The Choice Privileges hotel loyalty program is often overlooked when planning upcoming travel and looking for a place to stay.
I recently had a stay at the Quality Inn Downtown Montreal which I booked as an award stay for only 8,000 Choice points.
You can access this property on Choice’s website here.
READ MORE: Choice Privileges Rate & Bonus Points Offers
Choice Hotels can be all over the map in terms of the quality of the property, and the reviews or hotel rating scores are helpful in determining whether a property is worth staying at.
More recently, I’m finding that there are quite a few newer or renovated properties that can offer some outstanding value, especially when booked with points. The Quality Inn Montreal was recently renovated with an excellent rating of 4.1 out of 5. There is also an Econo Lodge Choice property just down the street that has the same owner.
Choice Privileges was running a free night sweet spots promotion that John wrote about here that I could take advantage of with this Quality Inn being on the list of hotels that require a reduced number of points (8K) until April 15th.
Choice points can be purchased on sale from time to time, and John wrote about the deal last month here, where you could buy points as low as 0.69c/point. I purchased some Choice points during the 2022 Daily Getaways offer at 0.52c/point, and the 8K points for a free night here cost only $42.
On check-in at the hotel, I was pleasantly surprised to be handed a gift bag for simply being a Choice Privileges member. It contained two bottles of water, a chocolate bar, a bag of chips, and some Pringles. Some hotels might offer you complimentary bottles of water. However, I find that most of them would charge you a couple of dollars for each of the snack items.
Another example of where I found Choice points very valuable was back in June 2022, when I stayed at this same property during the Formula One race weekend when the city was completely sold out, and some airport hotels were charging up to $5,000 for a room. Some cancellations opened last minute, and a couple of hotels were offering rooms last minute for $900 and up for a night.
The Quality Inn had a room available for $900 or 16,000 points. I booked it immediately on points and had an enjoyable last-minute weekend trip in Montreal during the Formula One race. Tickets were sold out for the race. However, it was still fun being in the city with all the other Formula One-related events going on at the same time.
When booking an award stay, Choice Hotels often opens all room types for the same number of points. This is a crucial difference when compared to other loyalty programs, which will often charge you more points for a larger room or suite. I took advantage of this when I had a wonderful stay at the Comfort Inn International in Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road in Australia earlier this year, where I booked a lovely two-bedroom – two-level suite for only 16,000 points.
You can access the Comfort Inn Apollo Bay International here.
Conclusion
The Choice Privileges loyalty program can offer some great value in terms of the pricing in points and the selection of rooms available. Newer, renovated, and well-maintained properties are worth checking out.
I was able to book a very reasonable stay for only 8,000 points a night or just over $40 worth of points. This is something that is hard to come by these days in a large city such as Montreal, especially in the year 2023, where hotel revenue rates can be thru the roof.