If it were not that choice hotels has properties in places where other chains do not have any, I would never have given them a try.

Thought my experiences might help other considering this chain, to stay away from it.

I started by status matching to their platinum level, which in reality means nothing really. You only get a few extra points for your stays.

I have done 4 stays with them, and 3 of them had severe issues.

Whenever there is an issue, choice hotels gives their independently run property 72 hours to reply and try to fix the problem or come up with an apology. On my 3 troubled stays, they never have fixed and/or apologised within that timeframe. One property never even replied even when customer service insisted in a cc-ed email.

There have been issues with:
- invoicing, wrong tax rate applied on the invoice PROPERTY DID NOT RESPOND, CUSTOMER SERVICE HANDLING IT, MY ACCOUNTANT IS MAD.
- points not being delivered correctly (only 5/$ instead of 10/$ on a 10/$ property) CORRECTED AFTER WRITING CUSTOMER SERVICE.
- being attributed a room full of mould and dust, unwilling to change the room PROPERTY ENDED UP REFUNDING 1/3 OF THE RATE AFTER CUSTOMER SERVICE GOT INVOLVED
- promise during stay the room will be refunded, dropping the keys (quick checkout with no invoice printing at the property) and afterwards only being attributed a 50% reduction. ONLY APOLOGY FOR WHAT PROPERTY CLAIMS WAS A MISUNDERSTANDING.
- promotion not honored (the $50 for 2 nights, refused because one of the nights was reduced by the 50% reduction so it was not a valid fare any more) INTERNAL INVESTIGATION ONGOING

Every time you have to write to customer services, which in general is cordial and tries to help within their ability.

But my top issue with choice is: If you have a BIRG, and the web site on which you find a BIRG does also have a rate which is not valid for the BIRG, they will screenshot that non valid rate only and deny your BIRG.

Example: Hotels.com had 2 rates, one prepaid non refundable and one pay later refundable. The prepaid rate on hotels.com was $15 cheaper then the prepaid rate on choicehotels.com
I booked on choicehotels.com and filed a BIRG.
Choicehotels was quick in denying the BIRG screenshotting the refundable rate only. They didn't screenshot the whole page, just the section with the refundable rate. I supplied them with my screenshots and PDF printouts requesting them to look at the other sections of the page, they continued to refuse. I provided to customer service the whole story, customer service saw the whole thing, and escalated to the BIRG who maintained the refusal based on their partial screenshot. Customer service sent it for internal review. Nothing will ever happen with it I am sure.
It is fair to say choicehotels.com BIRG is bogus, they can just screenshot a section of a page with a rate that does not comply with their T&C, regardless of a T&C compliant rate being available on that same page, and get away with it. There is no way even customer service can act when they see the wrongdoing, because the teams are separate and there is no filing against a BIRG decision. They can only ask an internal investigation, period.
INTERNAL INVESTIGATION ONGOING

Needless to say, I won't be staying with choice again. Pity, they do have properties in places I sometimes need to travel to. Will have to stay further away, for less of the choice hassle.