lougord99

If you have been doing this for years, I don't understand why you even use that descriptor. Everyone knows that it is buy 2 and get 8,000 points - which I would still challenge you to equal the value with another chain.

FreeHotBreakfast

https://www.choicehotels.com/deals/free-night

September 12 - November 9

jackal

I'm glad, but...I show no signs of ever being able to knock my balance below 100K points, because just when one promo ends and I think I can start to use my points up, they launch yet another one.

I suppose my next move is to rebook my 3-night stay for a conference in Florida at the end of the month as 3 one-night stays and hop hotels every night...

FWIW, I just completed a road trip, the first half of which was within the last promo period and the last half of which was outside of it. I paid for all my stays (8 nights) within the promo period, earning 32,000 points, and redeemed 58,000 points for all of my stays (7 nights) in the last half. My ADR for the first two weeks (after tax) was $58.91, and my average points redemption was 8,285 points.

So, just based on this snapshot, the math is pretty easy: I can effectively say that 58,000 points is worth $412.37, assigning a point value of 0.711 cents per point, because in the absence of having those points to redeem, I likely would have spent another $412.37ish for the second half of my trip--so having those 58,000 points concretely saved me $412.37ish (obviously, not exactly that amount, but you can see that on average I tend to spend about $55-60 a night for a Choice property). And so based on this trip, I can really say that my total out-of-pocket for 15 nights was $623.49--that's the $471.28 I spent in cold hard cash plus $412.37 worth of points ($883.65), minus the value of the 32,000 points I earned during the first 8 days ($260.16) that subsidized my second 7 days.

That works out to a total average out-of-pocket spend ($623.49) for my 15-day road trip of $41.57 per night. That's darn cheap. No other hotel program out there can even get close. Where else are you going to find a 30% ROI? You're looking at ROI rates in the single-digit percentages for pretty much every other program out there (HHonors, Marriott, Hyatt, etc.). In fact, with those chains, you're actually better off (from a financial rewards perspective) to book and credit those properties through Hotels.com, since there you can get 10% back via their Welcome Rewards program plus another 5% via a couple different cashback portals for a total of 15%. Choice is in its own league of being a rewarding program--and that is why I'm Choice Diamond, despite the relative lack of elite benefits it offers. The fact I can stay so cheaply because it's so easy to earn points means I can travel much more than I otherwise would be able to afford to. (And that's ignoring the fact that Choice's ADR is cheap to begin with--but it makes it an even more lucrative program to participate in!)

Like @lougord99 says, I challenge you to find a better ROI in any hotel program out there. Oh, and yes, I just showed that you can find 8,000-point redemptions--6 of my 7 nights on points were at 8K-per-night properties, and the remaining one was a still-reasonable 10,000 points.

FreeHotBreakfast

You'll have 3-4 months between the fall and spring 8,000-point promotions so spend away.

DCABarry

My rule of thumb in Choice point redemptions is 1 cent each or BETTER.

I have only once in 18 years broken that rule. It was a 16K point stay at a Sat nite Miami hotel during the Winter/Cruise season. Since most Choice Hotels allow one to book a "better" or "bigger" room for whatever the prevailing points rate is at the time, I mitigated a "pay at check-in"/cancelable rate of $122 (inc taxes) stay to a $144 for a bigger&better room - on the non runway side next to the MIA Airport for essentially $00.90 per point.

In a week or so I have an 8-day Paris visit 76,000 pts with a $01.42 Value. If I had booked this hotel in cash on the same day that I booked it with points, it would have cost me a bit over $1,080.00. Today those rooms have higher prices than in late June closer to $1,300, but it's only fair to use the same-day booking price for this analysis.

