Well I live in Auburn and have an office in LaGrange so I'm familiar with both. I never really stay in the hotels around here so I can't speak to good ones but as far as exits:

Exit 51 Auburn University exit. 3 hotels in view off the interstate and a newer Holiday Inn Express north of the interstate about a mile. Some fast food, restaurants, dunkin doughnuts, Wal Mart, and a Winn Dixie all nearby.

Exit 57 Auburn Airport. Hilton Garden Inn off this exit but not much else. I hear it is pretty nice, not saying it's nicer than the other options just nice. Waffle House, Sams Club, Academy Sports, a italian place, and Bob's Victory Grill off this exit.

Exit 58. Tiger town exit. You have all your shopping here. Target, Best Buy, etc. Lots of chain restaurants to eat at and a couple of good Mexican places. Plenty of fast food too, Arby's, McD's, Chic-Fil-A. Starbucks, Waffle House, and Steak and Shake round out your all night options.

Exit 60 Opelika. Avoid.

Exit 64 Opelika. Most of the properties here are older. Fast food, waffle house, and the Cracker Barrel. We had people staying in the Comfort Inn behind the cracker barrel when they came down for our Wedding. No real complaints. The other properties off this exit look diseased.

Exit 13 LaGrange. Avoid unless you are looking to pick up a lot lizard.

Exit 14. The Hampton Inn off this exit is actually very nice. That's where most of the visitors would stay when they were visiting our plant when we actually had a plant in LaGrange. But, other than the Hampton Inn there isn't anything off this exit.

Exit 18 LaGrange. You will probably get the most bang for your buck on this exit as far as hotel quality v. price. Fast Food (Chic-Fil-A, McD, Burger King). The world's smallest mall. A couple of sit down places to eat but nothing special unless you consider cracker barrel special. But there are 8-9 hotels off this exit with quite a few less than 10 years old. Stay away from the Red Roof and Super 8 and you probably won't have any complaints about your hotel.