Choice US replied to my mail. Very unsatisfactory answer which basically makes me think that points have no value at all since hotels are completely free to block award redemptions.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...897e9ad63e.png

That's really a disappointing reply. Choice is actively selling points, but when it's about redeeming those they simply tell us "we don't care". It's not about "due to event or season", but about 100 days being completely blacked out.

Maybe ChoiceHotels could look into this, but their last replies haven't been too promising as well.

That disappointing reply seems to be poorly written as well as to be an excuse for any and all lack of redemption availability at hotels, a response without any concern to have the issue examined for some kind of error.

This current lack of redemption availability doesn't appear to me as being due to individual hotels blocking for event or season-related reasons. If history repeats itself with this, then it's more likely related to a human or technical error of the sort that has caused this kind of thing to happen in some prior years.

The issue with a group of Nordic Choice hotels being blocked for booking using Choice Privileges points continues.

Nothing changed. The majority of hotels in the nordic countries are still blocking award rates.

Not sure it's a majority, but it's definitely a substantial proportion of the Nordic Choice hotels that aren't available for booking using Choice Privileges points. But the situation today is indeed pretty much the same as it was around 4 weeks ago: lots of Nordic Choice hotels seem to have no award availability using Choice Privileges points.

Fortunately, some of my staple uses of Choice points for Nordic Choice hotel stays still are available for redemption; however a lot of the Nordic Choice hotels which I used to use a lot are still blocked somehow from Choice Privileges redemption bookings.

I have been having a look recently and there is no sign of improvement. As I previously posted some weeks ago, I tried contacting Choice US regarding this with little success. I’m not sure who else to contact, maybe NCC?

As of May, still many properties seem to be blocking award nights in Scandinavia. No one seems to provide a reason why. When I contact individual hotels regarding that, most have no clue about what Choice Privileges even is. I’m starting to believe that this is a permanent blockage...

I'm not sure what is the reason behind this block at so many Nordic Choice properties, but I would expect that it has something to do with loading of seasonal rates/rate-codes, and/or the actual reimbursement rates/costs for award nights at particular Nordic Choice properties, and/or somebody somewhere having messed up in part when dealing with the property codes in some electronic file/database or another.

There have been indications that Nordic Choice's Petter Stordalen has been looking at selling off some assets. The asset in the press is his publishing company -- which he wants to sell to a Swedish company (i.e. Bonnier) -- in a deal that may drag out or be dragged down due to competition concerns. Not sure if this has anything to do with this situation with redeeming Choice US points for Nordic Choice hotels, but businesses looking to raise/retain cash can be motivated to try adjustments. He's even busy getting deeper into relationships with Chinese money at this time.

Nordic Choice lost nearly 2 billion NOK last year before taxes, and their revenue fell by over 5 billion NOK.

2 months have passed, and the blocking issue remains unaddressed or unsolved.

Thanks for regularly pushing this thread, so that maybe (more likely not) someone from Choice Hotels will see it. It's quite annoying to see that they don't care about their european members.

I'm now going to burn my points for the Clarion Sign, Stockholm and move away from Choice afterwards.

Hi there! We completely understand your frustration. Making a reservation shouldn't be that difficult. Please send us a private message with more details about the hotel you are trying to reserve and the arrival date. Also, please send us your full name, member number, address, phone number, and email. Once we received the information, we will follow up with you. -Grettel

As expected, nothing changed one and a half month later. I expect this missing availability to be a permanent change now.

I just had a very disappointing experience at Clarion Collection Hotel Norre Park in Halmstad, Sweden.

I booked a Family Room (apartment) via Choice Hotels for 10.000 points a few weeks ago. It's one of only a handful points within Scandinavia that are still available with Choice Points.

However, when checking in, the hotel demanded a payment of SEK 600 (€ 60 / USD 70). I showed them the booking confirmation from Choice Hotels which clearly states a total cost of 10.000 points with all taxes / fees included. They couldn't explain to me where the charge is supposed to come from. However, even after talking with the "boss", they insisted on the payment to be made. Unfortunately, there haven't been any alternatives, so I am staying at the hotel right now, with be payment supposed to be done at check-out.

Did this happen to someone else yet? Didn't reach anyone from Choice Hotels via phone, so my options are quite limited. My guess it that the payment of € 60 is what the hotel will receive from Choice Hotels US for my "free" night, but the hotel isn't overly cooperative.

Also, the hotel first assigned the wrong room type (double room instead of family room), but this has been solved in the mean time.

It's not the first time I encounter such a weird situation. It normally happened at 'less touristy' hotels (compared to e.g. Stockholm). In my case, the solution has always been explaining the situation to the manager, which in most cases after checking out the Choice Privileges - Nordic Choice agreement, accepted my argument. In the worst case, try contacting Choice directly. They once helped me when this situation arose.

Regarding the availability, it is so bad that the changes seem to have turned permanent. I can see that new hotels added to the NC portfolio are being priced much higher than those added years ago. In general, changes for the worst (at least from the customer perspective) in the Choice - Nordic Choice partnership.