Suggest a lodging chain that is worthwhile these days

Ben Jefferson

Ben Jefferson

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The wife and I will be making a road trip the 1st week in June and have not done this in a long time. Please suggest a good hotel chain to use that does not require the first born male child. I would definitely trade if I had that option again. I will need single night rooms (single queen is adequate) Lower floor Handicapped room preferred♿️ due to illness. Will be needing rooms in Nashville, TN (2 nights), and Davenport IA (2 nights). Nothing special other than limited travel requirements. Clean rooms, decent food available and fuel is all required.

Will greatly appreciate any that you have been happy with as a chain.
 
I travel a lot for work. I guess "a lot" is relative. Generally somewhere around 60 nights a year in a hotel somewhere.

I prefer the Hilton branded hotels. For one night at a time and a free breakfast, Hampton Inn.

Sometimes cheaper rates and breakfast and dinner, bar, is Hilton Garden Inn.

Tru is fairly basic, more towards the Hampton Inn scale but set up more for longer stays .

Double Tree's are nice $$$ but more for longer stays with restaurants and bar inside.

The farther out you book, generally, the lower the rate.

Bigger cities are going to be pricey. I did a quick check on Nashville TN for the 1st Thursday of June. Not sure what's going on in Nashville but if they're not sold out, prices are high. If you go 20-25 miles either side of Nashville, they're much cheaper.

Marriott branded hotels are my second choice. Of those, Fairfield Inn is comparable to Hampton Inn.

Any hotel near a major route will likely have at least a chain restaurant nearby.

Best Western, some Holiday Inns, just about any major brand won't be too bad for a single night. Days Inn is hit or miss.

Motel 6 is usually your cheapest but then you can play guess the stain on the carpet/bed/wall/ceiling.

I'd give you some points but currently my wife, daughter, son in law and the grands are using most of them for 2 rooms for 2 nights in Boston.

Let me know if you need any help setting something up or any other questions
 
Hilton and marriott chains are both usually pretty solid picks and have lots of offerings depending budget. Like mentioned up stream if you can stay outside of or on the edge of towns the cost usually comes down a good deal. Hampton inns and fairfield will be the more reasonable side.
 
avoid larger cities for a few reasons
Hotels will be higher priced, and those that aren’t you shouldn’t stay at
Traffic / people are more of an issue

Find smaller / mid sized towns outside of those cities (at least 20 miles away )

As far as chains Hilton and Marriott are good upper middle range options - look at Hampton and Fairfield Inn in each respective chain

As far as a lower middle option - choice hotels - sleep inn / comfort inns - these definitely aren’t as nice but can save a few bucks

Seriously though - an extra $30-50 per night is worth it to me for better nights sleep on a cleaner bed
 
We stay at Hilton properties when possible and I think the newer Hampton Inn's are nicer than older Hilton's. Hampton Inn's is part of Hilton. One of my pet peeves is small bathrooms. The newer Hampton's typically have bigger bathrooms. Most have a few first floor rooms, book early and see if you can reserve one. I also like having a nice workout room and an outside area to have a drink. If you see a new Hampton Inn i think you will be surprised at how thought out the place is. You can become a member and build up points. I would recommend joining Hilton Honors now and then booking your room through Hilton web site. I have had more issues checking in with the discount web sites than i care for. If they see you are a Hilton Honors member i think you are treated better. Just my 2 cents.
 
Variable said:
If they see you are a Hilton Honors member i think you are treated better. Just my 2 cents.
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I am a Diamond Member (that and $2 will get you a cup of coffee at McDonalds) and you are correct. I have, on occasion gotten stuck somewhere/had to make an unplanned stop and have had no trouble getting a room. Sometimes the random free upgrades are nice too. I once got the presidential suite at a Hilton Garden Inn. Room was 3x the size of my first apartment
 
BlackGun said:
Double Tree has always been good and Marriott. I try to avoid hotels inside the big city areas. I am not a fan of any free breakfast since the pandamnit. Prepackaged food is 🤮.
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ugh. I remember the days of the pre-packaged food. I'd just hit a drive-through somewhere. No one is doing that anymore that I know of.
 
cubrock said:
We have been pretty happy with Choice family hotels for years.
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This….
We travel for work a lot, and all combined, we usually have 300+ rooms/nights booked per year. I prefer the higher end brands like Comfort Suites, Ascend, and Cambria, but some of the Quality and Sleep Inns are nice. They recently acquired Radisson Int’l which opened up a whole new array of choices from Choice.
 
