Great topic. I find location play to be really hard compared to basement even on well maintained games. That's why I love it.
With the $2/3 games pricing it sucks to play the first ball and realize you wasted $2 so I play at places that I know are well maintained but even then sometimes something breaks.
If I'm on vacation or traveling I look for locations that have a league and enough pins to support that, they may not play like home but are fun. People willing to put on a league usually take better care of their games.