I find Fairfield, Holiday Inn Express, and Hampton Inn to all be interchangeable. Since my preferred programs are Marriott and IHG, I tend to focus on Fairfield and Holiday Inn Express. Between those two, coverage is excellent and at least one of them is typically priced well for the area. Whenever I have stayed at Hampton Inn, it has been fine. In recent years, Fairfield's are very consistent and I can't remember the last time I encountered a bad FI property. HI Express is generally good but I do occasionally run into a bad (tired, rundown) HIX property. I have far less experience with Hampton Inn's and with that disclaimer, I can't remember the last I encountered a bad HI property.

If Hilton has better pricing in area, I would stay with them. So far that hasn't happen. Either Marriott and/or IHG have been comparably priced to Hilton. YMMV...

--Jon