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Choice Privileges reward analysis in New York metro area

Choice Hotels are an astounding collection in terms of the number of hotel properties globally with over 6,000 hotels. A search of New York, New York returns 61 hotels, a Rodeway Inn in the Bronx not yet open. A search of Los Angeles area returned 60 hotels with data to be shared in a separate post. There is plenty of choice with Choice Hotels.

Choice Hotels have a far lower price point as a brand in the New York metropolitan area than the big Manhattan focused brands of Hyatt, Starwood, Hilton, IHG and Marriott.

Hilton had one hotel out of 24 hotels in Manhattan with rates under $300 for dates I checked in May.

Choice Hotels had no properties over $300 and only 3 hotels over $200 per night for Saturday night this weekend when I checked day of arrival bookings. The average room rate for day of arrival booking for 60 hotels was $127. Hotels only in Manhattan (13 hotels) had a $170 average rate.

Only 1 of 60 Choice Hotels in the New York area was unavailable for booking with points.

Choice Hotels are properties where TripAdvisor helps to choose the better locations. The nature of brands like EconoLodge and Rodeway Inn are low cost hotels in places where there is demand for hotel rooms, but not much interest in building an upper-upscale property in that location.

Choice Hotels in New York Reward Analysis

4-14-13-NY-Reward Analysis 60 hotels

Choice Hotels Room Rates and Choice Privileges Reward Night Observations

7 Ascend Collection Hotels in New York area. This is a major source of properties in the Ascend Collection brand for independent boutique hotels.

Union Hotel, one of the Ascend Collection hotels is actually in Brooklyn. I wondered if the $79 rate was a mistake? TripAdvisor ratings for Union Hotel Brooklyngive a range of opinions with the largest proportion of ratings in the “Terrible” category, yet with a higher combined rating for Excellent and Very Good. Mostly complaints about the really small room size.   

Choice Privileges takes $3,000 in hotel spend to earn the base points for the top properties in Manhattan at 30,000 points per night.

Hilton Hotels in New York City require $4,000 to $6,000 earning 15 points/$1. Most HHonors brand hotels in New York are 70,000 or 80,000 points per night.Lowest priced Hilton is currently 60,000 points per night in May and that is equivalent to $4,000 in hotel spend at 15 points/$1. HHonors members can double their earn rate of Hilton HHonors points with HHonors American Express Surpass and elite status.Choice Privileges Visa card members earn 5 points per dollar at Choice Hotels. Choice Privileges Diamond members (40 nights) earn 50% bonus points as an elite member. Choice Privileges members can earn 20 points per dollar for hotel stays, plus any bonuses like the current unlimited earning of 8,000 points every two hotel stays through May 15, 2013.

Choice Privileges offers 8,000 points after two stays. This bonus points promotion can be done for under $150 in most locations around the USA.

Price of earning 16,000 points during the 8,000 points for 2 Stays frequent promotion is reduced to $300 to $400 rather than $1,600 as shown in the table above.

Free nights are potentially earned much faster with Choice Privileges than most other hotel loyalty programs in the upper-upscale market segment of New York.

New York is a glamorous place to be in the center of Manhattan in a high style hotel room. But not if $600 per night is going to bust your credit card limit.

I personally avoid New York conferences for business trips due to the high cost of hotels. Choice Hotels looks like a more reasonable alternative to the upscale loyalty programs for actually paying the published room rates for a stay in NY, especially with the 2 stays = 8,000 points promotion.

Choice Privileges Hotel Rewards Distribution in LA and NY.

I am looking at Choice Hotels more closely right now as I plan May travel through Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico and see stretches on the map where the Choice Hotel option is the only option for 50 miles. I wondered what the relative distribution of hotel rewards was along the categories and I quickly mapped out Los Angeles and New York. Choice Hotels does not offer a list of hotels by reward category and the Choice Privileges program uses seasonal rates. Hotels can shift from 8,000 to 25,000 points per night depending on the season.

These two cities with 120 hotels are 2% of the Choice Hotels 6,000 properties.

Los Angeles Area = 60 hotels.

Reservation date checked, Saturday, April 13, 2013.

  • 6,000 points = 2 hotels in Azusa and Anaheim (3%)
  • 8,000 points = 15 hotels (25%)
  • 10,000 points = 7 hotels (12%)
  • 12,000 points = 10 hotels (17%)
  • 16,000 points = 14 hotels (23%)
  • 20,000 points = 7 hotels (12%)
  • 25,000 points = 4 hotels (7%)
  • 30,000 points = 1 hotel (Santa Monica) (1%)

New York City area = 60 hotels.

Reservation date checked, Saturday, April 13, 2013.

  • 6,000 points = 0 hotels
  • 8,000 points = 3 hotels (5%)
  • 10,000 points = 3 hotels (5%)
  • 12,000 points = 3 hotels (5%)
  • 16,000 points = 10 hotels (17%)
  • 20,000 points = 14 hotels (23%)
  • 25,000 points = 9 hotels (15%)
  • 30,000 points = 18 hotels (30%)

20% of Choice Hotels in LA are 20,000 points or higher per reward night compared to 68% of Choice Hotels in New York.

 

 

 

 

4 Comments

  • Shelly April 14, 2013

    We stayed at a couple Choice hotels on a road trip to California and ARizona this past winter. We found the Choice hotels to be kind of dumpy, not kept up and just not a place I wanted to stay. However, we were in Ireland in February and the Choice hotel in Cork was like a luxury hotel. We were told that the Choice hotels in Europe are much nicer than the US and that is true from our experience.

  • ffi April 14, 2013

    The same is true of Best Westerns in EU and Switzerland.
    They are everywhere and appear quite good.

  • Ric Garrido April 15, 2013

    @Shelly – My plan is generally to collect Choice points on stays I need where Choice is one of very few options and redeem where there are nice hotels at relatively low rates.

    Last month when I was in Oslo, Norway there were several hotels in the 16,000 points award category with room rates in the $200 to $300 range.

    @ddi – Probably 50% of my Best Western stays happen outside the USA.

    Holiday Inn is another hotel brand that tends to the upper upscale side internationally compared to the USA.

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