Choice Privileges - Comfort Suites - thinking about Choice Privileges

Hello,

I stay here at the Fairfield Inn in Stevens Point, WI every week, except occassionally I will keep up on my Priority Club points by staying at the Holiday Inn. I noticed that the Comfort Suites also has good reviews on tripadvisor.

I wanted to get some feedback from current members. I'm approaching Gold at Marriott Rewards, am already Gold at Priority Club, and just have a membership with Choice.

Last night I noticed that the Choice Privileges membership has many partnerships and perks that I didn't know about. So my questions are:

How often do they run promotions like the one ending now? I missed out on the Double Points or Points + Miles?

What are some of the typical promotions they have?

What are some of those resort properties like?

How are blackout dates handled when you want to use rewards?

How do they status match with Marriott? Does it work?

Any other information you could give would be helpful. Thanks.

They seem to run promos almost every quarter. They can be double points/points plus miles, stay X, receive Y bonus points, etc.

For status match, you'll want to check out this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/choice-privileges/1159194-status-match-into-choice.html). It details how to obtain a status match. YMMV, but don't expect much, other than extra points as a perk.

If you want see the spring promo type in choicehotels.com/springpromotion

Best promo last year was : 2 stays = 8000 points and 4x the points.

CP is interesting especially if you want to redeem points in Europe. For 8000 points you can have free nights in very decent properties in Norway, Sweden, England and sometimes France and Italy.

It's difficult to imagine that Choice Privileges, at any level, would be better than Marriott Gold. Maybe you should even consider a Platinum Challenge?

Also, if you're staying "every week" in hotels, you should (relatively) easily be able to achieve Priority Club Platinum at the same time via points bonuses.

Maybe the Choice experts can suggest scenarios where it would be useful... maybe particular redemption opportunities or historical promos?

(Subtext: Is your real question about maximizing benefits, regardless of brands? Or about Choice?)

The two big perks I see with Choice are the relatively lower point redemption options, especially in Europe and if you want to stay somewhere in the offseason (during the peak season of a hotel it usually matches the other two). I redeem often in Rehoboth Beach and Lewes, De. I can choose between fairly highly rated Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, and a very highly rated local Ascend Collection in Lewes that is strictly no kids allowed (Hotel Blue). There's a single Holiday Inn Express on the highway near Rehoboth, and no Marriotts at all.

Booking for a wedding in downtown Buffalo next month, the highly rated Choice Suites is a similar redemption rate to the dumpy Holiday Inn over a mile outside of downtown. The nearest Marriott is over 5 miles away.

Regarding reward availability/blackout dates, there are none as long as a standard room is available. The definition of standard room varies hotel to hotel, but many include 'upgraded' rooms as well as your basic 1 king or 2 doubles. The big perk of elite status is how far in advance you can book - it is 30/50/75/100 days in advance for regular/Gold/Platinum/Diamond respectively. Regular and Gold get 60 day booking windows outside the US and Canada.

My advice is to keep track of what promotions are being run by each of the programs, and stay where you can maximize your points. Double points might not mean much if you are staying for one night at $79, but Choice's new promo of earning 8,000 points for two stays would strongly appeal to someone in that stay pattern.

How often do they run promotions like the one ending now? I missed out on the Double Points or Points + Miles?

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How do they status match with Marriott? Does it work?

They seem to run promos almost every quarter. They can be double points/points plus miles, stay X, receive Y bonus points, etc.

For status match, you'll want to check out this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/choice-privileges/1159194-status-match-into-choice.html). It details how to obtain a status match. YMMV, but don't expect much, other than extra points as a perk.What are some of those resort properties like?Resort properties? AFAIK, Choice does not have any "resort" properties labelled as such. There are, however, properties that are in quite desirable locations, but I'm afraid you won't find the meals, games, entertainment, etc. that you would expect at one of the "resorts" from the other chains.Best promo last year was : 2 stays = 8000 points and 4x the points.Best promo ever (for me) was the stay 3/get 16,000 points (2008?). I was in a position to hotel hop quite conveniently and racked up nearly a quarter million points.The two big perks I see with Choice are the relatively lower point redemption options, especially in Europe and if you want to stay somewhere in the offseason (during the peak season of a hotel it usually matches the other two). CP is interesting especially if you want to redeem points in Europe. For 8000 points you can have free nights in very decent properties in Norway, Sweden, England and sometimes France and Italy.That's true --- if you hit them at the right time. Quite often, the redemption rate is in the 16,000 to 25,000 point/night range, and some even up to 40,000 point/night (forget about the 75,000 point nights).

But having said that, many hotels in Europe outside the obviously popular destinations are usually at or below 12,000 points/night most of the year.

I should also mention the deals thay have with the Preferred Hotel 'chain'. The redemption rates are a bit high, but it's the only way to get access (with points) for most of these properties.

For a long time, Choice has been running a sale (usually starting around November/December) whereby you can book (some) of the Preferred properties for a ridiculously low point amount. I took advantage of that a couple of times in years past and it worked out very well. However, they have not run that promo since (I think) 2009, so we're all kind of wondering if they'll ever do it again.

I understand you're new here, but all the issues you've mentioned are covered somewhere in this forum and, fortunately, it's not all that "deep" of a forum. Time spent researching can be very informative (and quite rewarding, too!)

I have stayed at both hotels in Stevens Point (where, interestingly, no Verizon cell phone service exists despite the 30,000 population and interstate running thru it).

This Fairfield is my favorite FF, newly new and great service, as gold elite you will get a granola bar at check in for your elite status, but has the standard cold Fairfield breakfast. The Comfort Suites is in a more interesting location, has hot items for breakfast, and you could get an upgrade here. I would think that you should mix it up to stay sane.

CP is interesting especially if you want to redeem points in Europe. For 8000 points you can have free nights in very decent properties in Norway, Sweden, England and sometimes France and Italy.

--- if you hit them at the right time. Quite often, the redemption rate is in the 16,000 to 25,000 point/night range, and some even up to 40,000 point/night (forget about the 75,000 point nights).For those of you who haven't noticed, it seems Choice is doing it again! Check out my latest thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/choice-privileges/1323710-games-afoot-watson.html) and check out your account (and your flight options).

I have stayed at both hotels in Stevens Point (where, interestingly, no Verizon cell phone service exists despite the 30,000 population and interstate running thru it).

Briefly off topic: I discovered that Verizon owns no spectrum or infrastructure in much of Central Wisconsin, its owned by a regional carrier and Verizon roams off their network. You should have voice and data service through that roaming agreement though, so you might need a PRL update *228. Don't expect much for data; it is 3G, but I suspect they are still using something like T1s for backhaul.

Back on topic, I've spent a little time at a client site there and I flip between the two depending on promotions, either one is fine for a bed and a shower.

Cheers.