Choice hotel programs
 

What is the general experiance of people with choice hotels. Despite the fact that I am a starwood member I have never stayed at any of their properties simply because:

A: I usually travel as a party of five people. (2 adults and 3 childern) and majority of starwood properties do not allow more than 4 people in a room.

B: No breafast is served in any of strwood properties while free breadfast in my favorite Comfort Suites and you add five people! Now that is a big saving.

Also I was thinking of appying for their visa card by BOA. Any thoughts on that. For some reason I dont see many choice previleges fans on this forum. Am I right? Please enlighten me with your thoughts.

I'm a member of both SPG and Choice Privileges and I feel that SPG is better with regard to redemption options (no blackout dates and capacity controls), but Choice Privileges has an advantage with locations. You don't have to stay in a major city because there are Comfort Inns all over the place.

I got the Choice Privileges Visa card last year and redeemed the bonus points for a free night. I think the general rules about redemption are that you cannot book a free stay more than 30 days in advance, but that was not a problem for me. Overall, redeeming the points for a free night seemed pretty painless to me. Now, I think you can book free stays online. I will try that this summer. I think the only drawback with this program is that points expire after two years, whereas with SPG I don't think there is an expiration date.

A good feature of the Choice program is that there are no blackout dates or capacity controls. If they've got a room, you can redeem a reward for it. [One limitation, as the previous poster said: For domestic, can't book more than 30 days out; for international, that's relaxed to 60 days.] I have had no problem redeeming. Also they are always running promotions, like the current one which is triple points (or miles) for rooms booked at their web site (double points or miles for all other bookings).

The 30-day rule also applies to Canada. It seems the rule could be overcome by booking 1 or 2 rooms; canceling 1 30 days prior; and then booking an award.

That is a nice sneaky but legit plan. I dont see any harm in it. So far I have seen no obvious disadvantage with chice hotels program. The only thing that stands out in starwood is the nice redemption feature with no black out dates, but it lags behind in the number of hotels, restriction on the number of children in a room (3 in my case) and free breakfast for all which is a big plus in my case with a party of five people.

People have unique cirumstances and accordingly there is no one program that is perfect for all. However when I see my situation, I think I will definately go for choice privileges program.

Triple Miles makes Choice a good option
 

I stay about a dozen nights a year at Choice Hotels, but most of my stays (10-12/month) are with Intercontinental (IC) or Starwood (*W). Where I travel, the quality of Holiday Inn or Sheraton is generally nicer than the Choice properties, which are in turn generally nicer than, say, a Four Points. The other two factors are breakfast (better at Choice, best at HI Express) and free hi-speed internet access (most IC properties have it, but not Choice).

I don't use Choice Privileges for anything but miles, so for me it comes down to a cost comparison--nighly rate vs. value of points/miles. Usually IC comes out ahead when they have one of their promotions going, and *W has a good one right now, too. They both end on 3/31, though, so in April, the Triple Miles offer with Choice is very competitive: 750 airline miles with each stay. I'll probably be spending most of my time at the nearest Comfort Inn next month.

I just today became a member of this program today.

I am travelling to Eugene, OR, if anyone has any reports of the Quality Inn on Franklin Blvd. kindly share your reports.

I traditionally stay at Holiday Inn & related brands, but the rate was more than double at a HI & very far away from where I needed to be for my meetings. I am looking forward to it.

Does the Choice Point Group have a status matching program?

Thanks,

Ric

I have been a priority club member for years but recently added choice privileges. The Comfort Suites are a decent value and a good option for an extended stay. I figure I may as well get points the few times I stay there.

I should also mention that I asked the Choice Hotel to match my status, Choice Hotel doesnt do this.

Ric

Just curious...how long does it typically take for miles earned with Choice Hotels to post to your airline mileage statement?

I too am interested to know this. I have never stayed with this group, so I cannot answer.

Ric

I had a couple of stays in early March as part of the triple credits promo - posted at Southwest roughly three weeks later. Hilton and Best Western allow one to see the stay credit post internally in one's hotel account; I do dislike the Choice system of having to wait for the stays to actually hit the airline itself.

I am a member of both programs, but prefer to earn frequent flyer miles with Choice rather than points. I previously earned points, but changed my earnings preference when I experienced extreme difficulty locating a room with only 30 days notice. I know this isn't the case everywhere, but I attempted to redeem points in Summit County, CO during ski season with no luck. Obviously, location and time of the year was the problem I had, but I have enough hassles with airline mile redemption so I don't need it with hotels, as well. On the other hand, Choice does have a considerably more extensive portfolio of hotels than Starwood.

May be you could have solved this problem by making an advance reservation and then cancelling just before you want to redeem your points? Should'nt that work?

I'm a choice platinum member with more than 80 night in 2003, 4 & 5.

My perspective:

a) As reported earlier Choice almost always have some sort of promotion going, for the first 4 months of this year it's been 3X points. Let's put that in perspective: I'm paying around $80 per day for the room but I'm getting 2400 points per night in credit. I can later this year rent the same room using points for 6000 points per night - very nearly a 1 : 2 free room rate, you will not find that with any other plan hotel, airline or other similar program.

b) It would never occur to me to compare Choice to SPG - the products offered are totally different and I doubt that anyone who is used to Starwood would be satisfied at most Choice properties. Choice properties typically run from the "hey this is not so bad" to the "oh my god what have I done". Never dangerous but also never better than average I would compare Choice as a whole to Best Western not Sheraton.

c) Ah yes, that free breakfast. Can be a value, but realize that it's generally just some watered down OJ, cold cereal and muffins. Still if all you want is a quick bite in the AM before starting the day they will get it done.

d) Locations. Choice properties tend to be smaller, older and less full service compared to Starwood - the positive is that they are just everywhere. Any good size metro area is likely to have 10+ Choice properties. There's almost always one where you need to be. I'd say 50% are properties I'd never return to a second night but which served their purpose for the short stay I had.

e) Redeeming awards. I've never, no matter where, no matter when had a problem finding a room in the general area I wanted to stay 30 days ahead. Sometimes it's not at the property I want but something in the area has always been available. It's no surprise to me that one couldn't find a free room at a ski resort during high season, I imagine the same problem might come up at the beach on 4th of July - but then I imagine SPG might have similar difficulties.

I've been running on way too long.

Hope this helps someone.

Aloha

Lihu'e 1k