3.5 star or not.. its not a great area-- and I'm pretty sure I know exactly where you're staying. That hotel is decent, but its surrounded by a lot of shitburg no-tels. I think 3.5 stars is actually quite generous for that hotel and I've told Priceline that in the past...lol.
Basically-- a simple rule of thumb is if two major highways intersect.. its seldom good. In Dallas, we're talking 635/35, 635/75, 635/30... all shitburg for the hobby.