The loyalty program for the Choice Hotels chain is back with its usual promo – stay twice, get 8000 points and you can earn the bonus an unlimited number of times. It’s straightforward but favours those who tend to stay single nights. It would be great on a long road trip. There are a lot of Choice hotels in the Maritimes. They include brands such as Quality Inn and Comfort Inn among others. See the list here. If you think you might be staying twice at a Choice hotel during this period you should register for this promotion.
Choice points can make for some great value redemptions. Reward nights start at 6000 points per night. When it comes to redeeming points it’s important to remember that the point amount required varies at some Choice hotels depending on the time of year or day of the week. When you click on the hotel’s name and scroll down you will see the point level variation displayed. Note that some hotels list their point requirement only up to January 2017. After that, who knows.
Here are a few examples of good redemption options:
Clarion Hotel Sign Stockholm, Sweden 10,000
Hotel No. 13 Bergen, Norway 12,000
Comfort Hotel Gardenia Sorrento, Italy 10,000-12,000
Clarion Hotel Prague Old Town Czech Republic 8000
Clarion Hotel Sligo Ireland 8000
Comfort Hotel Tokyo Higashi Nihombashi Japan 8000
Comfort Suites Seven Mile Beach Cayman Islands 10,000-25,000
Clarion Inn & Suites Clearwater, Florida 8000-12,000
Clarion Inn & Suites Orlando, Florida 10,000-16,000
Comfort Inn & Suites North Vancouver 8000-30,000
Le Grande Allee Hotel & Suites Quebec City 12,000-20,000
Comfort Inn Dartmouth Nova Scotia 8000-10,000
Unfortunately, points bookings cannot be made long in advance with this program. Regular members can book reward nights up to 30 days in advance for hotels in your country of residence or 60 days in advance for hotels outside Canada. Gold, Platinum and Diamond members have longer booking windows.
If you need several nights of accommodation and don’t mind a bit of hotel hopping you can alternate nights at conveniently located Choice hotels in order to maximize points. If you have a travelling partner you can alternate nights at one hotel, making sure the bookings are kept separate. I’ve never actually done this and I’ve wondered what a hotel front desk thinks of this maneuver. Would they let you keep the same room or would that result in a merging of the bookings into one stay? In the Terms and Conditions for the program it states: if two or more Choice Privileges members share a room, Choice will credit points to the member reserving and staying in the room. Guest may not change the Choice Privileges number on the stay after the first night has been consumed. This appears aimed at addressing the alternating night angle. However, these would be separate reservations, therefore separate stays, and guests would be prepared to vacate the room each morning. I’ve not stayed at a Choice hotel recently so I do not recall if they ask for the names of all guests sharing a room. If so, I believe it would be an unusual practice.
Something to remember – your points will expire after 18 months of inactivity. If you find this date approaching and you don’t have a paid stay or redemption coming up you can purchase some points to extend the life of your account. If someone you refer to Choice Privileges through the Refer a Friend link has a stay, it will extend your account’s life as well.
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