I couldn't quite figure out what to title this, but I figured that came close. At any rate, many of us who frequent the UK forums will recommend Premier Inns a lot. It's a chain that is based in the UK, is consistently clean and comfortable, and is always very reasonably priced. Consequently, a lot of people tend to stay there. I've stayed at a number of them.
However, I tend to forget that sometimes those chains can be found in other countries. Recently I was looking for hotels in Germany, as my sister and I are planning a trip to visit the Christmas markets in late November and early December. She's on a budget, unlike me, so I'm trying to stick to that, but I got somewhat stalemated when I was in Nuremberg as the hotel that I had stayed at in the past, which was a nice and well-priced hotel, had no rooms available for our stay.
So I jumped on Google Maps and was trying to find other hotels in the area that I might look at, when all of a sudden I spotted a Premier Inn. I opened it up, and it turned out that it was in a great location, near the train station and a quick walk from the city center. The price for one night was reasonable considering it was Christmas market season (€156) so I booked it. But then we decided to add a second night there for a variety of reasons, and when I went in to modify our hotel booking, the second room only cost us €60 a night, making the total cost of 2 rooms €216. A very nice deal!
I was even more excited when I realized there was a Premier Inn in Munich. I checked into it and found that the location was good; about halfway between the train station and Marienplatz, where the Christmas market is (about 10-12 minutes in each direction). Unfortunately, they didn't have a room with twin beds available, but the room was cheap enough that I booked two single rooms with double beds, one for each of us at €76 per room per night.
And then, when I got to Stuttgart, where we were spending two nights, I found an Adina Apartment Hotel, again, right in the city center. I was very excited about this because I stayed at one when I was in Berlin and loved the hotel. It is definitely more expensive than Premier Inns, but it has a full kitchenette and a washer and dryer, so considering that this is our halfway point on this trip, we will be set for laundry. The Adina chain is based in Australia and has a strong presence in Germany, but I still didn't even think about it when I was looking for hotels.
I'm posting this because it never would have occurred to me to look for these, but I like both the hotel chains and I've stayed with them before. I'm also super pleased that I found something that allows me to stick to my sister's budget (I myself have no budget, and never have. I usually just wing it, but it always works out okay).
For what it's worth, I know there are people that prefer to stay in historic boutique hotels and small pensions. Those are great if you can find one that's clean, comfortable, nice, and reasonably priced, but a lot of times you can't. I'm at the age where I definitely look for comfort and consistency more than anything else. I do not like surprises in any aspect of my life, but especially in lodging! So this is working well for me.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has had this happen where you've been looking for a hotel and all of a sudden found a chain that you didn't even realize might be there, but you've stayed at them before and been very happy. If so, let me know! I'm going to start keeping track of these! 😊