I think the whole idea of making these perks based on availability pretty much makes the whole program a sham. Because any property could deny any benefit and simply state that it was not available. They could make that their own internal policy to simply deny and say it's not available. There is no recourse for the customer, and no penalty for the franchisee to motivate them to follow guidelines. I know some other Hotel programs actually penalize their franchisees for not honoring Elite benefits. In my case, in Orlando, rooms were available because one was offered to me if I was willing to pay additional fee for checking in early. When I told them that I should get that benefit for free as an Elite member, they said that they did not honor that and still would require a fee to check in early. So in this case, I know for sure that there was availability.

In summary, I think that choice hotels either needs to create a system that forces their franchisees to provide benefits to Elite members or simply stop publishing the benefits. Saying "based on availability" makes sure that the benefits are rarely, if ever, offered. Like I stated earlier, however, I do give Choice Hotels credit for removing the room upgrade benefit. It was an honest removal because that was not a benefit that was being honored on any kind of regular basis.