I use and have setup websites for myself and others at
www.webs.com for some time.
Their website builder is reasonably easy to use, they provide a good selection of templates, and although they are not altogether "ad-free", you can the advertisments are not overly intrusive. Mind you, you can pay USD$15 per year to go completely ad-free if you wish, which I have.
I have experimented with several "free" webhostings on the internet and decided on webs.com a while a go, and have been using them ever since.