Majikow

This is exactly what we were planning on doing. I'm hoping I can explain to the front desk what we're doing so they'll just let us keep the same room. Moving luggage would be a pain.

sdsearch

To be safe: Do not let the hotel front desk know that you're together!

You check out Friday morning, without the Miss with you, and have the Miss check in Friday afternoon (not asking for the same room!!!, ie making no mention of you!!!), without you with her, etc, etc.

You don't want to give the hotel any chance to combine your folios, which they are likely to do if you (a) make it clear you're together, or (b) request keeping the same room (which is impossible without (a), right?).

But given that this is just as much of a pain as hotel hopping (you have to completely check out of the first room and then check back in "afresh" to whatever room they give the other person, and keep your bags somewhere else in between the check out in the morning and the check in in the afternoon), that why not just hotel hop? There isn't another Comfort/Quality/Sleep/Clarion near by that you could hop between? Then there'd be absolultely zero chance that the hotel could make it invalid.

No, no, no!!!

Expliaining to them what you're doing is what's likely to not make it work. You have to move luggage to ensure that it will work.

Again, it's only very likely to work if the hotel doesn't realize that you're together! But that's means you've got to work at hiding it, and that includes making one check-out seem totally independent of the next check-in, which therefore requires moving out, storing in the luggage somewhere (like in your car), and then moving back in later.

Just because you got it to work once at a Radission doesn't mean it would work every time at every Radisson. It's possible to find exceptions and mistakes occasionally anywhere. It's not possible to rely on exceptions and mistakes, however, at a hotel you don't have experience with.

The overall policy at most hotels is to merge such reservations once they realize "you're together". The lack of surch merging is dependent on an exception or mistake (if you make it "clear" to the hotel that you're together").

MichaelCharlie

Thanks for the link. To date, I still haven't received any emails about this, and I haven't been back on the website (other than the direct link above) to see what shows up there.

sdsearch

Easy. Upon seeing the same room being asked for by two spouses, many hotels will "merge" the stays into one. Maybe in front you, but maybe later.

Hotel staff don't think about points promotions. They think about what they think is "convenient" to you. And they think that if staying in the same room is convenient, then getting just one bill is convenient!!!

lougord99

They cannot merge the folios if you check out and then check in, which is what I suggested.

Majikow

That's a lot of work. I don't know if it's worth it for 16,000 Choice Hotel points. The thing is, we don't have a car, so the only option is to store the bags there. My main concern is enjoying Boston, and I don't think the fiance is going to be too keen if I turn it into a chore.

I don't see why they would try to merge the folio if I told them that I specifically didn't want them to. I thought the customer was always right?

lwildernorva

You do understand that a "customer-focused" business is generally focused on making the maximum profit for the business.

Absolutely with sdsearch on the correct approach. And if you're ever interested in a European redemption at 8K points per night (look at Dublin, Ireland from now through early January, for instance), you'll appreciate the 16K points you'll earn. If your folios get merged, your four days will turn in to one stay--earning nothing other than the normal points credited for each night, until you complete a second stay when you'll qualify for the 8K bonus.

If you don't want to be bothered to play the game, that's fine, but understand that if you want to be sure you earn all 16K points (again, truly equivalent to 2 nights in some hotels in Europe at certain times--so minimally $200), you'd better play by the rules most strictly interpreted in Choice's, not your favor.

Majikow

It's not that I don't want to be bothered to play the game, it's that I don't want the game to become more hassle than it's worth. I don't want the focus of a 4 day trip to Boston to become "where do we stash our luggage? Oh, and pretend you don't know me."

The thing is, I don't have a car for this trip, and you can be sure I'm not going to lug my bags around with me all day while I'm playing tourist. So what would my option be? I guess I could ask them to store my bags, but what's my excuse for checking out and then coming back to pick them up and then staying again even though I supposedly don't have a room? You don't think they'll consider that to be strange?

It just seems like to me the most plausible and least hassle way to do it is to say, "listen, we booked rooms separately because we need to pay on separate cards 4 times or something of that nature (I do have plenty of gift cards I could unload in reality)". I don't see why there isn't a good chance they'll oblige, especially cause the place we are staying at is brand new, and I doubt they want to get a bad rap.

But I dunno. I've only done this once before, and the guy at the Radisson didn't even blink. As long as you are nice to people, people tend to want to avoid confrontation, especially when they are working at a front desk (and not the accountant).

Maybe I should look for other options (maybe switching to a Marriott for two nights to get their 2 for 1 promo).

BigLar

Give it a shot.

Your situation is a little different from most of us when we're playing the game in that you have no place to put the d..n suitcases!

You know going in it's a bit of a crap shoot (i.e., you might not get the bonus), but I think your approach has at least a chance of working.

Let us know how it all turns out.

