Best Western Rewards - Points needed for hotel in Europe

I don't know if this was covered in a different thread, and I can't find this info on the website either so any help would be appreciated. I am thinking of converting Amex points to a hotel program that has properties in Florence, Italy. Best Western has properties there, but I need to know how many points I need per night at each hotel in order to know how many points to convert and which vouchers to get, and if it is in fact worthwhile. If anyone can tell me where to find this info. (or give it to me!) I would appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!

bestwestern.com has the information on point requirement and redemption, click on search by points when doing a search. Try that first.

Thanks for your response. I had to sign up for Gold Crown Club membership in order to have this option available, which I didn't see before. I didn't really want to sign up unless I knew they had rooms available and how many points were needed. Then I would sign up and transfer Amex points. But, anyway it's free so I didn't really lose anything by signing up - I actually gained cause now I can see how many points are needed for award nights.
Thanks again!

Glad that worked out, I did not realize you had to be signed in to an account, since I am a member. Like you say, no cost to join so now you can plan accordingly.

FWIW, I find that usually BW's in Europe are nicer than here in the states. I just had a stay at a brand new boutique style BW in Stockholm. I would highly recommend that over many other chains.

The Best Western I looked at in Florence, Italy looks really nice - I think I actually saw it in person the last time I was there and was quite impressed. However, they want 36k points per night and I need 4 nights - I don't think it's worth it for me to "spend" that many amex points on one hotel stay. With that many points I can fly business class to Europe for 100k points on any partner airline and still have plenty of points left over. I think if I want to stay there, I'll just end up paying $ and earning points (instead of spending points!)

Sounds like one of the "premier" properties. Nice places usually, but I agree with you and save the points. I think it will probably be wiser to pay for the hotel instead. Those hotels do tend to run in the $200~300 range per night though.

I think that's what the price will be after converting Euros to dollars - still a better deal than "spending" 144,000 membership reward points. Like a said a biz class seat to Europe or even TLV on CO is 100k points and is worth $3500 and up (sometimes as much as $6-$7k depending on time of year). 4 nights in this hotel will cost up to $1200, but not more - not worth spending 144k points on it. And if I'm going to pay cash instead of points I'll be looking at all 4-5 star properties in that neighborhood to get the best deal.
Thanks once again for taking the time to answer my posts.

I needed to have seen this thread on Wednesday when I cranked a brief overview of Best Western on my blog. I couldn't figure out how to see the points needed for specific hotels and the customer service agent told me the info is not available online. I edited my blog post this morning to add that a member must be signed in as a Gold Crown member to see the option of "Search by Points" on the "Find a Hotel" tab on the Best Western homepage.

Once again FlyerTalk is more reliable than the industry representatives when it comes to the little details of travel programs.

BW has made a lot of progress in the last year or so with regards to the website and reservations etc. Glad to see we are able to help. I always continue to use this site as a source of information. Happy travels.

bestwestern.com has the information on point requirement and redemption, click on search by points when doing a search. Try that first.
Exactly how/where do you do that?

I've tried a number of times/ways, and I can't find it, even when I'm logged in online. If I try to do a normal search, I can't find a way to get it to show points required. If I go to the Spend Points area, it just says: "To search by reward points, please log into your Gold Crown Club® International account." even though at the top of the page it says I am logged in! :confused:

Exactly how/where do you do that?

I've tried a number of times/ways, and I can't find it, even when I'm logged in online. If I try to do a normal search, I can't find a way to get it to show points required. If I go to the Spend Points area, it just says: "To search by reward points, please log into your Gold Crown Club® International account." even though at the top of the page it says I am logged in! :confused:



Check-In:


Check-Out:


Search By Points
More Search Options >
Clear Search > FIND HOTEL

Once you are logged in, just about the orange rectangle where you click to FIND HOTEL, you will find a box that says Search By Points.

Hope that helps.

Once you are logged in, just about the orange rectangle where you click to FIND HOTEL, you will find a box that says Search By Points.
Mystery solved!

It's not sufficient to be logged in.

You have to be logged in and have your earning preference set to points.

Because my recent stays were cheap one-night stays where there was no better bonus when earning points than miles (during the last triple miles or triple points promo), I had left my earning preference as miles. With it set that way, no such checkbox.

But after you told me where it was supposed to be and I still didn't see it, I decided on a whim to change my prefernce to earning points, and voila, the checkbox for "search by points" finally appeared!

So, thanks!

And in the process I learned that one of the BWs in Zermatt, Switzerland is 36k points per night, and the other is 28k points per night. Not a good value (especially as the one that costs more in points tends to cost less in money: roughly $150ish a night in the summer season), with how hard BW points are to earn. (Compared to Choice points, where 3 one-night stays in cheap Comfort Inns this month and next earns at least 16k points, and so in 6 such stays I'll earn at least 32k points there, but it'd take a zillion BW stays, given the much poorer promos there, for me to earn enough points for even just one night at 28k or 36k points.)

Mystery solved!

It's not sufficient to be logged in.

You have to be logged in and have your earning preference set to points.



Interesting, never would have thought of that, but then again it makes perfect sense.

Glad to learn something and glad to see some activity on this board.

Glad to learn something and glad to see some activity on this board.

Yes, I realized that the readership on this forum is quite low and I had to wait quite awhile for a response to my original post. It's nice to see more people taking an interest here.

I too was looking at using points in Italy (Rome specifically). I have AMEX points to transfer. I'm considering transfering some AMEX points to BW in order to buy a prepaid Travel Card. In theory, I would then earn points back on my stay in Rome and I can only use the amount of AMEX points that make sense.

Has anyone tried this? What's the downside?

Diners' Club USA points transfer to BW at a much better rate than Amex points do. They both get FF miles 1:1, but 5K DC will get U 13,200 BW points ^ , while 5K Amex gets a measly 5K BW :td: !