Choice Rewards program is one of the worst-if not the worst. Their representatives indicated an email had been sent to us (NEVER RECEIVED) that stipulated we needed to stay at their hotel to retain our points.
We lost our 23,000 point-and have been trying to regain the points. After numerous phone interactions with their staff-who seemed to care little about customer service and who seemed to care less about customer loyalty..
gave up. Won't ever stay at that hotel again.

You mean you lost your points because you didn't have a stay within a specified period of time? If so, sorry, but that's not exclusive to Choice.

Mike

Yes, we get this all the time, especially from members with very low post counts, etc.

This is from the Choice Privileges Rules and Regulations:

Earning Points

12. Choice Privileges points expire on December 31, two years after the year in which they were deposited into your account unless forfeited or canceled earlier due to membership inactivity or otherwise in accordance to these rules and regulations

Other Terms and Conditions

11. You are responsible for understanding the Program rules, tracking your points and maintaining the security of your account.

13. If you do not earn points during 3 consecutive months, Choice may remove you from the Program's active mailing list.

14. If you have no activity for a period of 18 consecutive months, Choice may remove you from the Program and therefore terminate your account. If Choice removes you from the Program, you will forfeit your points.

It's a hard lesson, but one which most of us have gone through. You gotta pay 'tention, 'cuz if'n you don't, you lose.

Posts like these sure remind you that there is "one of them" in every batch.

Yet if you lost points because of inactivity, it would seem that you have little loyalty to offer to choice.

I absolutely love Choice Rewards. I use it for business and pleasure trips, and I won't book elsewhere unless it's a really small town that doesn't have a Choice property.

"and who seemed to care less about customer loyalty" ... what loyalty is there if you haven't stayed there in 18 months?

I agree, Kevin. As a business owner, it's MY DIME. Choice Rewards is excellent, especially when they run a "STAY 2, GET A NIGHT FREE". How can you beat that?

I recently treated myself and stayed at an "Ascend Collection Hotel" the Inn of Chicago just off Michigan (like 1/2 a block). Great hotel. Boutique style. And $79 a Night? Such a deal.

I've had very few bad nights at Choice. And I have had many perks for being a Rewards member. Even if I worked for a company these days, I'd do Choice. You have to have some Fiduciary responsibility whether it's your money or not, IMO. But that's a business owner talking. Choice fits the bill for me when I'm traveling ON BUSINESS.

And in plenty of smaller communities I will take the Choice property over the unknown local every time. It is true I may be missing out on some great independents, but even when checking in at 1:00AM with just a little bit of Flyertalk or Tripadvisor research I can usually get a perfectly fine bed for the night. Except for the lack of a Diamond F&B benefit, I really like the Cambria brand as compared to its competitors. I do hope Choice carefully manitains the brand standards of that flag.

+ 1. I use the Choice cc for business charges that don't take Amex. Then use them for 8,000 pint stays in Europe when possible. The poster could have transferred soon to be expiring points into an airline program. That's what I did.

I had forgotten about Cambria. Good brand. Thanks so much for reminding me. I'll orchestrate a stay soon.

I agree-Choice Hotels is the lower tier for rewards and accommodations!!

Thanks for helping us, but could you explain after which experience you can say that ?

Yeah, me too.

Choice does not have the top level accomodations that some of the other chains have, but they don't cost anywhere near as much, either.

If you think their reward program is bad, take a look at what's happened to Hilton.

I've gone through well over a half-million Choice points since I joined the program about five years ago, and as long as I could pick my targets we have enjoyed some really superb accomodations in Europe. No complaints from me or my family (who I was able to take with me, thanks to Choice).

Rants like this are actually pretty meaningless. For those who follow this forum, you may remember my rant last summer about Choice and their shennanigans in Rome. But I had specific complaints rather than "they suck".

Plus, I got over it, and we wound up with 12 nights in Paris for under 100K points - that's 100K total, not per night.

So, c'mon back when you've got some definite data.

Oh, and check the caps lock on your keyboard, too.