italdesign

Are all hotels at the 8,000 points rate redeemable for this deal? When I go to http://www.choicehotels.com/ires/en-...RedemptionList , these are supposed to be the redeemable hotels (found link via Loyalty Traveler). However, when I search for Paris for example, additional hotels show up at the 8,000 level. For example, the Comfort Hotel Royal Aboukir Paris 2. Can we redeem these ones as well or only the ones on the previous list?

lougord99

This promotion, and whether you can redeem at any specific hotel are completely separate and unrelated transactions. While the promotion trumpets a free night in their advertising - it is nothing of the sort.

During this promotion, you will get a minimum of 8,000 points for every 2 stays. You are then free to do anything you want with those 8,000 points. If there is a hotel that offers a free night for 8,000 points - you have received a free night. If that hotel requires more than 8,000 points, you will need to supplement to get a free night. Hotel redemption rates can change at any time, and this has nothing to do with the promotion.

sdsearch

That list is bogus. It says right at the top of each list, the point values needed may actually be different! It's a historical snapshot of some sort. Even without "sales", the points needed for most Choice hotels change several times a year (as spelled out in a chart on each hotel's main web page). But this chart has no sense of that, making it useless even if there weren't a sale going on in Europe.

Ok, so it may not be completely useless, it may be a guide toward some hotels that need fewer points maybe, if you don't have a specific town in mind yet. But it should only be used at best as a rough starting point, when you don't know where exactly you want to go. It may allow you to separate out the 8000-12000 point hotels from the 40000-50000 point hotels, but I'm not sure how much of a finer separation tool it can be.

Sweet Willie

just got off phone w/Choice, their system requires 20 days to register that I want to change my earnings preference from miles to choicepoints. Wow, 20 days !!???

so I guess I'm all set for next year's promo

BigLar

I've had good luck with having the front desk guy change it on the spot.

YMMV

lougord99

From the Choice website:

sdsearch

Actually, it either takes 0 minutes or 365 days, depending on how you do it.

In other words, the earning preference change doesn't necessarily apply to existing reservations.

If you want to be sure it applies, change it before you make a reservation, not just before you arrive at the hotel.

So if you change the preference right before making a reservation, that takes about 0 minutes to take effect. (It'll say "this rate is eligible" for whatever you just changed your prefernce to, on your reservation confirmation.)

If you change the preference but have a reservation made a year out, I still don't know if that reservation will be automatically updated. So thus the longest time it might take to have an effect might be the longest out that you can make a reservation!

lougord99

If you want to be sure, you can tell the front desk your preference.

sdsearch

I'm not sure about that. The front desk can't print out any confirmation (that I know of) to prove to you that they changed it correctly, and sometimes front desk people don't enter things into the system correctly. So I view asking the front desk (with confirmation impossible) as less sure than changing it online before you make a reservation, since there will text in that reservation confirming your changed choice ("this rate is eligible for ... points" or "this rate is eligible for ... miles"). In fact, I once caught that I had my earning preference set wrong because I noticed that confirmation language being the opposite of what I wanted for that stay I was making!