There's no question that the Choice points can have real value if used properly. (A lot of their properties need work, have 2nd rate staffs and they aren't where I would want to take someone that I was trying to impress. They are no where near the quality of Hilton or Marriott's lower-end offerings. But the price is right in a good number of cases. Wyndham is worse.)

jackal

Well, sure, you can redeem for the fancy suite or the nicer property or whatever, but the real way to value points is to price them against what you would have willingly paid in the absence of those points. And since I would almost never actually pay more to stay in the king suite or at the nicer Comfort Suites instead of the lower-end Econo Lodge, it's only fair to say they're worth what I would have paid, even if they're both the same redemption level.

In other words, in the absence of having those points, I would have spent approximately $471.28 on my second set of 7 nights. Thus, the 58,000 points I spent saved me $471.28. Sure, maybe I used them to redeem rooms totaling $600 or $800 or $10,000, but I wouldn't have actually spent $600 or $800 or $10,000 out of pocket, so that's an artificial valuation. (If you actually are willing to spend $10,000 on a room, then sure, go ahead and value them at that amount.) If the Mainstay Suites I stayed at for 8,000 points decided to publish a rate of $100,000 per night, can I really say that my 8,000 points were worth $100,000? No; that's a fake rate, so it's fake to value them at that amount.

Sure, if the nicer option is available for the same redemption rate, I won't turn it down. And sure, maybe I'll ascribe some small amount of value for the nicer room (maybe I would have actually paid like 10% more for the nicer option in cash), so I might say that points are worth 10% more because they allowed me to be able to afford something I would have paid 10% more for. But to bump up the value a huge amount isn't fair or correct unless you're also willing to actually spend that out of pocket .

In your case, with your Paris stay, assuming you didn't have Choice points available to use, what property would you have actually booked? That's the real question. Now, that said, hotels in Paris aren't cheap, and I've struggled to find ones under 100 Euros a night, so it may very well be that I, too, would consider my Choice points worth $1.42 in that case. But so far, I haven't been presented with the need to spend 8 nights in Paris or another expensive city, so I find myself using them to subsidize my normal travel, which over the last few years has either been domestic or in some more far-flung countries where Choice does not have a presence. I do, however, agree that using Choice points in Europe is probably one of the best sweet spots in the Choice program portfolio.

I agree that Choice's brand standards are not particularly tight. Unlike with some of the other, higher-end chains, one must read reviews before booking a Choice property to ensure it will be acceptable.

However, having grown up in a budget road-tripping family, perhaps my hotel standards are lower than most others' on FT. As long as it's clean (not necessarily spotless), the bed is OK, and it's safe, I'm fine. Whereas I can pretty much book any low-end Hilton or Marriott or IHG property blindly and know I'll be happy, that's not possible with Choice. I've not had good luck relying on the ratings published on Choice's own site, so I usually confirm a property's ratings on a third-party site first before booking through Choice. My preferred site is Hotels.com, since only people who have actually booked and stayed are able to leave a review (vs. TripAdvisor, where anyone can leave one), and the rating scale is simple. In general, I find a property at least acceptable if it's 3.0/5 on Hotels.com, though 3.5/5 or higher is really preferable. I've unfortunately learned from personal experience that if it.s 2.9/5 or lower, there probably is something actually wrong with the place, so I always filter those ones out.

That said, I'd put Choice's higher-middle-end offerings (like a good, newly-renovated Comfort Suites) up against anything from any of the other major brands, and for equal or possibly even better quality, the price is still almost always a decent chunk less (maybe $70-80 outside of expensive urban areas vs. the $90-100+ that just about anything at IHG or Hilton or Marriott will run you). Add in the significantly-more-rewarding rewards program and it's really a no-brainer to choose Choice over other brands.

The one thing you do give up is access to the ridiculously aspirational properties (Park Hyatt Vendome, Park Hyatt Maldives, Conrad Koh Samui, Intercontinental Bora Bora, etc.). There are a few nice Ascend Collection properties, and I rather like the Cambria brand (very nice construction, clean and spacious suite rooms, etc.), but you're not going to find anything on the world-class level accessible with Choice points. But that's OK with me: I would far rather spend less per night and travel more, and I would far rather stretch my points as far as they can go to subsidize my ability to travel even more. I'd far, far rather take 120K points and use them to let me travel 15 extra nights this year and see more of our amazing planet rather than blow them all on one or two nights at a fancy place and then be faced with either spending $800 for those extra 15 nights or have to curtail my travel and not stay those extra 15 nights at all.

