Stayed at Clarion Collection Hotel Plaza, Odense, Denmark for three nights recently. No points showed on my account so far. So I called and was told that this hotel didn't earn points. She also told me that there are a few hotels in Europe this way. Is that the right information? If I had known this, I wouldn't stayed there.

From the T&Cs:It definitely isn't clearly identified when booking.

Also see...
www.choicehotels.no
www.choiceclub.net

Did you check your confirmation eMail? Usually under Rate Plan they state if the rate qualifies for points or not. If they say that it does, then I'd push the issue with Choice. Also, I believe during the booking process they make a statement as well. They may use a different format for other countries, but I got caught on this same issue a few years ago in Australia. It wasn't until I went to check on points that I bothered to read the confirmation. Fortunately the property was ok and looked like on par with the other local choices.

Thanks. I see. Is there any reason those hotels not earning points?

Thanks. I booked from the choicehotels website. Since the policy indicated no points and the rep told me the same thing, I just gave up. A lesson learned.

Yes. Choice Hotels Scandinavia is an independent licensee/holder of the Master Franchise Agreement for that region. They do have their own rewards program, Choice Club. http://www.choiceclub.net/html/en-gb16531705.jsp

Also, you can redeem Choice Privileges points in Scandinavia--in fact some of the best values are had in this region!

No points for me! We were at a golf/dinner reunion in Peterborough and one of the organizers reserved 12 rooms at Quality. I saw the room $10 cheaper on-line and called to cancel the first and rebook at the lower price. No dice. There was a cancellation date that I missed by one day. Fast forward to check-in. When I presented my CP membership number, I was told that the group reservation didn't qualify for points.

No, but I'll bet the organizer got something. I've organized events at Hilton hotels and received points for doing so, while attendees get nothing. It might be considered a perk of some jobs.

I was told my recent stay didnt qualify because i booked through a 3rd party website. Even though I paid close to rack rate, they refused to credit me.
Kept telling me to look at programs rules...so I did, they only have one line about reservations and it says members can book through their toll free number, your travel agent, or their website....nothing about 3 party sites are ineligible. Nothing mentioned about 3rd party sites period. What if my booking site is my "travel agent"? Crappy incomplete and vague rules....If I didnt have a ton of points to use from the discover america promotion, i would bust their balls about it. Make them show me in their rules where it says anything of the sort, (because it doesnt)... Instead I just have to gripe here and only book on their website until my points are used. Then some csr, and their supervisor, are going to have a headache!!

Yes, CP is getting to be too much work to be usefull. I've had points denied when a property miss posted the dates of my stay. I've been told I have to negotiate a program benefit with the property. I've been told properties have 30 days to post. They just don't seem to be customer centric and the properties just don't know the program.

I've done over 200 mights in hotels so far this year and Choice has only gotten 38 (10 rewards) of them. I will get 40 to keep Diamond, but if things don't change, I'll probably burn the points on gift cards and bail altogether. Maybe go back to Wyndham?

Out of curiosity; Any thoughts on switching to IHG, Roger?

Honestly, I haven't looked at them. I had my hands full with Starwood, Marriott, HHilton, Choice, and Trip Rewards. I have dropped TR. I'm hoping my travel drops in the upcoming months, so SPG and MR are my top two. IF there's going to be a third, I'm going to look at my travel habits and pick one. Thanks for the suggestion.

Choice remains my last choice and Hilton is not endearing themselves with issues about their promotions.

Well, the question is, why you have Choice in the first place. If it's for small towns iwthout "the biggies", then Choice, TripRewards, and Best Western are the main players there (in terms of points-based chains). Of those, only Choice has good points promos. And TripRewards has threads like "is this the suckiest program ever", and Best Western has points problems all over the place (although their customer service on the phone seems to be pretty good).

And if you're willing to stay with high-priced chains only, that implies your stays are mostly not on your own dime (or you're not price sensistive), so that wasn't presumably why you went to Choice.

If it was for the promos, Priority Club is the only chain that I can think of that can come close to the points earning potential of Choice with as few stays, but there it's not from one official promos but rather by being able to "stack" multiple promos simultaneously on the same stay (tho not as much as a few years ago), with many of those promos only found on FlyerTalk and nowhere else. (But if you're getting promo codes from FlyerTalk, that raises new customer service concerns, as you don't to raise flags with customer service that you register for promos they never told you about! So those who stack promos like this tend to try to avoid calling PC's customer service when at all possible!)

I have been on the road constantly since June, 2006, and it all has been on my "own dime". As I said, I did the TripRewards routine and just not satisfied with their properties or program. Choice is a step up from them, and find most the properties acceptable. But, if I can get into a Marriott property for $10 more than a Choice property, guess what...

And honestly, it's the CP program that puts them last on my list. I find their CSRs are on a "find a way to say no track" and having to fight to get what they say the program offers is not worth the fight. It's a decision everyone makes for themselves and does not apply across the board.

Where is it that you're able to do that, though? I can't find a Marriott property for even just $30 or $40 more than oodles of Choice properties in the areas I stay most often (mostly in California). In Orange County CA, I regularly get Choice hotels at $60ish a night, while all the midscale-and-up families like Marriott Rewards, Hilton HHonors, etc, tend to start at around $100 a night and even that's too rare. The only miscale-and-up family that I can find for $70ish or $80ish is Priority Club (Holiday Inn and Express and Candlewood properties in the Anaheim area).

Thus around that area, I can only afford Choice, Best Western, WyndhamRewards (formerly TripRewards), and Priority Club.