Choice Hotels Hotel Rewards, A Great Budget Travel Option!

Choice Hotels Rewards, An Awesome Rewards Program For Budget Travel!

In order to spend 10 years road tripping to explore and experience the US National Parks, it was important to keep a lid on travel expenses.  It wasn’t that often that I stayed in hotels but when I did (and still do), I spent most nights in various Choice Hotels.  If you’re not familiar with Choice Hotels and you are a budget traveler, it would pay to check them out and sign up for the Choice Hotels Rewards Program.  Choice Hotels has more than 7,000 locations around the world and TONS of hotels in the US.  If you plan to travel on a budget, chances are you’ll want to spend your nights in the Econo Lodge and Roadway Inn in the Choice Hotels family.  These two brands are on the lower tier of Choice Hotels and hotels in general but they are generally cheap, have basic amenities and are for the most part clean, offer breakfast and have decent but basic amenities.

When it comes to hotel rewards programs, I’ve found the Choice Hotel rewards program hard to beat.  As everything has gotten more expensive since the pandemic started, the rewards program is not as good as it was but it can still be pretty good if you know how work it and are willing to read and take advantage of the exact terms of the program.

Why Is The Choice Hotels Rewards Program So Good?

Whether of not you think the Choice Hotels Rewards Program is good or not will depend on how important a “nice” hotel is to you and whether you are willing to endure some inconvenience.  When I travel, the hotel is merely a place to sleep, connect to wifi and maybe spend a little mindless time with the TV on ad the end of the day.  A mini fridge and microwave along with a coffee maker are all nice to have and Choice Hotels generally have those in every room.

The most common (and best!) points promotion that Choice Hotels has is the stay two times and get 8,000 points.  Sometimes the same promotion runs and it is stay two times and get a $50 gas card.  Regardless of how it is presented, both promotions give you a total of 8,000 Choice Hotel points after two stays.  The latter lets you cash in those 8,000 points for a $50 gift card for gas or a number of other gift cards.  8,000 points is the minimum number of points you will need to book a free night at a Choice Hotel.  Lately the points required for a free night have gone up at a fair number of Choice Hotel locations and the “Points Plus Cash” option is not as good of a deal in 2022 as it was just a couple years ago but in some cases in can be a good deal.

How Does The Choice Hotels Rewards Program Work?

In order to take advantage of the Choice Hotels Rewards Program, the first thing you will need to do is to register for the rewards program itself.  Once you’ve signed up for the rewards program, you will need to register for EVERY promotion they offer.  If you don’t register for the program you won’t get the bonus points even if you complete the stays necessary to get the rewards.

Once you’ve got the registration out of the way you’ll need to read the terms and conditions of the rewards program very carefully.  The terms are simple to follow and take advantage of but if you want to maximize your rewards, your travel plans might get a little more complicated.

If you want to get the 8,000 bonus points when staying two nights at Choice Hotels, there are two things to note that are absolutely critical.

1. You must book a room rate that is at least $40 before taxes.  As hotel rates have gone up along with everything else lately, the chance of finding a sub $40 hotel rate even at Econo Lodge is pretty slim.
2. A “stay” is defined as one or more consecutive nights at a Choice Hotel.  You need TWO stays to get your 8,000 points.  That means you must stay at two different hotels that cost at least $40 per night before taxes.  Staying at one hotel for two nights counts as one stay.  You need two stays to get the 8,000 bonus points.

In addition to the points bonuses, Choice Hotels also has “extras”.  These are small rewards that you opt in to receive for every weekday stay at a Choice Hotels property.  The choices for “extras” include $5.00 Starbucks credit, $2.50 Amazon credit, a gas discount, and Uber credit of around $2.50 or some extra Choice Hotel points.  If you patronize Starbucks, the best deal is by far the $5.00 Starbucks credit.

How Do You Maximize The Choice Hotels Rewards Program?