And good luck,

lwildernorva

That might make more sense. I'm not advocating ruining a vacation to pick up 16K Choice points. There are times where the hassle is not worth the effort expended. If I'm traveling with somebody, I generally don't "hotel hop" unless my travel companion is fully on board with this type of game. And, on a recent solo trip to Orlando, I gave up on the idea of doing a series of single-day Avis auto rentals that would have earned me 3000 AA miles per day rather than 5000 miles for the entire period I rented. Yes, over four days, I would have come out 7000 miles ahead, but the need to get the car back to the airport each 24 hours simply interfered with my real reasons for being in Orlando.

However, if you're going to try to earn points in some program during a trip, I feel it's better to take an approach that 100% guarantees you success rather than try to follow an approach based on an experience with an entirely different hotel (much less chain) that might or might not be repeatable here.

sdsearch

You haven't got the order right. Here's what you can do:


First night: Person 1 checks in by themselves.

Next morning: Person 1 check out by themselves, ask for bags to be stored for later pick up.

That afternoon: Person 2 checks in by themselves, with no bags with them. (The hotel won't htat unusual, because many people come for the check-in desk without bags and only get the bags from their car or whatever later, after they've already got the key.)

A little while after that: Person 1 picks up the stored bags by themselves. (The people who store the bags don't care what do you with them afterwards, don't even ask why you're storing them. They assuime that you either have a late flight or a late check-in at another hotel or whatever.)

Next morning: Person 2 checks out by themselves, asks for bags to be stored for later pick up.

That afternoon: person 1 checks in by themslves, with no bags with them.

A little while after that: person 2 picks up the stored bags by themselves.

(Repeat for remainder of days.)


... So you see, no car needed. All that's needed is for each paired action (check-in & check-out, bag store & bag pick-up) to be done by the same person, by themselves.


Now, if that's still too much trouble for you, try to get as close a you can to the concept of "don't let the hotel have a chance of merging the folis" as you can. The method above has the greatest chance of success, while just asking the hotel to keep you separate (without ane xplanation) has the worst chance. A slightly better (than worst) chance would be if you come up with a plausible non-points-related reason why the folios need to be kept separate, such as claiming one of you is staying on business for thsoe two nights and getting reimbursed, while the other two nights cannot be reminbured, and so much must be both separate folios and billed to different credit cards. (This is a reason the hotel might understand; wanting to earn more points is a reason the hotel won't understand, and won't like if they do understand. Most people at hotel front desks know nothing about hotel points programs, and don't care to let you maximize them at their expense anyway!)

Majikow

Thanks for the suggestion. It turns out that I was able to get LNFs for the two Copley Sq Marriotts for my fiance and I, so I think we are just going to alternate nights at those two Marriotts to each pick up a free night (we're hoping to use them in Thailand or Vietnam in our trip next year) since the price is about the same per night as it is at the enVision and is in a nicer and more convenient area. I'm thinking we might get more value out of the free Marriott nights, plus, we're planning on doing the Marriott GC for Southwest points to get an even bigger rebate while meeting some spend for the companion pass.

Firewind

Encyclopedic for the guerilla traveler, sdsearch. ^ Too bad that book - The Guerilla Traveler - is already written. (Actually, it's got to be outdated, being ~ 20 years old... @:-))

hobo13

I opened this thread expecting to read about maximizing the Choice promo -- if you have trips planned to certain parts of the world, and live in certain parts of the US, this promo is borderline mattress-runnable! Yet instead, I find a thread debating the finer points of hotel hopping?!?!

So, in that light, I give an experience of mine with Hyatt.

Booked night 1 as revenue in my name.
Booked night 2 as points from my wife's account. (no status)
Booked night 3 as revenue in my name.

It was a resort property, so we wanted to stay put and keep the better room (1 BR, rather than a suite). The property had no issue with us doing this. They were fine with it actually -- as they were pretty empty.

Got home to find a total mess of my HGP account. The stays had sort of been merged into one, and the dates didn't even match! As a Diamond, I was able to call and have them split it back up. I simply told them that I only had stays for nights 1 and 3, which was the truth. (My wife's stays were a different story, LOL.) And they cleaned it up, and put it back like it should.

So yes, if you do this, it can cause problems. Depending on your relationship with the loyalty program, you might convince them to fix it for you, or they might tell you to pound sand. For my perspective, it was just getting the extra stay credit for elite qualification, so it wasn't that critical. If it was a FFN involved (like this), I would have thought a little differently about it.

OK, now can we talk about how to maximize this promo? I might have a trip to Norway coming up, and having read sdsearch's posts in other threads, it seems like Choice *IS* the program to use in that part of the world.

sdsearch

If that trip to Norway would be in 2012, 2013, or 2014, yes, that sounds like a good plan. But remember, Choice points expire 2 to 2.999 years after they're earned (on Dec 30, not 31, apparently!), so this promo would be no good for a trip to Norway planned for 2015 (or planned for earlier but ending up delayed until 2015).

I point that out because my plans change sometimes (for trips a couple years out), and I end up with points that were gathered up in case I end up going to Scandinavia (or places on 8K/night sales!) a particular year but then if I don't go that year (or everything is on 8K/night so I don't use up many points!, or one or more Choice hotels aren't avialable on the nights I'm there) I have to figure out how to burn the points expiring that year, and earn new ones (for any trips the next couple years).