In Pullman the Holiday Inn (nice) and Quality Inn (less nice) are the closest to the school. You could walk to school from there if you don't mind about 20-ish minutes uphill...possibly in crap weather...possibly with ice on the hill... Nendels is a little further down the road and it's a notch below the Quality Inn. On the other side of campus there's the Residence Inn which is pretty plush. Hilltop Inn is nice as well. The only places that seemed skeevy were the Cougar Land Motel and American Travel Inn. Not my cup of tea, but I know people who were fine with it. Pullman is quite small, so you will easily get across town in 10 minutes no matter where you stay.
Where are you flying into? If you're going into Spokane I'd recommend renting a car. When I flew out for my interview, landing in Spokane and renting a car was actually cheaper than flying straight into Pullman. Plus then you have the car to get around.
If you really, really want to bus from Spokane to Pullman there's the Wheatland Express.
http://wheatlandexpress.rezgo.com/details/55840/airport-express-southbound-to-pullmanmoscow It's almost $40 though and doesn't make many trips, so you're better off renting a car.
It's a small town so I'm not surprised if the rental car rates are on the high side. They're literally the only game in town. Same deal with Taxis, I had friends spend $40ish to Taxi up from Lewiston. I wasn't there when Uber became a thing, so maybe you can get a deal that way?
If you're flying direct into Moscow/Pullman you can probably make it work without a car. Here's a link to free PUW airport shuttles
http://www.flypuw.com/transportation/taxi-cabs-hotel-courtesy-shuttles/
Also - if you're stuck in a tight spot for an airport ride ask the interview coordinator. Sometimes current students will help with an airport run in town.
One nice thing about having a car is that you can get a feel for town. It's not very big, so you can easily cover the whole thing. Plus you can drive over to Moscow, it's just 8 miles away. In Moscow there's the La Quinta, the Fairfield, Best Western and more. If you want to save some money there's the Idaho Inn. It's like $60. It used to be student housing/dorms that got converted into an Inn. So if you're living in a dorm you'll feel right at home
😉