Choice Hotels in Australia
 

Does anyone have any experience with Choice in Australia? Over the past decade or two, I think I've stayed in a couple of their properties in Australia. Thanks to the Daily Getaways promo, I have cheap Choice points and some of their award rates are decent deals in the small towns of Australia where there aren't other chain hotels. (There seems to be little to no value staying in the big cities like Sydney -- the other chains have better hotels and better prices there). I recall their motels are a lot like Choice hotels in the USA; a mixed bag, and probably a little dumpier on average. Oh, and no free breakfast (boo). The best redemptions these days are the 10,000 point ones which, like in the USA, seem almost randomly assigned (I've seen properties with identical paid rates, some going for 10,000 points and others at 20,000). And Choice Australia seems to often raise the point rates for Friday and Saturday night stays, even in non-resort areas, and even when the paid rates are unchanged. Weird: it's like some punishment for leisure travellers wanting to use their points! Still, without other chain alternatives to "game," I'm certainly inclined to try some Choice stays.

I'm going there next month and from what I've seen the only decent redemptions are Econo Lodges for 6k/night in small towns away from the coast. I'm going to save my points for Japan/Sweden.

Just to follow up, I did stay at a number of Choice properties in Australia in smaller towns and cities. Almost all of these redemptions were for 10,000 points -- quite cheap when you've gotten your points through the Daily Getaways promo (about US$45/night). Oddly, Choice seems to charge more for Friday and Saturday nights for all (?) their Australia hotels, even if room rates are the same or cheaper for those nights and if the hotel is busier during weekdays. So weekend stays tend to be bad deals on points. Most of these motels were below the quality (gasp) of Choice hotels in the USA, but they were fine, considering the price and the generally low quality of Australia motels (lots of their motels were built almost 50 years ago). I will say that Australia motels tend to be cheaper than USA motels, so it pays to look around, and shop for deals on sites like hotels.com (where you can often apply a coupon and pay with a discounted gift card).. I don't think there's much value in staying with Choice in the big cities (Sydney, Melbourne, etc) where there are other chain options. But Choice definitely has the biggest footprint in Australia of the int'l chains, so some small town stays can work well.

It is more often than not - the ONLY hotel in smalltown that's worth staying at.

I don't think that's true. Typically, the Choice hotel is not the best hotel in town. Often far from it. It is, however, usually a decent hotel, and if you have cheap Choice points, an interesting option. Without Choice points, you might decide to stay at a Choice hotel, but you'll likely do better (value and quality wise) staying elsewhere. There are lots of hotel reviews out there, so it's not that hard to figure out the better properties. I will say that I found most Choice hotels in Australia to overrated on sites like Tripadvisor. Like "4 stars" wasn't necessarily an indicator of a decent motel by USA-standards. I stayed in plenty of Choice hotels in Australia because they were usually 10,000 points (except, oddly, on Friday and Saturday nights), and they usually represented good value at that price. Had I had to pay the public rates, I would have generally booked elsewhere.