Choice Hotels’ Choice Privileges is offering “Take Two Separate Trips Earn One Free Night”.
And then in smaller, lighter print they clarify ‘at over 1500 hotels’.
So it’s not a free night anywhere, and it’s not exactly a free night that you earn at all.
What you earn are points in the Choice Privileges program, enough to be used for a free night at a subset of their hotels.
And it’s not even enough points for a free night in addition to the points you earn for two stays.
Instead, it’s a bonus meant to top up the points you earn for those two stays so that in total you have enough for one free night at that subset of hotels.
Specifically, after two stays you will earn a bonus of between 5000 and 8000 points, so that your total points earning from the stays is at least 8000 points.
The good hotel redemptions in the Choice Privileges program, by the way, actually cost 30,000 to 60,000 points per night.
So really, this is a bonus of between 5000 and 8000 points after 2 stays, the more points you earn from each stay the smaller the bonus you’ll receive. Which is a kind of strange promotion if you stop to think about it, but great marketing for that more modest investment.
Still, it absolutely makes sense to register for the promotion if there’s any chance you may stay at a Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Sleep Inn, EconoLodge, or other participating Choice Privileges-participating property between September 5 and November 13.
Non-elite members of Choice Privileges must book online or by phone, while elites can book directly with the hotel. Stays at Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, and MainStay Suites must be a minimum of two consecutive nights to qualify as one of the two required stays for the promotion.
The bonus can only be earned once per member.
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There are some decent 10-20K award options in Europe where the Choice properties can be very desirable.
I availed myself of a similar promo in the past and got a reward in Stockholm I was very happy with.
There are also frequent European award sales that can deliver even more value.
You can earn the bonus more than once. It is usually unlimited. For the lower chain hotels, you have to have 2 nights in a stay for it to count.
Choice has been adding hotels to their Ascend Collection of hotels. In addition, they have quite a few hotel in Norway, Denmark and Finland.
Promotion FAQ:
Q: How many times can I receive the free night bonus during the promotion?
A: Choice Privileges members can earn an unlimited amount of free nights during the promotion. A free night bonus can be earned after completing each second qualifying trip with arrival between September 5 and November 13, 2013.
Is the European version of this promotion different? I believe they claim more hotels are available for the free night. (Hoping European hotel rates drop….)
I am sorry to say that I actually stayed at one of their hotels for 8K points last winter. Actually it was fine.
We stayed at one of their hotels in Maine for a few nights not too long ago. I thought this would work for me as “one of” my cheap hotel loyalty programs. Until they actually expired all of my points way faster than I could have even imagined. There weren’t that many to lose, but the fact that I did turned me off and I won’t gamble trying to accumulate THEIR points again.
I suppose they’ve earned my anti-loyalty with their loyalty program.
Choice offers a reasonable value transfer to Southwest Rapid Rewards (6000 Choice points –> 1800 RR points) – a value of about 0.5 cents per Choice point (comparable to typical hotel redemption value, but not “sweet spot” redemptions). A good option for points that are about to expire, or for those who need RR points.
Deceptive Advertising. They got two nights out of me and that will be my last. Some of their hotels on the 95 corridor are horrifying.
I’m very confused on the points earned and how many to get free nights idk what’s going on
We unfortunately stayed at Comfort Inn in Smithfield this month,& we’re sadly dissapointed with their standard of cleanliness.We had 3 queen beds,& 1 of the 3 beds maybe more had not been changed.My grandson & granddaughter slept in their clothes because the beds looked dirty.We got in late ,were given the only room with 3 beds,& were to tired to go looking for something else,as it was after 8:00 pm.I have no idea how many points I have,and that information is not available at the registration desk.The corridors hadn’t been vacuumed in days,The the curtains in the corridor by our room were badly stained.Very dissapointed in Choice hotels.
In the last 3 Months we stayed at least 10 choice Motels going out to Kansas & then 1 in Ohio . When I called to see how many points I had it was only 18,000 Points.
Our Visa Bill runs around $2000.00 a month also , points for this !! Don’t Unferstand .
Choice Hotel has an 800 number, why don’t you call them and ask for
an explanation. I am sure they will enlighten you.
Your a fool if you think there gonna give you a free night for staying 2 nights. It’s a promotional scam to lur you away from a good motel to one of theirs.
We booked online for a Comfort Inn in Missisauga Ontario, when we were checking in the desk manager pointed out to us the promotion “Stay 2 nights get 1 Free. It seemed like a good thing, too good to be true as it turned out. In the morning the duty manager was somewhat irritated with our questions on how to register, and when my wife called Choice Priviledge, she finally got the scoop on what the promotion was all about. We like staying at Comfort Inn, but the hassle for this promotion was not worth it.