Choice Hotels: Rewards Program Review

Choice Hotels Rewards present some of the best value in the credit card points and miles game. If you are a road warrior, or just looking for an occasional epic stay, look no further. Transferring Citi Points for Choice Hotels is one of the best uses of ThankYou points that exists. Epic value? YES! ... If you are careful.
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[@LukesPointsandMiles]

What a great video. So much value here.

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks Uncle Luke! 🍒

[@vinup6406]

You nailed it. Choice program is dark horse. Especially for people who like road trips. 1CPP is breeze in all those road trips in non urban areas. Very complimentary to other well known hotel chains. Have both and you have the best value/choices

[@DugrozReports]

Seems like a great fill-in program!!! Thanks Vinup!

[@SledgeIncTeam]

Good info on these Choice Hotels. Since im in the Citi ecosystem, I might look more into them

[@DugrozReports]

💯💯💯🫡

[@jimmyjames6492]

Great information on Choice Hotels. Thanks for the info + video!

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks JJ!

[@seand99x]

Well Done Doug! Good video! I had drawn some similar conclusions about this program. With due diligence regarding each redemption this program I believe is a diamond in the rough!

[@DugrozReports]

💯. I will undoubtedly be testing them out later this year. If they would provide a slightly better welcome offer on the Wells Fargo card, I would probably apply for that too!

[@keyKEYadventures]

You did your research here. I thank you, and I definitely grabbed my 📒 and 🖊️

[@DugrozReports]

👆👆👆💯💯💯

[@BobI-jb4rk]

After some very diligent cherry 🍒 picking, I found some great go-to Choice hotels near the airports of Vegas, Salt Lake, Phoenix, & Boston. As a Gold member, I am guaranteed nothing more than a warm water and bag of stale Doritos. I’m excited to hit the road this spring and try out some Choice hotels in Grand Rapids, Savanna and beyond!!

[@DugrozReports]

What’s your favorite choice hotel? I.e., which brand?

[@BobI-jb4rk]

@@DugrozReports My favorites are Ascend and Comfort Inn. This spring, I’m going to try my first Cambria in Savanna.

[@vickiarnold7300]

I just subscribed to your channel ❤ great job❤

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks, Vicki!!! So much appreciated!

[@AP_808]

This is a fair assessment. I have reviewed the program and personally assign a 1.1 CPP valuation. This is the 75th percentile of the data points I pulled. The median is ~0.75 but that’s like chucking darts at the wall. It is not too difficult to get 1 CPP. Although 1.25 is a little rich for me, I appreciate the work you put in and respect the perspective on a program that gets no attention.

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks for the input, AP! Certainly, as time passes, and my experiences are made real, I will adjust. I plan to stay on with at least a couple choice hotels later this year.

[@jakemercure]

Wow Im so glad you made this Dugroz, I had no idea Choice was this good. I like basic hotels with good value too. Nice location examples too, ill def check this out!

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks Jake! I really appreciate it! 👍👍👍🏨🏨🏨

[@robertjarrell7276]

It seems to be 100 days out that you can book. I love to travel in Scandinavia so I burned up the SUB spend on the Choice Privileges Select in Scotland last fall. Definitely a keeper! Thanks for also seeing this, but don’t tell anyone.

[@DugrozReports]

🤔🤔🤔🤣🤣🤣✈️ Given I only have 1500 subscribers, I don’t think we’re going to jam pack all the Scandinavian choice hotels quite yet. 😊 but thank you so much for watching in your kind words, Robert!

[@paulfelkner6749]

That 5X home improvements is a real game changer. This will be my next personal card.

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks Paul! Do you do a lot of home improvements and think you will stay at some choice hotels?

[@paulfelkner6749]

I spend 2-10K a year at home improvement stores. Used to stay at choice before I went total Marriott. Choice is in some of those small towns where Marriott does not have a foot print. @@DugrozReports

[@paulfelkner6749]

I have a couple of rental properties so yes. Have not stayed at Choice for over 20 years but I remember fondly Comfort Suites back in the day and expect to use them on USA road trips and Raddison for overseas. @@DugrozReports

[@TravelswithLlama]

Especially since you can buy gift cards to other places at home improvement stores to earn 5x on those purchases as well.

[@deangrisham2858]

I’m going g for this program, not for any aspirational trips but for the “driving across the country” and where there isn’t any higher quality choices that I can stay with Hyatt, Hilton, etc.

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks Dean!

