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Feels like forever since we had a promo

Feels like forever since we had a promo

Old Jan 11, 2018, 11:39 am
  #1  
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Feels like forever since we had a promo

I only stay at Choice during 2-stay promos or if theyre the only option. However, with this lonnnggg drought in promos, Im almost starting to miss it.

Worried Ill be spoiled by these nicer rooms Ive been in but Ive been racking up stays towards my lifetime Marriott and SPG status. With all three platinums wrapped up, I even tried Wyndham.
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Old Jan 11, 2018, 1:56 pm
  #2  
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It's because stupid Choice thinks that a contest is just as good as a stay-based promo.

However, if you look back, you'd see that there's always been this long a gap between "stay 2 times" promos in the winter.

That's because Choice has never had a "stay 2 times" promo in the winter. In the winter, they either had triple points, or double points, or something like that. It's only the other times of the year that they've had "stay 2 times" promos.

So I'm confused, what did you do in previous winters?
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Old Jan 12, 2018, 6:59 am
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Have done the same other winters. Just seems like a longer drought this time.
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Old Jan 13, 2018, 11:04 am
  #4  
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Originally Posted by Fletch
Have done the same other winters. Just seems like a longer drought this time.
You mean you used the 2x or 3x promotion?

Your posts are confusing because first you said you only stay during "stay 2" promotions, but the winter promotions never required 2 stays, and now I'm sure what you mean by "the same".

The gap between "stay 2" promotions is no longer (yet) this winter than previous winters. The gap between stay-based promotions of any kind is what's much longer than ever before..
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Old Jan 17, 2018, 10:58 am
  #5  
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To be clear: I only Stay at Choice hotels during great promos or when there isnt another option.

No promos? Im at SPGs or Marriotts. Platinum at both.

Made a post that I almost missed Choice. Thats it. Its been a very long time since they had a decent promo.
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Old Feb 27, 2018, 11:15 am
  #6  
 
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Interesting that no promos have been announced as Feb comes to a close.. Looked up last year and there was "2x points" in Jan/Feb, and they offered the usual "stay 2 times earn 8000pts" from 3/02/2017 to 4/27.2017.
I've been a choice points elite member since 2004, and there always seemed to be a points earning promo going on. I wonder if things have changed in terms of how consumer loyalty is viewed these days. There certainly has been a massive change in airline programs over the past 6 years; perhaps this is now true for hotels.
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Old Feb 27, 2018, 4:20 pm
  #7  
 
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I just got an email from Choice today asking me to take one of their questionnaires for the Choice Privilidges Elite Voice. I will let you know that I rang their bell about this exact fact. I also told them I wasn't necessarily thrilled about the targeted promotion where I had to stay a certain number of nights from Dec 11th to Feb 9th to get a lump sum bonus. I just spent my first night in 9 months at a non Choice property last night.

Bring back the normal schedule.

I'm probably just a drop in the sea with my opinion though.
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Old Feb 27, 2018, 6:55 pm
  #8  
 
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Originally Posted by Donna49
Interesting that no promos have been announced as Feb comes to a close.. Looked up last year and there was "2x points" in Jan/Feb, and they offered the usual "stay 2 times earn 8000pts" from 3/02/2017 to 4/27.2017.
I've been a choice points elite member since 2004, and there always seemed to be a points earning promo going on. I wonder if things have changed in terms of how consumer loyalty is viewed these days. There certainly has been a massive change in airline programs over the past 6 years; perhaps this is now true for hotels.
No promos? Au contraire! I just got an email today offering 2 Choice points per dollar on food ordered through the Choice app!

Rather than repeat my thoughts from another thread, here's a link: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29428748-post27.html

A little too quiet on the Choice front for my tastes. . .
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Old Feb 27, 2018, 7:17 pm
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Originally Posted by Donna49
Interesting that no promos have been announced as Feb comes to a close.. Looked up last year and there was "2x points" in Jan/Feb, and they offered the usual "stay 2 times earn 8000pts" from 3/02/2017 to 4/27.2017.
I've been a choice points elite member since 2004, and there always seemed to be a points earning promo going on. I wonder if things have changed in terms of how consumer loyalty is viewed these days. There certainly has been a massive change in airline programs over the past 6 years; perhaps this is now true for hotels.
If you don't want to get pounced upon (see above) , start using the term "no stay-based promos". Choice has had other promos the past two months, just not any stay-based promos. So not putting "stay'based" in front of "promos" you're complaining about not existing is only going to get retorts from people who points out the non-stay promos that do exist.

I sympathize with you, as I'm only interested in stay-based promos myself. So my complaint is only with the phrasing, not with the sentiment.

Oh, and if you want to be really clear, say "no stay-based points promos". Because last time i looked, there was a stay based AA miles promo (1000 miles per stay instead of the normal 250 miles per stay). That's a promo too.
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Old Feb 28, 2018, 7:30 am
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Winners?

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.
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Old Feb 28, 2018, 11:51 am
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
If you don't want to get pounced upon (see above) , start using the term "no stay-based promos". Choice has had other promos the past two months, just not any stay-based promos. So not putting "stay'based" in front of "promos" you're complaining about not existing is only going to get retorts from people who points out the non-stay promos that do exist.

I sympathize with you, as I'm only interested in stay-based promos myself. So my complaint is only with the phrasing, not with the sentiment.