Yes, a nice five-star property is a fun experience, and I did my first high-end hotel stay at the Waldorf-Astoria Beijing a couple of years ago--just one night split with a friend (so it wasn't a complete budget-buster). It was cool to see how perfectly smooth the operation was, and of course the room was very nice. I'd be happy to do it again in 5 or 10 years just to relive the fun experience. But honestly, I didn't get a ton of value out of the splurge--the room was very nice and very clean, and the property was pleasant to hang around in, but we spent most of our time out and about exploring the palaces and squares and cuisine of Beijing. And to be completely honest, the budget property we stayed at on Nanluoguxiang the first four nights in Beijing (we capped off our stay with the splurge, ha) were more memorable to me, because it was right in the heart of the historic hutong with tons of amazing food and fantastic ancient architecture and of course super cool and friendly staff at the hotel that walked me through a traditional tea ceremony, recommended fantastic and authentic restaurants, and spent lots of time talking with us about everyday life in China as we described our everyday lives in the US. That to me is a much more authentic experience of Beijing than anything the WA offered. So, deciding between doing an uber-fancy WA or similar on every stay (or even doing a lesser Hilton property on every stay so I can burn some points for that again) or conserving my resources and maximizing how far my dollar (or yuan or points) go is, to me, much more valuable.

All that to just say, for me, anyway, giving up the ability to access aspirational redemptions really isn't giving up much, because I get much more richness and value out of other things than fancy hotel rooms.

GUWonder

sdsearch

Well, that nice, except I don't that rule would work for me:
In my case, I have not only Choice points, but Best Western points, Hilton points, IHG points, Marriott/SPG (now merged) points, Radisson Rewards points, and WyndhamRewards points.

I simply wouldn't go to Paris if I couldn't use any of those points. (I've only been to Paris once so far, and used Best Western points that time.)

I similarly wouldn't fly on anything but a small fraction of the flights I've flown if I couldn't redeem miles for business class flights at least in sleeping longhaul directions (and only if I could get exit rows or premium economy on non-sleeping longhaul flights, as a tallish person). I would have simply chosen a different hobby than traveling the world if I couldn't do it with miles and points (mostly earned on the ground).

So how should I value my Paris points redemption???

nomadic.relief

Anyone know if the current promotion (September- November 2018) is valid for multiple bonuses or just a one time thing? I can't see either clearly stated in the t&c's.

As an aside, could we please leave discussion of valuation to a separate thread? It's much cleaner if this thread just lists promos and rule clarifications.

midgrade

Looks like it's unlimited - per the FAQ page at https://www.choicehotels.com/promo/faqs:


How many times can I receive the free night bonus?
You can earn an unlimited number of bonuses! After you register, you’ll earn points for a future free night after every two separate qualifying stays.

nomadic.relief

Thanks! I was reading literal fine print, hadn't thought to check the FAQ part!

sokolov

The fine print says this:
Are the 400 Extras points deemed "base" or "bonus"?

Example:
First stay is on a Monday, costs USD 100, so it earns 1,000 points plus 400 Extras points.
Second stay is on a Saturday, costs USD 100, so it earns 1,000 points and no Extras.

Will the current promotion add 6,000 points or 5,600? Has anyone here experience with that?

midgrade

The promotion would add 6,000 base points. Elite bonus points and extras bonus points are added on top of that. At least that's how it's been working for me. So in your scenario, you'd earn a total of 8,400 points for your two stays. If you don't already have the Choice Privileges Visa, I'd jump on that new 64,000 point sign up bonus too for some extra free nights.

sokolov

Thank you.

AFAIK, there is no Canadian version of the Choice credit card.

MrTemporal