Choice Privileges - Reservations outisde N. America earn no points?

I have held a reservation at Comfort Inn Tokyo Kanda for next Spring and so thought I'd join the Choice Privileges program which I haven't to date as I really don't stay at brand hotels at all.

However when I signed up and added my account number to the reservation it came up as earning zero points for overseas bookings. Has it always been that way? Gotta say it may make me reconsider the reservation though the hotel is good and and in a good, central location and the rate quite low.

I have held a reservation at Comfort Inn Tokyo Kanda for next Spring and so thought I'd join the Choice Privileges program which I haven't to date as I really don't stay at brand hotels at all.

However when I signed up and added my account number to the reservation it came up as earning zero points for overseas bookings. Has it always been that way? Gotta say it may make me reconsider the reservation though the hotel is good and and in a good, central location and the rate quite low.
You can earn many places overseas, but far from everywhere.

You can redeem points in more regions than you can earn (everywhere?).

So choose carefully where you stay paid says, stay mostly when there are "rich" promos (like the just ended stay 2 times and earn 8000 points), and then stay on points in Japan (where it often costs only 8000 points a night, and thus what you earned on two cheap North American one-night stays!).

Here are the details from the Choice (North America) website:

Earn points at over 5,500 locations in the U.S. (including Hawaii), Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and Australasia.*

* Excluding Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden and including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

http://www.choicehotels.com/en/choice-privileges

As you can see, you can earn in much of Europe, in the Middle East, in Central America, and in Australia. But you can't earn in Norway or South America. So earn where you can earn, then redeem where you can't earn (especially when you find great redemption rates like 8000 points/night).

But, yes, I'm confused about where Japan falls. Because Asia is not mentioned on either Earn or Redeem, except for the term Australasia, and I can certainly redeem in Tokyo but as you said even the Best Available rate for a Tokyo hotel says:

Rate Program:

Best Available Rate - This rate is not eligible for Choice Privileges® points.

and yet I can go to the very same hotel and redeem 8000 points for the same night! :confused:

And remember there is the Nordic Choice Club (separate program), about which sdsearch and BigLar know much more than I do. Hopefully this pulls up the English version:

https://www.nordicchoicehotels.com/Nordic-Choice-Club/

Thanks and I guess my choice of thread title is misleading as not all overseas properties are excluded from earning points, just some destinations which sadly includes Japan. I should've done a bit of checking before enrolling but was just going on what other hotel loyalty programs and so was a little surprised to find the country point earning exemptions with Choice Privileges.

Not to excuse, but I'd suggest that "loose-knit" describes ChoiceHotels. They're pretty new at trying to compete in the loyalty biz, and I think I've watched ChoicePrivileges get better at the game in the short time I've been paying attention. Actually, there can be pluses as well as minuses for customers who know the game(s).

To bump this older thread to a slightly different topic:

Does anyone know if stays in Japan still qualify as "nights" toward elite status even though no points are earned?

To bump this older thread to a slightly different topic:

Does anyone know if stays in Japan still qualify as "nights" toward elite status even though no points are earned?
Actually, it's a more general question than that: Do redemption nights everywhere count toward status, or are there exceptions?

In general, redemption nights do (now) count toward status even though no points are earned. But the question is whether that is the case even in Scandinavia and Japan and other places where you can't earn on paid stays. I don't think I've had a (reward) stay in one of those places since Choice started (generally) counting reward nights toward status. (It would simple enough, for someone who does have an award stay in one of those places, to look at their elite nights counter before and after the stay and see if it incremented.)

Actually, it's a more general question than that: Do redemption nights everywhere count toward status, or are there exceptions?

In general, redemption nights do (now) count toward status even though no points are earned. But the question is whether that is the case even in Scandinavia and Japan and other places where you can't earn on paid stays. I don't think I've had a (reward) stay in one of those places since Choice started (generally) counting reward nights toward status. (It would simple enough, for someone who does have an award stay in one of those places, to look at their elite nights counter before and after the stay and see if it incremented.)

My (US) Choice program point redemptions for award hotel nights in Sweden/Norway/Denmark Nordic Choice Hotel properties qualify toward elite status nights. I have made Platinum status on just such redemption night alone and done so repeatedly. I had a few more award nights at properties in Sweden and Norway this month and they posted as qualifying toward elite status.

When we stayed in Paris a year or so ago, I think I got credit for not only the nights I was personally there, but for the rooms of the folks with me, since I had paid for them with my points.

I can't swear to that, but that's how I remember it.

When we stayed in Paris a year or so ago, I think I got credit for not only the nights I was personally there, but for the rooms of the folks with me, since I had paid for them with my points.

I can't swear to that, but that's how I remember it.

I received night credit for all of the award rooms booked under my account last year in Ireland. My parents also received credits for multiple award nights on the same day. In fact, my Dad earned Gold status because of those additional night credits.

