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Days Inn Days
Jul. 3rd, 2025 07:02 amOregon Cascades Travelog #6
Bend, OR - Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 8am
We're trying something kind of new for us on this trip. We're staying at Days Inn. Actually we're staying at two of them. Monday night we stayed at the Days Inn in Klamath Falls— yes, the one with the tweaker and possible drug dealer loitering in the parking lot at midnight— and last night and for the next few nights we're staying at the Days Inn in Bend.
What's the deal with Days Inn being "kind of new" for us? One thing is that I haven't been collecting points or elite status with its parent company, Wyndham. I have points and status with Marriott, Hilton, and IHG. I also have points with Best Western and Choice hotels— leftovers from scattered visits in the past— but not elite status. But really it's the reason why I don't have points or status with Wyndham that counts. Wyndham has a bunch of lower end hotel brands, and I've found them too hit-or-miss to want to stay at.
The Days Inn brand in particular has had a couple of misses for me. One amusing one is that when I booked a Days Inn about 15 years ago— yes, that's the most recent time before this week I stayed with this brand— the hotel turned out to have a cobbled-together collection of mismatching furniture in every room. I knew that because the manager let me visit several rooms when I arrived and pick the one I liked best. Different beds, different sofas and chairs, different dressers and night stands.... Every room was unique— and not in a good way!
But that experience is merely amusing. The one that's frustrating happened a few years before that, when Hawk and I stayed at a Days Inn near Yellowstone National Park. The room was terrible. It was dark like a cave (the "window" opened into a hallway that had been enclosed), the sheets on the bed were dirty, and the carpet was wet. Like, it went squish-squish-squish as we walked across the floor. ðĪŪ
The problem went beyond just one bad room or a few bad rooms. The hotel also fell way short on service recovery. When I brought these issues to the manager and requested another room, they told me the only rooms with better windows and better carpet were upgrades and I'd have to pay to switch to one of them. I decided immediately that if I was paying to switch I'd pay to switch to a whole better hotel. I walked out. I have spend over 2,000 nights in hotels since then, and that Days Inn is one of only 2 times I've chosen to walk out.
So, how have these two recent Days Inn experiences been? Thankfully they've been way better than either of those previous two! The Klamath Falls hotel was a decent one, for a budget hotel. The exterior was drab but the interiors had been redone recently. And it had a pool and a hot tub... not that I had time to use them.
The Bend hotel also looks dowdy on the outside, like a relic motor lodge from the 1970s. Inside it's also more modern... but still, there's no mistaking it for anything but a budget motel. And the floor here does go squish-squish when I walk on it.... That's not because the carpet's soaked but because the vinyl wood-like flooring (there's no carpet) likely has a cushioning underneath that was cheaply installed.
We've got 4 nights at the Days Inn here in Bend. I'll share more thoughts as this stay progresses. So far it looks like we'll actually stay here all 4 nights! ðĪĢ
Bend, OR - Wed, 2 Jul 2025, 8am
We're trying something kind of new for us on this trip. We're staying at Days Inn. Actually we're staying at two of them. Monday night we stayed at the Days Inn in Klamath Falls— yes, the one with the tweaker and possible drug dealer loitering in the parking lot at midnight— and last night and for the next few nights we're staying at the Days Inn in Bend.
What's the deal with Days Inn being "kind of new" for us? One thing is that I haven't been collecting points or elite status with its parent company, Wyndham. I have points and status with Marriott, Hilton, and IHG. I also have points with Best Western and Choice hotels— leftovers from scattered visits in the past— but not elite status. But really it's the reason why I don't have points or status with Wyndham that counts. Wyndham has a bunch of lower end hotel brands, and I've found them too hit-or-miss to want to stay at.
The Days Inn brand in particular has had a couple of misses for me. One amusing one is that when I booked a Days Inn about 15 years ago— yes, that's the most recent time before this week I stayed with this brand— the hotel turned out to have a cobbled-together collection of mismatching furniture in every room. I knew that because the manager let me visit several rooms when I arrived and pick the one I liked best. Different beds, different sofas and chairs, different dressers and night stands.... Every room was unique— and not in a good way!But that experience is merely amusing. The one that's frustrating happened a few years before that, when Hawk and I stayed at a Days Inn near Yellowstone National Park. The room was terrible. It was dark like a cave (the "window" opened into a hallway that had been enclosed), the sheets on the bed were dirty, and the carpet was wet. Like, it went squish-squish-squish as we walked across the floor. ðĪŪ
The problem went beyond just one bad room or a few bad rooms. The hotel also fell way short on service recovery. When I brought these issues to the manager and requested another room, they told me the only rooms with better windows and better carpet were upgrades and I'd have to pay to switch to one of them. I decided immediately that if I was paying to switch I'd pay to switch to a whole better hotel. I walked out. I have spend over 2,000 nights in hotels since then, and that Days Inn is one of only 2 times I've chosen to walk out.