1. If you are paying for hotel stays and not using points when you stay at Choice Hotels you look for the cheapest hotels and you book directly through the Choice Hotels app.  If you use a 3rd party booking site like Expedia you will not get rewards.
2. When you travel, look for the cheapest Choice Hotels available.  These will generally be the Roadway and EconoLodge brands.
3. Remember that it requires two STAYS, not two NIGHTS to get the 8,000 points bonus so when possible plan to stay one night at each hotel.  As long as the rate before taxes is more than $40, it will count toward the point bonus.
4. If you are traveling across the country and will spend time in a city or get stuck in a city or town due to inclement weather, two to pick a town with multiple cheap Choice Hotels.  That was you can bounce back and forth between the two hotels and keep racking up the points.
5. When possible, spend weeknights in the hotels so you will get the Choice Hotels “extras”.
6. Maximize these rewards programs while the seals are running and use points for your stays when the “stay two night and get 8,000 points” promos are not running.
7. If you have an AAA card, make sure you get the AAA rate.  Alternatively you may be able to find some corporate codes online that will give you an even bigger discount.

An Example Of How To Maximize The Choice Hotels Rewards Program

Since I live on the east coast and often travel to the west coast, I do a lot of cross country drives.  When I drive across the country, it is often when the Choice Hotels “Stay Two, Get 8,000 Points”  I time a lot of the cross country drives to match up with the Choice Hotels bonus points offers.  They are in place numerous time of year so it is generally not hard to do.  As I travel across the country, I typically drive at least 300 miles per day and book the cheapest room that is along the way.  I also look for cities, towns or areas that have multiple Choice Hotels in them.

A few years ago I was driving I-70 through Kansas when a huge “bomb cyclone” hit the northern edge of Colorado and the western edge of Kansas.  I ended up being stuck in Kansas for 6 days until the roads were cleared and the highways opened up.  As the time the storm hit, I was in Salina Kansas.  Salina, Kansas is a big truck stop town and had two Econo Lodge hotels as well as a Roadway hotel. During that 6 day stay, I switched hotels every night and bounced around between the two Econo Lodge hotels and the Roadway.  If I would have stayed at one of those hotels for the entire 6 days, I wouldn’t qualify for the 8,000 point bonus even once.  By switching hotels every night, I was able to get the bonus three times and rack up 24,000 points and get $25.00 in Starbucks gift cards (one for each weeknight stay).

Each hotel night came to about $50 or a little less.  While it was a little inconvenient switching hotels every night, for $300, I was able to get the 6 hotel nights I paid for, earn enough reward points for three more hotel stays and get $25 to use at Starbucks.  Had I stayed in the same hotel for all 6 nights I would have spent $300 to stay for 6 nights and gotten one $5.00 Starbucks gift card.

Without the rewards program I would have spent $300 or $50/night and gotten $5.00 for Starbucks.  With the rewards I got the 6 nights I stayed plus three more points nights to use in the future and $25 for Starbucks.  By maximizing the Choice Hotels Rewards Program, I spent $300 for 9 nights which would bring the cost per night down to $33.33 and closer to $30 if you figure in the $25 in Starbucks “extras” rewards.

What’s The Bottom Line With Choice Hotels Rewards?

As you can see from the example above, it is a bit of a pain in the ass to maximize Choice Hotel rewards.  If you are willing to bounce around to different hotels every night you are on the road or staying in a particular town and you stay at the cheapest places you can cut your cost per night by about 1/3 and get lots of Starbucks credit.  If you are traveling solo and staying at staying at upscale hotels is not a priority, you cross the country and do it at a very low cost per night.  When you go cheap, you will come across some Econo Lodge and Roadway Hotels that are bottom of the barrel but almost all of them are clean and functional.  The only two I’ve come across I’d never stay at again are the Roadway Inn in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the Roadway Hotel in Paradise, PA near Lancaster.  Both of those were absolute shit holes and I’ve never stay at either one of them again no matter what.

Additional Helpful Information

• Choice Hotels Homepage – Visit this page to search for and book hotel rooms directly through Choice Hotels
• Choice Hotels Rewards Registration Page – Register for the Choice Hotels Rewards Program and start earning free stays and bonus extras today!
• Choice Hotels “Extras” Rewards Details – See the “extras” you can ear when staying at Choice Hotels locations during the week.