Well, it's been a little while since I stayed in a Choice Hotel but I still have the credit card and a bank of points (about 11000 currently). I used to frequently use my point balance to book stays, with 6000 or 8000 points for a Comfort Inn or Quality Inn (or occasionally Sleep Inn) being the best possibie deal but more often for 10000 or 12000 points.


I started looking into a stay along the route between the midwest (Nebraska) and Washington for a roadtrip this summer, plugging in various locations along the way and almost all of the hotels show 20000 or 16000 points per night, even in locations that are not likely to be tourist friendly. It could be because i'm looking in July, but has there been a bump-up in redemption amounts lately? The single 8000 point room I could find was an Econo Lodge in Spokane, WA.

I remember when they used to always do the "stay two nights get a third night free" with 8000 points being the reward... but if it's this difficult to find any hotel for 8000 points, doesn't seem to ring true anymore. Any idea what's changed, or am I just crazy?

- DC

For the "Points + cash" option, where you can use your points when you're short of the total amount, for a 16000 point Rodeway inn stay, I can redeem 8000 points for the stay plus $60.00. Or, pay for the stay for $80. So I lose 8000 points for just a $20 discount this way??

I'm really wondering what's wrong with Choice Hotels... Maybe I'm just stuck in the peak travel season and everything gets bumped up, but I didn't have issues like this in years past... plus 16000 points for a low-end Rodeway Inn room that runs only $80, just doesn't seem like a good points-to-dollars ratio.

Keep in mind that Choice hotels vary their points redemption values roughly every quarter and that in many locations, it is likely that hotels bump their rates upwards during the summer. In my experience with Choice, there are generally times/places to burn, and then other times/places to earn--especially since some variation of the 8K for two stays is regularly occurring and Choice cash rates along the kind of route you have described are usually reasonable.

I've found decent 8K properties in and around Orlando and lucked into a 10K redemption in midtown Manhattan over Memorial Day weekend. There is still an 8K value in Sligo, Ireland, and some of the Rome properties seem to come in at around 10K. On the other hand, a Dublin hotel that I enjoyed at 8K on a couple of trips is no longer in the program, and its replacement is at 25K, and I haven't seen an 8K redemption in London or Paris for quite a while. Nevertheless, I haven't seen any evidence of an organized devaluation on redemptions.

Choice Privileges is not an easy loyalty program, but for those of us who are regulars, that's probably one of its advantages--its mid-range profile combined with the odd redemption values keeps it off the radar of the bloggers who have mostly touted this program for conversions to Southwest points with a couple finally noticing there were great values to be had occasionally at some European properties. As a result, the rate I took advantage of during Memorial Day weekend--whether a mistake or an introductory rate--would have been big news if a similar rate had popped up at SPG or Hyatt but never got any play outside of this forum despite the fact that I got at least $600 in hotel value ($200 per night is as cheap as I've seen this hotel, even on weekends) for $140 in purchased points through the Daily Getaways promotion.

In my experience with lots of different hotel programs, all hotel programs (not just Choice) have some hotels that are good redemption values most of the time and then other hotels that are not so good redemption values ever, and then still other hotels which are a good redemption value at some times and not at other times.

You can't compare your Choice redemption experience in one season in one location with another season or another location. To give one example: Try searching in Tucson, Arizona in July, and you'll find plenty of 8k and 10k hotels (but then really cheap on $$ too!).

So perhaps in other summers you went to places where demand for Choice hotels on points (which can be different than demand on Choice hotels on paid rates) was different than where you're looking now.

I think it was an intro offer - I'd booked two rooms there for two nights on what was supposed to be a quick visit to NYC. My father ended up in the hospital and we ended up using something like 20 room nights instead of four. This was while the rangers were playing the capitals at the very very nearby MSG - I didn't really track room rates during the period, but figure we paid about $1500 in points for easily $5000 worth of accommodations. Hope you were as satisfied with your stay there as we were!

I agree that it was probably an introductory rate, especially as this will not remain the only Cambria property in Manhattan for very long. A second location opening this fall probably prompted this property to try to goose some business by lowering the award rate. I have a review coming soon, but yes, I very much enjoyed the hotel--and its rooftop bar.

Well, the 10000 points redemption is gone. Now shown as 20000.

With other Choice properties in Manhattan at 30K, then the Cambria is a bargain. At 30K, I'd still consider booking it. At 20K, it's a no-brainer, unless the location is inconvenient for the purposes of a trip. And at 10K, I was willing to make an unplanned trip to Manhattan for Memorial Day weekend.