[@ayamaikarim]

$322 USD Per Night at Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Charlottesville-UVA, VA is the price at my end on the day you booked for a hotel stay. I just stayed at Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Seattle - Tacoma International last Monday for $121.84, and stayed at Country Inn & Suites Asheville River Arts District September 2022. Both hotels are super clean. Comfort Inn & Suites Sidney I-80 Sidney, NE worth the stay owned by Love's which is across of Love's Gas Station, they do also own Holiday Inn Express & Suites Brigham City north of Salt Lake, both of them are super clean. I do have Choice Privileges Select Mastercard. I am waiting for the new transfer partners for Wells Fargo Autograph and new cards coming out maybe in March. I had great experiences with Comfort Suites with few exceptions on my cross country road trips. Citi cards are excellent partners for Choice.

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks Tariq! Sounds like you have found some of those gems with choice hotels. Do you think Wells Fargo will also have one to two transfers to choice?

[@DugrozReports]

$406 for the king suite with tax, flexible rate as of 5 minutes ago. 😅 Certainly it has come down since I made my booking I always book flexible rates. (specific to the Charlottesville stay I have.)

[@ayamaikarim]

I really hope so, Wells Fargo has to act fast regarding their transfer partners and reporting their new cards ASAP since the news came out regarding Capital One buying Discover.

[@ayamaikarim]

I really hope so and the news coming out of Capital One buying Discover, would force them to move faster when it comes to their credit cards.

[@michaelkeaton32]

Fantastic video! This is making me consider product changing my AA Executive World Elite to the Premier. I don't fly AA, so that card doesn't get much use. Very helpful video!

[@DugrozReports]

It does look like the citi premier is the best choice hotels card! Thanks so much Shad.

[@WealthOfOpportunity]

Great review of Choice to put this on our radar even more than before!

[@DugrozReports]

Thank you, nifty ninja! It seems it’s a little hard for videos about choice to get traction compared to the old standards of Hilton, Marriott, and IHG… So I appreciate you noticing! 😎

[@FF18Cloud]

Huh, much less even thinking about getting points for choice Like, i dont have anything thatll let me redeen points on choice but trying to plan a trip to tokyo next year and thinking about hotel options, ~$100 a night when ill be spending a night at a ryokan probably and maybe checking out kyoto or something, thats not bad for a week long trip where im always on the move trying to see everything And no, i dont mean the final fantasy 14 cafe or any of the akiba/video game/weaboo stuff... Like im diehard final fantasy on a metaphysical "i owe my career to the series" kind of thing but like, i dont think i eat/sleep/breathe Tesuya Nomura's and Hironobu Sakaguchi's whatevers. (I would love to pick their brains on their thoughts on game design as a whole, though. Sakaguchi with his evolution into his own works outside of square enix, and nomura being the franchise top guy for 2 decades, now)

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks for stopping by! I know what FF is…. 😄 …. But sounds like you’re on a whole Nother level! I played final fantasy three for the SNES classic a couple years ago, but got stuck because I could never find the dragon that randomly flies around… 😭✈️ Good luck in Japan!

[@alexchen7729]

Nice video. Have you looked into the option of booking Prefered Hotels with Choice points?

[@DugrozReports]

I have not…. Yet. Sounds like a pain. Thanks, Alex!

[@user-it1jg8uh1h]

Never stay at the Quality Inn on the Lake at Clarksville Virginia. They will not give you your points or allow your days to count.

[@DugrozReports]

Oh no!!!! Will note that!

[@kura_bot]

Nice video! I had been so curious to hear your opinion on this

[@DugrozReports]

Thanks Kura_Bot!!!!

[@JacobsPointsAndProfit]

The only thing holding me back from Choice hotels is that I don't have any Citi cards right now. I would love to have the Citi Premier and Choice Select cards, but I'm focusing on other cards at the moment. Eventually I'll get around to it, but if I ever need Choice points, I might have to transfer Capital One miles

[@DugrozReports]

And that’s fine! If I was in your position, I would probably prioritize other cards first.

[@TechTravelsdev]

Dugroz , with the Citi Premierredemption rate for Choice and the Citi Rewards card, would the Citi Double replace the Venture X as your everything else card?

[@DugrozReports]

Yes… but they denied me for it!!!! 😦😦😦

[@AmirTheAuthenticCommuter]

This is the back door to Southwest and United Airlines through Citi

[@DugrozReports]

Not sure I follow? Can you clarify?

[@AmirTheAuthenticCommuter]

@@DugrozReports If you transfer your Citi Thank You Points, then you can also transfer those from Choice Hotels to Southwest and United. Only setback about Citi Cards are that they lack travel protection, and cell phone protection.

[@DugrozReports]

Sorry for the delayed reply. At what rate do choice points transfer to Southwest and United?

[@Bruce-fx1hf]

16000 per night room redemption bs 5 nights you get 4000 points 4 to 1 AWFUL.

[@DugrozReports]

I’m not following? Are you referencing points earned on paid stays?

[@Bruce-fx1hf]

AWFUL POINTS CONVERSION 4 TO 1

[@DugrozReports]

What converts 4 to 1?