts. Since I have Marriott LTP now, and I'm likely to make Hilton Diamond again for 2024, for some trips, I am now using Choice properties. I stayed in two Quality Inns in West Texas and a Econo Lodge in Lexington, VA recently. For a road trip, up early and out the door (breakfast not important), those properties were perfectly fine for my solo traveler self. Bathrooms were clean and the sheets appeared to have been changed recently. In the Quality Inn case, those properties were 1/2 the cost of the HI Exps and Fairfields in the same towns.

I'm continuing to enjoy the detail in your posts.