Originally Posted by
itsme
In that current thread with the "survey" of opinions about the value of hotel points, attention has focused on other chains (e.g., SPG, Marriott, HH, Hyatt, PC, etc.), not Choice. One person did suggest 0.5 - 1.5 cpp for Choice, a remarkably wide range (high 3x low?!). How do others with experience of Choice, both the earning (how easy to get Choice points?) and "spending" (redemption) of Choice points, value them, that is what value do informed FTers put on the Choice points they have or are going after, and what value do they expect for those points when they redeem them?
(Ingy, I'm not trying to move the discussion of hotel point value from the other thread to here. But I see only that one post there about Choice points, and this thread is exclusively about Choice, so I imagine it attracts those most knowledgeable about Choice point and properties.)
None of those Choice brands is other than a "utilitarian" choice or one of necessity (e.g., smaller town with these the only option, or quick stay and don't care to spend more for a few hours of sleep before moving on). Those upscale options for redemption at Preferred or Summit properties might appeal. Do they make Choice a worthwhile hotel program if one doesn't contemplate redeeming points at their own hotels in the US? What sort of per point value does one see when redeeming with them? (If one didn't redeem the 25-50K per night that the website says they take, what would one spend in $$$ for a night's stay at one of them?)
This thread with its attempt to assess the various Choice properties, which may vary greatly in quality, is a great idea. Thanks, OP, for your efforts.^^^
How easy it is to get Choice points through hotel stays depends a lot of your travel patterns. It's much easier for people who either have 1-night stays "naturally", or are willing to "hotel hop" to turn multi-night stays in to 1-nights (at alternating properties). That's because the main way to earn oodles of Chioice points is through the "stay 2 separate times and earn 8000 points total" or "stay 3 separate times and earn 16000 bonus points" that they've had this year (and the former several previous years too).
The normal earning rate doesn't get you very far very fast, which is why it's so important to know whether you can take advantage of those types of bonuses when they come up (which was for a good part of this year).
The other (very new, and who knows how long it will last) way to get oodles of Choice points is to transfer 25k Amtrak Guest Rewards points into 125k Choice points (that's the annual limit on transfers out of AGR unless you're elite there). In turn, you can transfer from Continental or Midwest airlines or from DIners Club directly into AGR, from AMEX MR into CO and then onto AGR, etc, all at 1:1 (and in some promos even better). So that means all those can transfer 25k into 125k Choice right at this moment.
Meanwhile, on the redemption side, the best values are Europe (and perhaps some other places overseas?), especially because of the constantly-getting-poorer exchange rate of the Dollar vs EUro, GBP, Sw Fr, etc, etc. Nice Clarion Hotels and some other nice ones which would cost $200++ over there can be had for 16k to 20k points a night very typically. If you earned those 8000 points for 2 $65 stays in the US, and thus 4 stays earned you a $200++ hotel night, that's not a bad rate of return, is it? What other hotel chain can give you free night for 4 cheapo nights with
so many locaitons? (In theory, the Hyatt FFN might seem better, but Hyatt has extermely limited locations outside of
some big cities: For example not even a single Hyatt in the San Francisco area last I checked!!! And Hyatt FFN is via a very-limited-time voucher, not through general-purpose points.)
But if your stays have to be multi-night, and/or you don't get out of the US much, then the value of Choice changes considerably. Your earnings are a lot poorer, and your high-value redemption opportunities are much more fleeting.
And thus, like I said, it totally depends on your travel patterns.
For those who don't get out of the US much, but do have many one-night stays, there's one other thing to consider: The 5000 points to 2.0 credits conversion to Southwest is at least twice as good as at any other hotel chain. It means that, during those stay 2 earn 8000 promo periods, you can earn a free Southwet flight after just 10 one-night stays. That compares pretty favorably to the average hotel chain where you're lucky to earn even one free night (of much less value at many hotels than one roundtrip ticket) after 10 stays. But agian, it doesn't help much if you can't make all your paid stays one-nighters.