Agree on the Hilton chain, I like the Hilton Garden Inn and the Hampton Inn. I’ve used Courtyards a good bit as well, and they’re OK, but a couple of been a bit of a miss. I would probably stay at a newer Holiday Inn express as well, but otherwise, I think I would avoid IHG. One of the worst I’ve stayed at in a long time was a Holiday Inn & Suites in VA Beach.
 
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1075tech said:
I am a Diamond Member (that and $2 will get you a cup of coffee at McDonalds) and you are correct. I have, on occasion gotten stuck somewhere/had to make an unplanned stop and have had no trouble getting a room. Sometimes the random free upgrades are nice too. I once got the presidential suite at a Hilton Garden Inn. Room was 3x the size of my first apartment
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Diamond member!!! Woah, i aspire to those parking spaces. I think you have to stay 30+ nights a year to get Diamond. You do the Hilton credit card for more points?
 
Variable said:
Diamond member!!! Woah, i aspire to those parking spaces. I think you have to stay 30+ nights a year to get Diamond. You do the Hilton credit card for more points?
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Lol. Yeah. I do at least 30 a year. Closer to 60. I could do more. I don't do their credit card. Everything goes on the corporate credit card.

I don't know as though I've ever used the points personally. It's usually family I'll end up getting a room for with them. I'll book other peoples rooms for them so I get the points. And if there's an option between points and food/beverage credit, I take the points. Company will pay for food/beverage anyway.
 
On the cheap, I use Red Roof Inns. Ground floor rooms available, rooms are all parking lot access, hard flooring in lieu of carpeting. Super basic, but gets the job done if all you need is a bed for a night. They're also one of the most pet-friendly locations if that's a consideration.

If you want a "real" hotel, my wife refuses to pee in just about anything that isn't a Hampton Inn.
 
BrettB said:
avoid larger cities for a few reasons
Hotels will be higher priced, and those that aren’t you shouldn’t stay at
Traffic / people are more of an issue

Find smaller / mid sized towns outside of those cities (at least 20 miles away )

As far as chains Hilton and Marriott are good upper middle range options - look at Hampton and Fairfield Inn in each respective chain

As far as a lower middle option - choice hotels - sleep inn / comfort inns - these definitely aren’t as nice but can save a few bucks

Seriously though - an extra $30-50 per night is worth it to me for better nights sleep on a cleaner bed
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this right here, ive taken to scoping out the area on google maps before staying after unknowingly ending up in the ghetto a few times
 
Tatershooter said:
When I stay in a motel/hotel which is not often, after I set my bags down, the bed spread comes off and goes in a corner.
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on multi night stays, you would not believe how many times I have thrown the bed spread on the floor by the bathroom along with the used towels and later when the room is cleaned and made up,
the same bedspread i threw on the floor was back on the bed. GROSS!
 
In hi skool I worked summers at a Days Inn at I40 and 68 in GBO 50 yrs ago. Bus tables, wash dishes, cut grass, clean carpets, change bed linens and towels, scrub toilets, and general maintenance. My HQ was the shop next to the laundry. I dont ever remember seeing them wash and dry a bed spread ☹️
 
I pretty much stay at Hilton properties if I can. Hampton Inns are fine and have a decent free breakfast, Hilton Garden Inn's and Doubletree's are nice because they have a restaurant and bar inside if needed. I've been Hilton Diamond for years but might be loosing it soon as I don't travel as much anymore. We have used points to stay at some pretty cool places for free and I've been able to help friends and family out with free nights on many occasions. Currently have almost a million Hilton points and planning to use them for a trip for my wife an I at one of their resorts sometime soon.
 
I use Holiday Inn express and Hilton - usually Hampton Inn. I agree with most of the other comments.
Hilton Honors has a good payback (free nights etc.) as does the Holiday Inn membership.

My son uses hotel 6 because of price but I find them to be cheap
 
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I have most of my nights associated with Marriott properties, but I’ve found that Courtyards are slipping.
Residence, Fairfield and Aloft have been good to me. Avoid the properties near Vanderbilt. They get poor ratings.
 
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