Choice Privileges is the hotel loyalty program I used the most for my European travels in 2018. In January, I posted a chart of my 22 reward nights at Choice Hotels spending 226,000 points for rooms with lowest published room rates of $4,398 for the 22 nights.
Choice Privileges currently has the best buy points sale I recall with 50% bonus points when buying 30,000 or more points. Members can buy up to 50,000 points in a calendar year. The regular price for points is $11.00 per 1,000 points. This sale with 50% bonus points means you can buy 45,000 to 75,000 points at $7.33 per 1,000 points.
Lower amounts of purchased points have smaller bonus points
5,000 to 9,000 points = 20% bonus = $9.17 per 1,000 points.
10,000 to 19,000 points = 30% bonus = $8.46 per 1,000 points.
20,000 to 29,000 points = 40% bonus = $7.86 per 1,000 points.
30,000 to 50,000 points = 50% bonus = $7.33 per 1,000 points.
A Choice Privileges member can buy 75,000 points for $550. A couple can each buy 75,000 Choice Privileges points for $1,100. Picking up 150,000 Choice Privileges points can result in major hotel rate savings depending on where you plan to travel.
Four things to know about Choice Privileges points
- Reward nights can only be booked 100 days in advance of your stay date. This is actually a significant improvement in the program in the past year. Before the change, a general member could only book within 30 days for their home region (USA-North America) and 60 days for international hotels.
- Choice Privileges rates change seasonally. The current seasons are today to April 15, April 16-June 30, July 1-Sep 15. You can look at any specific hotel’s homepage, scroll to the bottom and see seasonal reward rates.
- Whenever there is standard reward night availability, the member has the option to book the same room for 6,000 points + cash to cover the remaining points cost purchased at time of booking for $7.50 per 1,000 points. This is how I book most of my reward stays since I always seem to run out of Choice Privileges points each year.
- Some hotels have higher category rooms available at standard reward rates.
Choice Privileges Seasonal Rates for La Malmaison, Ascend Collection, Nice, France
La Malmaison, an Ascend Collection hotel in Nice, France illustrates three of the points I made above. Seasonal rates change and weekend rates are different from weekday rates.
Several room types at this hotel are available to book as reward nights. I show these as Points Plus Cash rates for June 11 at 6,000 points + $45 or pay 12,000 points. I tend to book Points Plus Cash rates to conserve my points.
- 1 Queen Bed or 2 Single Beds = $193
- 1 Queen Bed or 2 Single Beds Executive Room = $222
- 3 Single beds = $242
A 4-night reward stay would cost 48,000 points, which you can buy during this 50% bonus points sale for $352. That is a huge savings on the $888 paid rate for a Queen Bed Executive Room. [Note: this hotel is actually not available for a 4-night reward stay on points during those dates].
The other point is the 100 days advance booking window for reward nights, meaning June 28 is the latest check-in date a reward stay can be booked today on March 21. But you can book a reward stay extending past June 28, for example, June 28-July 4.
Buy Points Promotions – Bonus Points vs. Discount Points
Choice Privileges ran a 30% discount on points in January when buying 5,000 or more points. That promotion reduced the cost of points to $7.70 per 1,000 points. I purchased 5,000 points during that sale to make the upcoming April 2019 reservations I wanted. I have 8 nights booked at 3 different Choice Hotels in 3 different countries in Europe spending 76,000 points for our next trip.
Lowest published room rates for the 3 hotels for 8 nights = $1,055.
This sale allows the purchase of 75,000 points for $550. These are the kinds of deals that make Choice Privileges one of my favorite hotel loyalty programs.
My last Choice Privileges reward night was Stockholm Clarion Hotel Sign two weeks ago for 10,000 points when the lowest published room rate was $192 USD.
Loyalty Traveler -Â Clarion Hotel Sign Stockholm a transit stay 10K per night deal (March 14, 2019).
Loyalty Traveler -Â Why you should keep 6,000 Choice Privileges points in your account (Feb 22, 2019).
Loyalty Traveler -Â Choice Privileges 8,000 points for 2 stays Feb 26-Apr 26Â (Feb 21, 2019).
Loyalty Traveler -Â Choice Privileges 2018 $4,400 in reward stays for $1,123 in points (Jan 28, 2019).
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