There are some nice Courtyards in the US (the Denver downtown one on 16th street is nice), but generally I would agree they aren't very nice.

I'm all for the SpringHill Suites, which Bill Marriott calls in his blog, "Springhill Suites guests are high achievers on business travel too, but they also enjoy trips and they like to work in their leisure time too to see new places, to eat where the local people eat. They tend to be younger, so they're a growing market."