Choice Privileges, Choice Hotels’ loyalty program, is currently selling award points with a 50% bonus. That enables you to buy Choice Points for roughly 0.64 Euro-cents per point and to sleep in many hotels at a very low price. While Choice Hotels still fly under the radar in most European countries, them having 7,000 properties worldwide, is quite an impressive number.
Choice Points can be especially valuable in Scandinavia as by buying points you can often save over 50% on your hotel stays. Other countries, such as the UK, Germany, Japan, and the USA are also worth taking a look at. You should, however, also consider if you’ll be able to spend the points in the near future, as simply accumulating points without a precise purpose is generally not recommendable.
Buy Points for 0.64 Cents per Point
You can purchase choice points all year long at a fixed price of 1 cent per point. A history of past promotions can be found at the bottom of the article.
The current sale is scheduled to end on April 5, 2023. You need to purchase at least 16,000 points (24,000 including the bonus) and the maximum is set at 270,000 points for US$1,854 (~€1,732).
Book Hotels Starting at €52
If you have bought the points as described above, you’ll receive them within 24 hours, followed by a confirmation email. Now you can start redeeming them for hotels. In and outside Europe, you can get an award night starting at 8,000 points.
Choice Awards divides hotels into nine categories with fixed prices for award nights. Based on a purchase at 0.638 cents per point, you can expect the following prices:
- Category 1: 6,000 points (38.28€) – not in Europe
- Category 2: 8,000 points (51.04€)
- Category 3: 10,000 points (63.80€)
- Category 4: 12,000 points (76.56€)
- Category 5: 16,000 points (102.08€)
- Category 6: 20,000 points (127.60€)
- Category 7: 25,000 points (159.50€)
- Category 8: 30,000 points (191.40€)
- Category 9: 75,000 points (478.50€)
To give an example, the Clarion Hotel Sign in Stockholm only costs 10,000 points per night (i.e. €64). A regularly purchased night, however, can often cost €150 or even more, as you can see in the following example:
In the above example, by buying the points, you’d be paying €64 instead of SEK 1,790 (~€155) – saving almost 60%!
Choice Hotels are also attractive because:
- in almost all hotels (in Scandinavia) a generous breakfast buffet is included
- Clarion Collection hotels even serve a light dinner for free
You should, however, be aware that award nights are available up to 100 days before arrival. At least, however, award nights are then cancellable for free.
Choice Privileges may change prices for award nights at any time. We, therefore, advise you to use them as soon as possible after purchase.
Points Don’t Expire if You Had an Activity within 18 Months
Choice Privileges points will expire after 18 months of inactivity on your account. However, as soon as you carry out a transaction, the validity is extended again to a full 18 months.
Your points are therefore valid indefinitely as long as every 18 months you at least:
- Earn a point by sleeping in a hotel
- Book a reward night
- Buy at least 2,000 points
Past Promotions
Choice regularly gives up to 40% bonus or 25% discount – but rarely more. Only once a year, you can get the best rates during their Daily Getaways special.
| Time | Offer | Best price per 1,000 points | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 2023 | 50% Bonus | $6.40 | |
| January 2023 | 25% Discount | $7.73 | |
| November 2022 | 40% Bonus | $7.36 | |
| July 2022 | Daily Getaways | $5.19 | Daily Getaways, only once yearly |
| April 2022 | 40% Bonus | $7.32 | |
| January 2022 | 25% Discount | $7.92 | |
| October 2021 | Daily Getaways | $5.19 | Daily Getaways, only once yearly |
| November 2020 | Up to 40% Bonus | $7.12 |
Status Match to Choice Privileges
Hint: Choice Hotels offers a simple status match. The benefits are sadly quite weak, but as it’s for free, why not do it?
In Scandinavia “Nordic Choice Hotels”, another loyalty program, has better benefits. You can redeem regular Choice Points, but the status will not always be recognized.
Cover Picture: © Choice Hotels
Comments (4)
Thank you both!… I already bought and used them for a booking in May. I couldnt find any other interesting hotel for Copenhague or Rome thought. Their availability or range of hotels are limited.
Hello, I’m going to Stockholm on May 10th thinking spending 4 nights. Would you recommend me getting this deal of Choice Points?
Will awards nights be available at for example at Clarion Hotel Sign? I read your post that award nights are available up to 100 days before arrival. So I’m not sure I will be able to use the points.
Usually, availability is quite good. You can always check the availability at choicehotels.com, even when you don’t have enough points.
Currently, the “Superior Room” is still available with points from 10 to 14 of May 2023. But it can take 2 or 3 days for the posts to post, so we can’t guarantee anything.
The stay has to be less than 100 days from now, so today you could book stays from now until July 7. So, yes, you can use them.