When we stayed in Paris a year or so ago, I think I got credit for not only the nights I was personally there, but for the rooms of the folks with me, since I had paid for them with my points.

I can't swear to that, but that's how I remember it.

I received night credit for all of the award rooms booked under my account last year in Ireland. My parents also received credits for multiple award nights on the same day. In fact, my Dad earned Gold status because of those additional night credits.

Ireland and Paris are places where you can earn points on paid stays. So no doubt the nights would count towards status.

The (new) question was whether nights worldwide count toward status (in particular, in all those nooks . We have an answer from GUWonder which confirms that reward nights at Choice Scandinavia properties (where you can't earn on paid stays) do count toward status, so it's hopeful for Japan even though no specific answer for Japan yet. (And the person who brought up this question was asking about Japan.)

Stayed in Tokyo last month on points. Elite nights were earned.

Stayed in Tokyo last month on points. Elite nights were earned.

Indeed the Japan redemption nights qualify too toward the elite status counter. I don't know how/whether regular paid stays in Scandinavia and Japan count too toward the elite status counter, but I wouldn't necessarily assume it to be the same as for redemption nights.

The OP is about a regular paid rate, which is a reason to consider the possibility of a difference in outcomes.

The OP is about a regular paid rate, which is a reason to consider the possibility of a difference in outcomes.
I would assume you get absolutely nothing for a paid rate.

Reason:

I assume the reason you don't earn points is because there's not a two-way communication between the Choice in those countries and the Choice Privileges. It only takes a one-way communication to redeem points (and Choice Privileges could give you status nights based on your redemption without iknowing whether you actually stayed, just based on knowing you redeemed and didn't cancel), but it takes a two-way communication to accumulate points or to accumulate status nights on a paid stay (since the fact that the paid stay was completed, and what the rate was, etc, has to all be communicated back to Choice Privileges). Since it's not being communicated for the purpose of earning points, I don't see why it would be communicated for the purpose of earning status nights.

At any rate, it seems to me the OP has to be the guinea pig. I bet there's hardly any other FTers here who pay attention to Choice status who despite that pay (rather than only redeeming) in Japan at Choice properties.

I just don't see the point of paying (rather than only redeeming) in Japan at a Choice brand (such as Comfort), as a Choice Privileges member. There's zillions of hotels in Tokyo at which you can pay and not earn Choice Privileges points; why out of those zillion choose one of the very few that actually have a Choice brand (like Comfort), if you're not expecting to earn Choice Privileges points??? :confused:

Ireland and Paris are places where you can earn points on paid stays. So no doubt the nights would count towards status.
The question I was actually answering (and I don't see where it was asked, but, oh well ... forgive the mumblings of an old man) was whether status nights would be earned for award nights spent not only by the account holder, but also for the nights spent by others, as long as the points came out of the same account.

Apparently, they do.

In theory, then, one could drain his/her account with 40 award nights (not all that impossible, given the 8K redemption rates in some places currently) all in a couple of days and garner Diamond status in the process.

Not that anyone here would consider such an outlandish act. Or fly to nowhere and back on a plane just to get miles/status. What sane person in their right mind ... ? :)

I would assume you get absolutely nothing for a paid rate.

Reason:

I assume the reason you don't earn points is because there's not a two-way communication between the Choice in those countries and the Choice Privileges. It only takes a one-way communication to redeem points (and Choice Privileges could give you status nights based on your redemption without iknowing whether you actually stayed, just based on knowing you redeemed and didn't cancel), but it takes a two-way communication to accumulate points or to accumulate status nights on a paid stay (since the fact that the paid stay was completed, and what the rate was, etc, has to all be communicated back to Choice Privileges). Since it's not being communicated for the purpose of earning points, I don't see why it would be communicated for the purpose of earning status nights.

At any rate, it seems to me the OP has to be the guinea pig. I bet there's hardly any other FTers here who pay attention to Choice status who despite that pay (rather than only redeeming) in Japan at Choice properties.


I am pretty sure it tends to work the same way for Japan or Nordic Choice properties. I could be the guinea pig again, yet this time for regular paid stays too, if only because: (a) I manage to get some elite status benefits even if the stay won't credit for even elite status counter purposes; and (b) in some places the Choice hotel is the best place in town for my visit's purpose and I would be staying there anyway.


The question I was actually answering (and I don't see where it was asked, but, oh well ... forgive the mumblings of an old man) was whether status nights would be earned for award nights spent not only by the account holder, but also for the nights spent by others, as long as the points came out of the same account.

Apparently, they do.

In theory, then, one could drain his/her account with 40 award nights (not all that impossible, given the 8K redemption rates in some places currently) all in a couple of days and garner Diamond status in the process.

Not that anyone here would consider such an outlandish act. Or fly to nowhere and back on a plane just to get miles/status. What sane person in their right mind ... ? :)

Outlandish for many but not for me. :D

I did something like this because the cost to get the higher status this way was less than the value of the benefit I would get from the higher status.