Bad news for some Choice Privileges members who find great value in redeeming points for stays at all-inclusive Barcelo Resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. Barcelo Resorts will end its three year partnership with Choice Privileges as of December 31, 2012. All reward stays using Choice Privileges points must be booked and completed by December 31, 2012.

http://www.choicehotels.com/en/choice-privileges/gp/partnerhotels

Redeem Points for All Inclusive Free Nights at Barcelo Hotels & Resorts!

Don’t miss your last chance to redeem points for free nights at Barcelo all-inclusive resorts. All Barcelo stays must be booked and completed by December 31, 2012, as Barcelo reward nights will no longer be available as a redemption option.

Locations:

Dominican Republic
Costa Rica

Mexico
Nicaragua

• View a list of participating hotels for 20,000 or 25,000 points, including pre-paid food and beverage.*
• Book up to 60 days in advance.

Call 888-770-6800 to book your luxurious stay today! Remember, booking and stay must be completed by December 31, 2012.

In the future, if you are looking for reward nights in the Caribbean or Central America, remember there are over 30 Choice hotels in Mexico, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rico, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Puerto Rico.

Unfortunately, the link provided on Choice Privileges page for participating Barcelo hotels is a broken link at time of this post.

FlyerTalk member Wise2u reports being unable to find Choice Privileges reward availability for any of the Barcelo Resorts in December.

Another hotel reward good value redemption goes by the wayside.

At least Choice Privileges points can still be used for Preferred Hotels Group luxury and boutique hotel stays.

And there are some great deals for reward stays at Choice Hotels like Clarion, Comfort Inn and Quality Inn in Europe for cities like London and Paris at just 8,000 points per hotel night over the next couple of months. 

Related post: Choice Privileges 8,000 points after two stays Aug 30–Nov 14, 2012

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

Airfares hit record highs in 2012. Car rental rates have steadily climbed despite high gas prices. Yet, hotels in September 2012 have an average daily rate at $105.10 in the U.S. and still lag slightly behind their September 2008 peak rates of $107.71.

2007 Q3 saw a peak in airline passenger travel with 203 million flyers. Four years later in 2011 Q3 the airline passenger level is 4% lower than 2007 peak. Average airfares in 2012 Q1 were the highest in eight years.

Car rental revenues in 2011 were the highest in 11 years and increased 8.8% over 2010 rates. There were 1.8 million rental cars in service in the US in 2011. Monthly average revenue per car was $1,060.

The point of the HotelNewsNow article with all this comparative data is to imply hotels should be able to increase room rates and get more money from consumers who obviously are willing to pay more for airfare and car rentals.

Sounds like a leisure traveler squeeze to me.

In 2012 I watched rates go through the ceiling in San Francisco, New York, Miami, Hawaii and I have to think that with corporate profits going up and middle class income going down, many leisure travelers are still facing the fiscal cliff of reduced vacation affordability.

That is why I think it is even more important as we move into 2013 to know where the deals are and how to save money on the key travel vacation components of hotels, airfare and rental cars.

This TravelPulse article indicates Europe may be where the hotel travel bargains are found in 2013.