TRAVELBABE

Hi. I am new to the Choice program and to the restriction on how far in advance a room can be booked with points. Would it be acceptable to book a paid rate for the room I want & switch to a points reservation once the points booking window opens? I couldn't find anything on the website about whether this is an accepted practice.

BigLar

While I haven't heard much of it lately, the practice you describe has long been part of the underground 'lore' of people using Choice Privileges and being stymied by the relatively short awards window.

The theory is, when you book the room, it is no longer available for an award. Any rooms that are available could very well be booked by the time you get to it, because various elite levels have longer windows. Thus, when you cancel the paid res, it is assumed that the room goes back into the pot of available rooms for awards. Then you snatch it right away.

I haven't done it yet, but I remember varied results from others who have. The problem is, the room you reserve might not be one of those that the hotel make available for rewards. Or, the management may not bother with replenishing the awards pot. Choice properties are semi-notorious for playing a little loosely with the rules. They are franchises, after all.

So, it will cost you nothing to try it, since you can usually cancel with no penalty. Check award inventory before and after you cancel, to see if it has an effect. I'm sure many of us here would be interested in how it plays out.

BigLar

I think you might be talking about doing it 'above board'; i.e., through the Choice Service Center.

I don't believe they would assist you with this, but it wouldn't hurt to call them up. You might want to call and outline what you're trying to do (without giving them too much personal information) and see what they say.

For all I know, this might be a semi-normal practice of Choice that none of us knew about, and we've all been scurrying about trying to pull one over on them, when we could have done it straightforwardly all along!

If you do talk to them, please report back to us.

TRAVELBABE

I will probably call into the program w/o giving my number & ask. Back in the days when I didn't have a lot of points, the Starwood reps would always tell me to book a room at a refundable rate to hold it for when I earned enough points. Then, I could just switch with them over to a points booking.

I will report back on my findings. I am somewhat concerned, though, after reading through this thread that the rooms I want to book will be gone once the 60 day (international) window opens up.

BigLar

I've done similar things with both Hilton and Marriott.I don't see any particular reason why the rooms should be gone just because the window opens up (and by the way, the window opens at different times depending on your elite level. For Diamonds, I believe it's 100 days).

Unless you're looking at some pretty special property, I don't know why there should be a 'run' on the rooms because the award window is opening. A new window opens up every day.

enginero

I've had luck with this two times in the last couple of years and both of them were handled by the Choice service center. Coincidentally, they were for the same property in Clearwater, FL. I would recommended calling Choice to ask.

TRAVELBABE

Just wanted to let you know that I called the Reservation line & asked about booking a reservation & then switching it over to a points reservation once the booking window opened. The agent said they may have to cancel the original reservation & rebook with points, but that this was not a problem at all. I asked her if this was "above board," and she again reiterated that it was perfectly acceptable.

BigLar

That's good news ... I think.

What we'd really like to know is that the room you book (assuming it would have been available for points) will definitely be made available to you when you wish to redeem an award. From what I see, the CSR told you that you could book a room, and then cancel it when you book an award if there is availabilty for the award. This is something anyone could have done on their own.

But if it's really the way we'd all hope it could be, you may have opened up a complete new avenue for the rest of us. ^

iggyray

That is what I did once for a friend, when she was traveling to Paris. She's been denied by the hotel, and they showed her the cancellation of the paid booking, however the points booking was in the system, they insisted it's canceled. Even the choicehotels helpdesk wasn't able to help, the hotel basically said "come tomorrow", and that was only a one night stopover.

I got my points back, and she had to go somewhere else and ended up paying a walk in price.

TRAVELBABE

It was my understanding that one would be essentially "holding" the room under a paid rate until the window opened up, at which time the paid rate could be switched to payment with points. I'm going to try it and will report back if it works. If the hotel isn't busy & a points reservation would have been available anyway, then it's not a good test case.

Has anyone ever tried to make a points reservation w/ Choice and been told no rooms were available when there were rooms available for a paid reservation?

soitgoes

Choice award night availability is tied to the room types available for awards at that property. If a room type available for awards at that hotel has paid availability, it will have award availability provided you are within the appropriate booking window. Therefore, if you cancel a paid night for a room that is of a type available for awards and the room goes back into availability (i.e., the hotel is not OVERsold), then it should be available for an award night booking. The issue is that you have no way of knowing on your own if the hotel is oversold.