Oh, and if you want to be really clear, say "no stay-based points promos". Because last time i looked, there was a stay based AA miles promo (1000 miles per stay instead of the normal 250 miles per stay). That's a promo too.
Fair enough. I just never really cared for anything other than than the stay-based choice points promos, so if there were any, I never noticed. But, yes, other promos have existed. It has always been the 8000 choice points for a 2 separate stay promo that attracted me, and I am beginning to think we will not see that promo anymore.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 12:12 pm
  #12  
 
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Originally Posted by Donna49
Fair enough. I just never really cared for anything other than than the stay-based choice points promos, so if there were any, I never noticed. But, yes, other promos have existed. It has always been the 8000 choice points for a 2 separate stay promo that attracted me, and I am beginning to think we will not see that promo anymore.
Sorry if my tongue-in-cheek use of "au contraire" might have been misunderstood as pouncing. I'm also concerned about the lack of a stay-based promo and was hoping to point out just how lame the current promos are. Choice has been my primary hotel program for several years now--so much so that one year I qualified for Diamond status off of 75 paid nights without any mattress runs.

In the last few months, however, it appears that they have altered their normal promo schedule. I think there is good reason to speculate that Choice would like to change its promotion paradigm, but let me emphasize I have no connections to Choice corporate. I'm just making some assumptions based on fewer hotels in the 8K redemption range, a dynamic pricing technique that undermines an 8K redemption at certain times of the week where a hotel might offer an 8K for several nights but then go to higher amounts on the weekends or select days during the week, one confirmable absence of a regular promotion, the substitution during that time of a promo tied to use of the app, one anticipated promotion normally run in the spring which hasn't yet been announced although it normally has been by now, and the coincidental timing of a very lame promo (but possibly an alternative to a stay-based promo) tying the app to ordering food for delivery. Plus, a reasonable assumption that with hotel business on the rebound, franchisees want their cake and eat it too--increased business without offering much in the way of loyalty rewards.

I hope I'm Chicken Little. I'm worried I'm not.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 4:03 pm
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New promos are often first "spotted" on hotel front desk placemats. So I went into a Choice hotel near my work during a break and it still has the stupid App giveaway placemats, even though that promo is supposed to be dead and gone by now (1 March).
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 6:14 pm
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Assuming they are cutting back on promos, do any of the other hotel chains in Choice price points ( Best Western? ) have good promos? I have been so tied to Choice and Marriott that I am unfamiliar with the others.
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Old Mar 1, 2018, 10:25 pm
  #15  
 
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Originally Posted by lougord99
Assuming they are cutting back on promos, do any of the other hotel chains in Choice price points ( Best Western? ) have good promos? I have been so tied to Choice and Marriott that I am unfamiliar with the others.
To my mind, BW has indicated where loyalty programs may be going--although they certainly weren't pioneers as we've seen a similar approach in the airline field with Delta. BW's 10K redemption sale in December and January, similar to DL's occasional and very limited 10K RT redemptions, show a focus away from sophisticated gamers, like most of us at FT, towards a sale mentality that makes the general public continue to think points in certain programs are still worth accumulating although we would consider them at an inflated value.

In the Daily Getaways promotions, haven't we all laughed at how few BW packages got bought? How many were laughing when the 10K redemption promo came around? That wasn't a stay-based promotion--that was a promotion that made folks wish they had accumulated some BW points, whether through stays, credit cards, or DG purchases.

SPG announced a promo today that would apparently give some targeted folks 7500 Starpoints after three stays. In 2011, two stays got you a free night at any of their resorts--capped at three, by the way. By 2014, you needed to do three stays to get the same benefit. Now, you can get a stay at a lower level SPG property after three stays.

Choice, to my mind and happily so as far as I was concerned, stayed too long at the fair. They were still giving 8K after two stays. And until a year or two ago, there were a lot of great properties that number could be redeemed at. Several years before that, there were lots of great worldwide properties that number could be redeemed at. My best hotel redemption, period, not just Choice redemption, remains a November 2012 stay at the Clarion IFSC in Dublin--8K for a two-room suite on the top floor of the hotel with a balcony looking over the River Liffey. I laughed reading posts from bloggers pimping the Westin in Dublin at the same time--I had no doubt that my suite, earned with two cheap nights at Choice properties in America was better than a room at the Westin which had required more and more expensive stays to earn.

In June 2013, I had an 8K redemption at the Clarion Sligo with a full three-room suite in an Irish country manor hotel. That's one of my top 5 redemptions ever. Even in 2016, an 8K redemption in a nice room in the Clarion Cork. All three hotels are no longer part of Choice. Redemptions I had in Rome for 8K within the past five years are either not possible at all or now only for 25K. Monterey Peninsula properties that used to go for 8-12K now go for 16-20K. Orlando redemptions that were 6-10K are now 12K and well above.

I've moved stays to IHG but I'm not fooled by the institutionalization of gaming there. Yes, you can pile up a bunch of points, but in the end, you're having to stay three or four times to get 15-20K properties and seven to ten times to get their top end properties. I did the Wyndham "stay twice, get 15K" which can be redeemed at any of their hotels for a free night, but they capped the promotion with a maximum earning of one free night so of limited usefulness.

I think real change in this area occurs only when the chains and their franchisees really start to feel the bite of the airbnbs of the world. We Baby Boomers still favor hotels, but as you get to the younger demographics, couch surfing has no stigma, and the savings definitely can outweigh any hotel loyalty program. As the worm turns, you may see more aggressive hotel promotions, but I get a feeling that we're looking at slim pickings in the near future.

As I've said, I really hope I'm wrong about this.
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