It's not that I don't know marketing slogans and advertising campaigns aren't full of more hype than truth. A lot of the time one can pretty much figure on whatever the slogan or advertising states the opposite of such is more the truth than not. But, like most, I still get suckered in by names, promotions, etc.
I have just stayed in five "Quality Inns" and one "Comfort Inn", both of which fall under "Choice Hotels", and NONE were "quality" nor "comfortable". The Quality Inns were a step worse than the Comfort Inn, with broken lamps, dirty rooms, filthy exteriors, and very poor access to all except one. The Comfort Inn was the last in the line, and the icing on the cake for rotten rooms. Going into the room was a walk into a refrigerator. It was raining outside, and the carpet was so wet water squished up between my toes walking on it barefoot. I went to the front counter to make sure I would not be blamed for the wet carpet. I was told, "oh, we know you're not, we know the carpet is wet from being shampooed before you arrived." Excuse me! You know the carpet is wet in a room you just rented to me?
I returned to the room, and after trying to dry it with warm heat was living in a steam bath. Every piece of paper in it was limp from the moisture. I returned to the front desk, asked them what they were going to do about the situation, and 4 people behind the counter just looked at me with dumb looks and never said a word. No matter what I said to them, there was no response. Finally I said, "I can't believe I'm standing here talking about a soaking wet room to the hotel staff, and all any of you can do is stand there with dumb looks on your faces and not utter a single word in response." You'd think saying that to 4 people would have gotten some statement said in return, even an angry rebuttal to the accusation. But no, they still just stood there and didn't utter a word or make a move towards coming up with a solution. I walked away. A few minutes later one of the four, the "hotel manager" walked up and apologized and said she didn't know what to do. I did, get me a space heater to dry the carpet out with - since there were no other available rooms in the sold out hotel, and they were not going to reimburse me my hotel costs.
I just don't get how Hotels along interstates can be this sloppy, this bad in appliances and cleanliness, and still be in business. There's no money in owning and operating hotels? Choice hotels don't exactly offer much, so where is the overhead? Taxes?
Overall, my rating of Choice Hotels is they are very poor, only for the very desperate weary traveler with no advance reservations, and I'll not be staying in them again.