Choice Privileges forum?
 

Since a majority of the posts in the "Other Hotel Programs" forum seem to be for Choice Privileges, can we get a forum just for that program?

With Tim at Webflyer's permission, I'll move this to the Talkboard forum where such requests are considered.

cblaisd
Senior Moderator.

Don't worry, I have already brought it to their attention.

Thanks, P

Always nice to get public comments too though! :)

Lousy idea to have a choice forum by itself. The "other hotel" forum is so slow right now that splitting it would probably end the life of two forums.

Jenbel writes:

I agree absolutely and look forward to hearing what the rest of the membership thinks on the issue.

Agreed. The Balkanization Argument, in this case, is a strong one. ^

Then I have an idea.

Why not rename the Other Hotel Programs forum as the Choice Privileges forum and we can solve both problems. ;)

Seriously, I'd like to see the day when all hotels had a forum and there wouldn't be a need for a catchall Other Hotel Programs forum.

That's not going to happen but I hate to keep a hotel chain in the Other Hotel Programs forum just to keep that generic forum alive. The less activity we have in a Other Hotel Programs forum or a Other Frequent Flyer Programs forum the better IMO. It means we have the right balance of named hotel and airline forums.

I got the impression that "Other Hotel Programs", like Other (fill in the blank) FF Programs, was for programs that would not gain a critical mass of posters and lurkers if they were given their own forums.

According to http://www.choicehotels.com/ires/en-...e?pr=20070516a there were over 5.5 million Choice Privileges members in May 2007. That number will grow as Econolodge and Rodeway are moved from Easy Choice into Choice Privileges on January 1, 2008.

It's a big program. There are a lot of posts about it, not just in "Other Hotel Programs" but also in other forums (and it's not just because of the recent Amtrak-Choice-Southwest craze).

It costs resources to create a forum, but structure is good for high-traffic subjects. Having an easily-identifiable home for a high-traffic subject is better than making people comb through cluttered general forums.

If that were the case, why does the Best Western forum still exist? :confused:

It has way less activity than either the Choice activity by itself or the non-Choice "other hotel" forum activity by itself!

If activity as low as the Best Western forum's is not low enough to "end its life", I don't see why "other hotels" forum should be at risk (after splitting out Choice). After all, "other hotel" forums would still cover TripRewards/WynhamRewards, Fairmont, the various Accor programs, etc, etc.

How did Best Western rate its own forum and Choice not? (I presume it was years ago, before Choice had a program with lots or promos, lots of redemption and exchange possibilites, etc. But looking at them in comparison for the last few years, I've never seen as much acitivity in the Best Western forum as I have in the Choice messages in the "other hotels" forum. In fact, Best Western is unusually "high" in acvitity right now -- in relative terms only, of course -- because of the "rate Best Western" thread, which is a rare thread for any particular program as it only comes when InsideFlyer is about to do a review.)

Furthermore, because of the lack of a Choice forum, many recent discussions that are as much about Choice as anything else have ended up instead in partner forums, such as Southwest and Amtrak. Add those in, and you have tons of activity!

Voting enabled? (^)

re: QUOTE=bug_me_not ; According to .."
Recall seeing also that Choice has more locations and facilities than several of the 'big dogs' put together ...

Yeah ~ maybe 35% of our business goes to Choice; SPG, HIL et.al. equally share 0%.
/.

While I am inclined to support this idea in my role as a Talkboard member, I'd like to see additional poster input before making a final determination (with a big fat :p to Mrs. Linder's husband!!! ;))

While each TB member has her or his own criteria for supporting a new forum, my own personal criteria for creating a new forum are (in order of importance):

- a compelling case that the forum has potential for lots of use in the future.
- a cadre of flyertalkers passionate about the program.
- a 'decent' number of posts about the program (this threshold is pretty low to me since its hard to judge post counts for a forum that doesnt exist yet)

Hope this helps.

I'm all for it. I'm sure there's some CP experts here that would be great resources with this as it's own forum.

Based on Choice's recent actions in reversing transfers from Amtrak to Choice and summarily disabling members' accounts, I recommend adding choice to Radisson GoldPoints and renaming that forum Treachery Programs. :p

Seriously, I cannot discount the fact that the recent Amtrak to Choice transfer opportunity spawned the largest thread ever on the Southwest forum and a second thread in the top ten. 1500 posts in all.

The Choice Privileges program is well worth discussing, even if the discussion is about how the program stiffed its members with zero-notice changes and reversals of completed transactions.

Bad behavior by a program can be a reason to create a forum for the program. It's certainly not a reason not to.

I can't see any persuasive reason not to create a Choice Privileges forum. They've earned it. :rolleyes:

Oh, and maintaining a critical mass of miscategorized posts is not persuasive to me.

Thanks for moving my suggestion to the proper forum, and my apologies for putting it in the wrong place in the first place. :D

Some quick research shows that Choice Privileges has many more posts than at least two of the existing hotel program forums, even when you totally discount the posts about the unpopular changes. This was my reasoning.