I don’t think it’s like Super 8, but more like a nicer Holiday Inn. I stayed in an older one a few years ago. it was nothing near as nice as a Courtyard, but not near as bad as Super 8. It was clean, just no frills. I think it had one of those buffet type breakfasts that I hate.

I stayed at a La Quinta on a recent business trip. It was a newer hotel in an area that caters to high tech industry business travelers. The room was nice, but nothing to write home about. Service was excellent and the staff was friendly. Breakfast was OK with the usual assortment of cerial, fruit, bagels, etc…, but nothing hot other than the cook your own waffle station.

Overall I give it 3.5 stars.

@YoBob Was the breakfast that horrible danish wrapped in plastic? Or, did they at least have some open serve donuts and muffins? Bagels you can toast and that sort of thing? I assume they had cereal and some whole fruit.

Tell you what you do: Fly a 14-hour coach flight nonstop to New Delhi, India. Spend a short night with little sleep (because of the time change) at the Delhi Airport Radisson (which is a very fine hotel, and also very expensive). Then the next day fly to Varanasi and take a three-and-a-half hour car trip over awful roads to Allahabad to stay at the “Hotel Grand Continental” which is a decent, clean and respectable enough hotel. (It only looks like a prison from the outside.)

You’ll never look at a domestic Days Inn or Super 8 in the same way again. They are fine hotels, can be pretty much counted on to have power that runs continuously, air conditioning and heater in working order, and hot water on demand (and drinkable, too!). I’ll bet they even have a bar nearby that has gin and tonic. (I will never drink another gin-and-soda in my life; I promise.) The mattress might even be reasonably soft (though you’d be surprised how soundly you can sleep on a hard mattress, if only you’re tired enough).

I’m sure La Quinta is a fine hotel. I don’t even have to see one or walk in the door to have that opinion.

@CWOTUS Oh, not to worry I have stayed at the bottom of the barrel before, and have stayed in countries where the generators pop on every day, because the electricity goes out every day.

I can stay La Quinta or Residence Inn. The Residence in will be $25 more, have a kitchen, which I won’t use much on this trip, and is an older hotel. I will get points I can use, since I stay Marriott typically. The stay is 4 nights, so $100 more is a lot sort of, kind of. Also the Residence in is like a studio apartment, the La Quinta is a two room suite. Toss up. My husband likes to save the money, and I do like having a separate room for sitting.

@JLeslie – It wasn’t totally horrible. They had fresh bagels, and english muffins as well as an assortment of cold cereal and whole fruit.