So, how have these two recent Days Inn experiences been? Thankfully they've been way better than either of those previous two! The Klamath Falls hotel was a decent one, for a budget hotel. The exterior was drab but the interiors had been redone recently. And it had a pool and a hot tub... not that I had time to use them.
The Bend hotel also looks dowdy on the outside, like a relic motor lodge from the 1970s. Inside it's also more modern... but still, there's no mistaking it for anything but a budget motel. And the floor here does go squish-squish when I walk on it.... That's not because the carpet's soaked but because the vinyl wood-like flooring (there's no carpet) likely has a cushioning underneath that was cheaply installed.
We've got 4 nights at the Days Inn here in Bend. I'll share more thoughts as this stay progresses. So far it looks like we'll actually stay here all 4 nights! ðĪĢ
The card is the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire. And it's not technically a card I've opened; it's a card I upgraded to from my present card. Plus, it's a level of card I have experience with. 
Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain in 2024 with 13 nights stayed. The majority, 10 nights, were actually paid. That because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. The latter is one of the aspects of points devaluation. The cash price for a hotel is reasonable, or even a minor bargain, while the points rate for that ordinary hotel is up in the stratosphere like top-end properties just a few years ago.
Marriott slipped to being my #2 hotel chain in 2024 as my 13 nights with Hilton edged out my 12 nights with Marriott. Marriott's count rises to 17, though, if we include nights Hawk paid for with points from her account. Of course, these numbers are way down from the 60, 70, or more nights per year I logged with Marriott in my business travel heyday years ago.
Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, dropped to my #3 hotel chain for 2024. I stayed only 7 nights with them. Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year their prices were just too high much of the time, allowing Hilton and even Marriott to undercut them.
For the past several years Best Western has been down in my "Whatever" category, the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all in 2021-2023. But the chain came back on my radar this year as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW. Plus, they had a summer bonus program going that paid extra points after 3 stays. I hit that bonus with three one-night stays in small towns. Now I have 24k points total... and no plan for where to redeem them. ðĪĢ I guess I'll have to look up BW every time I consider staying in a small town this year.
Southwest continues to be the airline I'm most engaged with. I was a tad less busy with Southwest in 2024 than the year before. I flew 26 segments with them vs. 2023's 31. That made it more of an effort to renew both A-List Preferred and Companion Pass elite status. But I focused on it. 
It's been another good year with United— good, because I used my miles! After sitting on a pile of 
I've had a crazy big balance with AA for years now. And this year I did nothing but build it higher. What's "crazy big"? If you thought my half million with Southwest was wild, try this on for size: I have nearly 900,000 AA points..
Rounding out the list here is Delta Airlines. As little I flew AA in 2023, I flew Delta even less. I flew zero on Delta. And I retain a pile of points with them— though it's a waaaay smaller pile than with AA. It's not a mountain but a molehill. My balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15k.
This card pays a not-generous 5x points/dollar on IHG hotel spend; 2x on restaurant, gas, and grocery spend; and 1x on everything else. At a value of 0.6 cents per point* that's only 3% value on hotels and less than 2% on everything else. I already own 
Reaching A+ requires earning 70,000 Tier Qualifying Points (TQPs) in a year. These come primarily from flying and are revenue based. (I.e., the more a ticket costs, the more points you earn. Points are not distance-based like in other airlines' programs in years past.) There are also bonuses for certain credit card activity. I managed my cards and charges adroitly to earn over 15k TQPs through them. Then there are occasionally flight bonuses, like double/triple TQPs for flights booked and flown within certain date ranges. I rebooked one of my flights from using points to spending cash to hit this year's bonus in the fall.
The new card I opened is the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Premier card. Yes, that's a mouthful. It always is with these cards. ðĪĢ
