Overseas availability
 

As some of you may know, our family trip (10 of us) to Ireland, which had been planned since early last year, ran into a little snag when the house we had rented suddenly became unavailabls "due to unforseen circumstances".

Being only 60 days out, trying to find reasonable accomodations for 10 people is a difficult task. We checked out everything and were considering changing the venue from Ireland to either France or UK (at $100 change fee per ticket) when I suddenly remembered that Choice has a couple of nice hotels in Dublin.

They're pretty much all 20,000 points/night but, as luck would have it, their seasonal rate drops to 10,000 points/night on April 15. Whoo-hoo.

10 minutes on the laptop, and I have 4 rooms for 4 nights and another room for 2 nights, for a total of 18 room-nights. All one bedroom suites at the Clarion IFSC in downtown Dublin. Retail value (after converting euros to dollars) is in excess of $11,000.

So as I think of all those nights in less-than-stellar hotels (I'm writing this at an EconoLodge at $32/night)), my inner self is smiling. :D

I think those full price rates are a wee-bit inflated (I'm not sure even a 1BR suite there is worth $611--it's for sale for 1301€-200€ at nondiscounted rates on the website), but a great deal nonetheless!

If you need any more rooms in Dublin, there are two ICHG properties on PointBreaks right now:
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/...rateCode=IVANI
You can always buy the PC points.

Weird--the rates on choicehotels.ie are much cheaper than at choicehotels.com.

They also have one of the more unusual special notes:
"Children permitted in pool only on Saturdays and Sundays 10:00am - 12:00pm. Swimming hats compulsory in pool, and are available for purchase at Hotel."
Don't forget your swim cap!

That really is phenomenal. Are you sure it's a seasonal rate change, and not that they're seeing really low yield (a la your $32 rate)? Just seems counterintuitive that it would DROP in April, especially in Ireland, just when it starts to get pleasant.

And, hats off to you for being able to reach all these phenomenal deals in places like Scandinavia and Ireland. :D

I think they had this same point drop in April last year.

Choice hotel redemption rates really are somewhat enigmatic.

At the Clarion IFSC in Dubin, does the 1BR suite have a pull out bed in the living room couch?

Yes, it does.

It also has a balcony/party deck. Or, more precisely, they all did.

Considering what I paid, it was a helluva set of rooms! :D

Thanks, BigLar - this makes my choice easy, especially since I can use points and it's a steal at 10,000 CPs a night :)

Abso-friggin-lutely!

Make sure you select the 1-bedroom suite. The rooms with balconies are X01, X07, and (I think) X25, where the X is 1,2,3,4, and maybe 5. These are the corner suites.

X07 and X25 have wrap-around balconies.

If it doesn't offer them to you, it may be because your smoking preferences isn't available - click on 'show all' or whatever the wording is, and everything available will get listed.

Right next door is a large-ish pedestrian area (there's a college right behind the hotel) and so the area is awash in bagel/coffee shops, little restaurants, and a couple of super market-type places. All just a few steps away.

Kudos bar downstairs is nice, albeit a little pricey (but they always have cold Guinness :)) and after hours you go the the resident's bar in the back - same folks, same drinks, but only guests allowed in. Drink all night if you so desire.

O2 just down the block - more cabs than cars in Dublin, so never a problem getting around.

All in all, we loved the place and for 10,000 points/night it was the bargain of the year for us.

FYI - I just noticed sometime between this post and now, the points redemption has DOUBLED for the Clarion IFSC to 20,000 points a night, all seasons. Probably still a good deal on a suite, but technically now only half as good ;-) Luckily, my booking was at the old rate :)

Also - note that even the 07 rooms with wrap terrace have an extra sitting area, but the fold out bed is still right next to the main bed - no divider. Slightly larger than the 01 room with the small work/sitting area - but not a huge deal.

Maybe, maybe not. Not all seasons are listed--Just July-January. The 10,000 points rate was April-June.
http://www.clarionhotel.com/hotel-dublin-ireland-IE051

That being said, Choice seems to be following an upward trend in points.

Not sure about that one, as I'm here at the Clarion now, booked on points, and it's July :) When I booked, July was definitely 10,000/nt