I like Choice Hotels’ loyal program. Although far less popular than the other hotel chains, they have so many sweet spots in their system, and it got even better with the Preferred Hotels partnership.
In late 2024 they announced three changes in 2025:
- Booking window to increase from 100 days to 50 weeks
- Premium room awards available at a higher price
- Re-introduction of RewardSavers, a redemption discount program
The new system was launched a few days ago and quite buggy at the beginning, making many people think a major devaluation had arrived. It’s now stablised and from what we can see, the pricing for most hotels remains unchanged (for now).
Many top-end hotels in Scandinavia, including the Thief Oslo, can still be booked for 20,000 points or less, and you can indeed book far out towards the end of 2025.
The two Ascend hotels at Copenhagen – Hotel Admiral and Villa Copenhagen – are now available at 20,000 points. I spent 45,000 points via the Preferred Hotels channel, oh well.
Hotel Aquarius Venice is still 20,000 points per night and you can pay 4,000 points more for a junior suite.
Great news is, most Japanese hotels are now priced at 8,000 points only, many reduced from 12,000, 16,000 or even 20,000 points.
Our reader @Luca, a savvy traveller to Japan, has recommended the following hotels:
- Comfort Inn Tokyo Roppongi
- Comfort Inn Kyoto Shijokarasuma
- Comfort Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi
- hotel around TAKAYAMA
hotel around TAKAYAMA is especially worth a mention. For 8,000 points you can book a 3-bed room with a kitchen, or a 4-bed room with a sofa bed that accommodates 6. They also offer free bike rental to Choice members.
As the Choice program is subject to no-notice devaluation, if you have potential travel plans in 2025 that align I suggest to book them just in case. With Daily Getaways discontinued, the only practical way to earn Choice points is to buy them – there’s currently a 40% bonus offer and you can buy at 0.74c per point.
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