I'm about to head Houston for a convention next month. The convention center is in downtown Houston and the host has its own lodging site where I can get $155 per night for Crowne Plaza downtown, while on PC's reservation site it's like $230ish per night. Since the convention provides free shuttle bus to their collaborative hotels (only Holiday Inn express (bell st) and Crowne Plaza downtown are on the list, and HI express has sold out), I would like to stick to their list.

My question is if I book hotel from the covention lodging site, will I get points for the stay? And a more general question is, it always seems more expensive from Priority Club's reservation than Expedia or Orbitz. How do you guys get deals out of it?

TIA