jebr

I think the closest would be the Wyndham "stay twice and get a free night" promo (which, after two stays, will have 15,000 bonus points post. Under Wyndham's program, that's enough for a free night at any of their properties.)

sdsearch

Just to clarify: The WyndhamRewards promo for stay twice and get a free night is capped at one free night (and thus at two stays) during the whole period, which stretches from sometime last month into June. WyndhamRewards points need activity every 18 months to keep from "soft" expiring, and there's no way to keep from "hard" expiring 4 years after they're earned. To me, that's a long period with a promo capped at just 2 stays (since most of my paid stays tend to be 1 night at a time).

Best Western has a choice of either a $10 travel card or 2000 bonus points per stay, through 4/30 (started 2/1). Best Western points don't expire.

synergistic

I'd definitely recommend shifting two stays to Wyndham, but the cap is definitely limiting. Choice not offering their regular promos is why we've started to use Wyndham so frequently - we each max out every promo (45k points each in the last six months, good for three nights each at any property, or 15 nights each at drastically reduced prices) and Choice has gotten exactly zero stays from us. Fortunately our stay pattern this year has worked well with this - we've been booking a lot of $150+ stays for <$75 +3k points.

Anyway, Wyndham is a better supplement to Choice than a replacement, but we've been able to make it work for us this winter. We're hoping Choice runs the numbers and puts their typical promos back on the table in time for us to start getting cheap nights again.

sdsearch

Another benefit to WyndhamRewards: At least some of their properties still have day of arrival cancellation policies. So you could book one of these, and if Choice suddenly announced a promo before the afternoon of the day you have to check in (by which time it would have to announce the promo anyway for you to use a Choice hotel that night and qualify for a bonus), you still have time to cancel the WR stay and book a Choice stay.

The WR promo runs so long (through the end of June) that even if Choice a promo soon, it will likely end before the end of June, so then there'll be yet another time to use WyndhamRewards as a fill-in to Choice Privileges.

ItsAnAdventure

The frugal side of me really hopes they come around with a promotion soon. If I remember right, normally by this time of year, they're already running a stay twice, get 8k point promo, right?

Without the promotions - I really see absolutely no point in sticking with Choice, and honestly wonder why anyone would (unless they happen to have properties that are MUCH cheaper than Wyndham or La Quinta in the same cities.)

Jeff050

Just wanted to repost this again, still no winners announced as of today.

So did anyone actually win in the "Tap the App" promo? According to their posted official rules the winners were supposed to be announced Feb. 23 and posted here -
http://winlists.helloworld.com/242131.pdf

Nothing has been posted as of now.

Donna49

Choice Hotels has a new TV ad running the past few weeks. If you have not seen it yet, here is a summary of the commercial:

After a successful year, the Choice Hotels advertising team brainstorms ideas for a new ad campaign. One man proposes a commercial in which two guests begin to glow after checking into a Comfort Inn, believing that it will encourage viewers to book a room so they too can glow. His co-worker disagrees and points out that nobody actually glows. He instead proposes that they simply say, "Badda book, badda boom" and leave it at that.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wmtg/choice-...-glow-campaign

So, no mention of a points promotion.., or free waffles..not even glow after check-in....All we get is Badda book, badda boom.

sdsearch

Yes, in past years around this time they did start such a promotion.

I'm disturbed by the fact that the spot on their website where they often put promotions (where the Tap the App giveaway was for so long) is now occupied by a plea to vote for Choice in the Freddies. Why would any of us desperately waiting for a Choice stay-based promo want to vote for Choice in the Freddies?

Meanwhile, pretty soon there won't be an "or" in "Wyndham or La Quinta":

Wyndham to buy La Quinta

lwildernorva

I got a Choice promo email today--purchase points with "up to" a 30% bonus. The way the program is going, I'm not sure I want to buy any points through the Daily Getaways promo much less at a possible 30% bonus.

If we're lucky, Choice has simply decided to reduce the number of times per year that they run the "two stays, 8K." If we're not, then I suspect I'll be shifting stays from Choice to several other chains.

lougord99

I don't know. Perhaps the majority of Choice users just don't care. I will not be staying at Choice until they have a promo. To many other chains that have promos now. This gap has forced me to look at other chains which i never did before.

sdsearch

It's not just that. They also reduced (from 1 to 0 so far) the number of times a year they run any other stay-based promotion (such as double or triple points). I'd much rather have even just that than nothing at all, even though I'm spoiled on constant '2 stays = 8k".

But since there's not a peep from them about this, we don't know what's behind it. For example, the outsourcing of Choice points happened in the middle of the last promotion cycle, and there's hasn't been a single stay-based promo started since that outsourcing. Does that have anything to do with it??? Is the lack of a new promo by design, or are they running into technical problems with the outsourcing somehow related to stay promos? (Nobody who might know is talking.)

n dakota

+1

lwildernorva

That's a great point. We know from the rollout of the new website a couple of years ago that Choice's tech ability is poor. Maybe the lack of a promotion is more tied to your theory than mine.

I really hope so. Choice has to decide whether they want to be competitive with their promotions or act as if promotions as we think of them are irrelevant to their business model.

sdsearch

Right now on their website they're touting how they got ranked # 1 . I doubt they'll get ranked # 1 in the future if they (mostly) give up promotions.

lougord99

title of this thread: Feels like forever since we had a promo.

I would say, Seems like forever since I stayed at a Choice hotel.

I cannot believe they are not seeing a decline in rooms booked. Certainly the casual user of hotels doesn't care, but the road warrior is the life blood of all chains and I am certain that people who regularly stay at hotels have seen that there has been no promo.