Greetings All,
It has been a long time since I have set foot in an Econo Lodge and the memories are poor. Does Choice Hotels have any good properties that one could say very good for what it is? One reviewer said for the Clarion LGA property for a better nights sleep use the floor of the airport terminal it will be cleaner and not smell. Sounds scary. There must be some good properties up to normal brand standards of other value chains. What is their best brand.Any luxury properties one can earn in?
Thanks for the feedback

Choice hotels are very inconsistent. Some properties are perfect and a great deal and others are nightmares, even within the same brands. IMHO, it's important to read reviews before staying in new Choice properties.

Absolutely, but as stated above, they are inconsistent, or more to the point, they have numerous lower level hotels that can tend to ruin the perception of Choice. In this regard I would compare them to Trip Rewards - some very good hotels, especially the Wingates, but a lot of hotels I would never set foot in.

However, one I do like is Comfort Suites in Maimi. It is well designed, clean, the people working there are very friendly (which is hard to find at times in Miami). The manager always greets me when our paths cross.

There have been other hotels, Quality and Comfort, where the stay was okay, but nothing to write home about. Once you get below that level and to the Econo Lodge level, it is probably very rare to find a good hotel.

Also, from what I hear (never actually stayed in one) Choice has several good properties in Europe.

Check out this thread and this thread.

Like this one:

Hirschen
Breisgauer Str. 47
79110 Freiburg im Breisgau
Deutschland

Telefon : +49 (0761) 897 76 90
Fax : +49 (0761) 879 94
[email protected]
http://www.clarion-hotel-freiburg.de

Nice hotel, great food. And Freiburg, not far to France and Switzerland) is a nice (university) town.

I answered this in another thread about a month ago, but here is a quick synopsis.

Comfort Suites: Generally fairly new and fairly consistent. No amenities, but not half-bad.

Comfort Inns: Could be OK, might be scary. More than likely OK for a night or 2.

Quality: Generally pretty crappy, although there are exceptions.

Sleep: Small and boring, but fairly new. Showers are big.

Clarion: Could be fairly nice (PDX) or could be a circa-1950's Marriott that became a Holiday Inn and then a Clarion. If the property is over 10 years old, it's probably a dump. There are some fairly major exceptions.

Cambria: Looks good, but haven't tried it yet.

EconoLodge/Rodeway: I would sooner sleep in my rental car.

I stayed in a new Cambria near the Boise Airport - had a reservation at the Holiday Inn across the street but there was a nerd convention so I bailed.

I was really impressed with the Cambria - i had two big screen LCD TVs, a big comfortable bed, leather sofa, free WiFi and a decent bar off the lobby. My only complaint was the bathroom door didn't close all the way, which didn't matter as I was traveling alone. It was more expensive than hotels around, but much nicer.

The rest of the choice hotels I usually try to avoid, although I just stayed in a nicely remodeled Clarion in Mackinaw City, MI.

there's a Comfort Inn in CA that I am a big fan of.. cheap, clean, hip location, and free gated parking. ^

Which one...it's a big state!

Mixed reviews on Tripadvisor. I'm in the room now.

Older hotel. Beds, floors and bathroom clean. Nothing fancy but on the airport property, free shuttle and 6K points per nite.
suggest ask for the tower rooms.

A great staging spot for a low cost MR airport.

The glasses are cleaned just as poorly at the Atlanta Ritz as at the Atlanta Holiday Inn (see this thread in Newsstand forum). Not likely restricted to that city. So what so great about luxury standards? The mere appearance of being cleaner makes you happy enough???

Anyway, no, if you want to earn at luxury, then Choice is probably not the brand for you, unless you travel a lot in Ireland (several Clarions there are very nice, including one I stayed at in Limerick, Ireland). The reason: There are nice hotels (especially Clarions) elsewhere in Europe, but for now you can't earn there, only redeem.

Similarly, you can redeem at the luxury Preferred and Summit hotels, but you can only earn at Choice Priveleges hotels in US, and just a few other countries.

Or you can transfer Choice points from Amtrak (in turn from a couple airline programs such as Chase or Midwest) or Diners Club (via Midwest and Amtrak for a better exchange or directly for simplicity) and thus redeem without having paid stays, if staying at Choice properties domestically turns you off too much. (See this thread about it starting with miles and this thread about it starting with Diners Club points. FWIW: Most of these threads are phrased in terms of how to transfer to Southwest RR, but they all do it through Choice, and the value of keeping it with Choice can actually be much higher than transferring to Southwest if your goal is luxury properties.)

Choice works best for those of us who want ok (but nothing to write home about) cheap properties when we have to do lots of stays related to work domestically, especially if we have to stay over and over again in the same locations (so once we find a property that's ok for us, we keep returning to it). It can also work as a "backup" program for people whose travels often take them to small towns where there's no Hilton Honors or Starwood or Mariott or Priority Club property. Such towns often only have Choice Priveleges and TripRewards and Best Western to choose from, and at least at Choice you get the best promos of the three.

Finally, EconoLodge and Rodeway Inn are part of Choice corporate and show up on the Choice Hotels website, but do not participate in the Choice Priveleges rewards program! So put those two brands out of your mind both because they're generally the very worst and because you won't earn anything useful there anyway. (Given how cheap some of them can be, if they ever did come into the Choice Priveleges program down the road, their main use might become for never-actually-stay MRs rather than real stays! )

would hate to give it away.. it's in SoCal.

How can you book a luxury hotel on the website using points?
like one of these - http://www.choicehotels.com/ires/en-...eferredHotels?

Comfort Hotels in Japan are quite good (for the price). Well located, clean, comfortable and functional.

In Europe, the quality differs very much between individual properties. Check TripAdvisor reviews.

You can't do it on the website--you have to call!