Originally Posted by honu
Well, if your Comfort Inn is decent, Choice Hotels do offer a frequent stay program. No elite membership or anything fancy, but free nights can be accrued relatively quickly, and, since a couple of months, redemption can occur at any Choice property worldwide (including Europe, Asia, Australia, etc.). Another drawback is that you can't book an award earlier than 30 days prior to arrival, but, IME, availability is decent within that narrow window.
You're right, choice is OK, not great but they at least did have a OK program.
A couple of years ago I had to spend about 5 months, during the week, at a choice property. At the time their rewards offered gift certs to places like home depot, bed bath, that kind of stuff. We were building a house and bought almost all light fixtures, ceiling fans and new pots and pans for my fancy big kitchen.