Choice Hotels has refreshed their rewards program with new look and new earning and redeeming power through the Choice Privilege program. Although Choice Hotels have been known to be roadside motels in small town, I find Choice Hotels in Europe, Asia, and beyond to be on par and equally as nice or nicer than most mid-tier Marriott or Hilton properties and a great redemption opportunity as the program has over 1,500 hotels where rooms start at just 6,000 points! That’s nothing compared to Hilton or Marriott unobtainable award nights! The new Choice Privileges offers lots of new award options and even targets business travelers by offering bonus points or gift cards for midweek stays!
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Midweek Stay Bonus
Choice hotels is targeting the cost conscious business traveler with bonuses for midweek stays which include a Sunday – Thursday night. For staying midweek, travelers can opt in for an extra bonus which includes bonus points, gift cards, fuel rewards, amazon credit, or bonus airlines miles. In addition, this bonus can be changed at every check in, not requiring you to always receive the same bonus.
Points Don’t Expire
Nothing is worse than when points expire after you’ve worked hard to earn them. Choice has recognized this and has now decided that as long as your keep you accounts active either earn or burn points once every 18 months, then your account will remain open and your points will remain active!
Digital Gift Cards
Choice Privileges is known for their gift card promotions, such as their current stay twice, earn $50 promotion. Although, I’d rather save my points for a free award night, if you opt to cash those points in for gift cards, the gift card will be available on your phone as a digital version instead of a physical snail mail gift card. This allows you to cash in your award quicker and easier!
Discounted Award Stays
Choice Privileges calls this flexrewads, I call this discounted award nights on slow nights. As many hotels, such as hotels in cities business districts tend to have lower occupancy on weekends, some hotels offer discounted award nights on weekend, or vice versa or locations which tend to draw crowds on weekends.
Buy Points for $7.50 per 1000 points
If you don’t have enough award points, but you have part of the balance to pay for the night, check out the Pay with points and cash option. $7.50 is a steal per 1,000 points when many rewards cost between 8,000 and 10,000 points.
The Choice Privileges program is not the world’s best rewards program and the Choice Hotel group isn’t as fancy as most other big hotel brands, but when traveling to small town, remote national parks, or outside of North America, Choice Privileges offers options award redemption and cheaper stay options with a decent new reward program. In addition, Choice participates in e-bates and you can earn 3.5% cash back on every hotel stay!
