n dakota

I have "no showed" and that is what actually is recorded on your CP account stay activity. Zero points earned. Just a nice credit card charge.

hobo13

Checking in != staying in the room

And that seemed to be YOUR point.

hobo13

So it seems that Choice is able to retract the miles from United and post them to Choice as points. Choice has some very impressive customer service. ^^

My opinion of Choice is going up, and my opinion of Wyndham is going down!

Suzyrox

I registered but did not book online. Is this likely to present a problem?

Thanks.

Firewind

Yes, I'm afraid so, in particular if you booked through a third party - outside of ChoiceHotels - or directly with the hotel. You must book either through Choice online or through one of the Choice 800 telephone numbers. Reservations from outside their system never earn anything, and the hotels themselves aren't equipped to create an earning stay.

sdsearch

Did you book through the 1-800-4CHOICE phone number? If so, you're ok.

If not, and assuming you're not in the top two elite levels at Choice, you're out of luck, unless you cancel and rebook either online or through 1-800-4CHOICE.

It's clearly spelled out on the offer page:

http://www.choicehotels.com/earnafreenight

Firewind

Thank you, sdsearch. I stand corrected. I forgot that upper elites can book directly at the hotel. Apologies to Suzyrox.

bdlman

"significant organization rates" are applicable, correct if booked on the website and elect to receive points instead of miles?

also there is no problem "double dipping" by doing this promo and then mailing the rebate form for the $50 gift cards to restaurants in the few markets that promo is being offered is there?

Thanks!

Seems like a good promo for those of us who need hotel stays anyway. Choice is getting me to book there over other chains so it worked for at least one person

lougord99

Yes. I use SOS rates and receive the bonus.

ThunderStorm00

Can someone please advise me how this is a lucrative promotion? For example, if I want my "FREE NIGHT" stay to be culminating in New York City, where could I stay for two nights that would give me the most bang and the best return for my buck?

Personally I find the "Stay One Night, Get One Night" type promotions to be much more attractive and accessible.

lwildernorva

Of course, just like stay two, get one is better than stay three, get one. Choice has run a variant of this promotion over the last few promotional periods, so I'm not expecting that they'll decide to get any more generous any time soon.

Keep in mind that the "take two trips, get one night" promotion does not guarantee a free night at any Choice property. You actually receive 8000 Choice points after two separate stays, not nights, at a Choice hotel (the T&Cs for the current promotion explicitly spell out a previous practice that two stays, even if your normal earnings rate at an expensive Choice property would meet or exceed 8000 points, will result in the earnings of an additional 5000 bonus points). Of course, most hotel chain promotions work the same way--I've earned free nights through Marriott that could only be used at category 1 through 4 properties and nights through SPG that could only be used at resorts. The recent Wyndham 16K promotions didn't guarantee a free night at many properties in New York City although it did for one well-located property for my travel needs.

As with the Wyndham promotion, the best earnings rate occurs when you find the cheapest tolerable Choice properties for your bookings. I've earned my 8000 points for as little as two $50/night stays.

Choice says that about 1/4 of their properties may be redeemed at 8000 points. Point redemptions may require as many as 30K points, including properties in bigger cities like New York or popular tourist destinations. There are some worthwhile properties in the US that require only 8K points (I found one this summer as described here), but keeping in mind that many Choice properties are located on the fringes of many cities, the value of a redemption depends on exactly where you need to be when you travel.

One of the real values of Choice redemptions is based on the amount of foreign travel you do. This rather innocuously-titled thread will give you more details so that you can determine whether earning in Choice's program may be worthwhile for your travel patterns. If you find that you like the Choice program for these types of redemptions, an application for one of the more subtly generous hotel credit card offers out there (no fee ever, 40K points) might be in order.

LornaV

I stayed a couple of different times at Grand Hotel Costa Rica (Ascend Collection), and I'm trying to get the points posted so I can use them in Dublin this weekend.
I've emailed Choice Privileges Customer Service twice and get the cut'n'paste reply that it can take 20 days for the hotel to post the miles. So I emailed the hotel and asked for a kind "hurry up". No response.
Are there any tips on how I can hurry the process?

BigLar

I've got a degree in innocuousness.

I usually try to make it some sort of reference, but nobody picked up on this one (publicly, anyhow).

lwildernorva

I'm a big believer in innocuousness. Willing to help, willing to share, but don't want to spill the beans. Because then, I couldn't reload the BB card.

Actually, I very much like this little section of FT since it appears that folks generally will try to help without being as snarky or vitriolic as some other areas of FT that seem both more and less vanilla at the same time.

Firewind

Without starting a new thread to the effect, I'd just note that we're nearly a week off the end of the last round, and there's usually been a week between rounds in recent times. Choice, over to you...