Unfortunately devaluations without notice are hardly a new phenomenon with Choice Privileges, so here’s the latest example of that…
In this post:
Choice Privileges hikes Preferred Hotels redemptions
Choice Privileges has a cool partnership with Preferred Hotels, allowing members to redeem points at hundreds of additional properties. For those not familiar with Preferred Hotels, this is a group of independent properties, most of which are boutique and/or luxury.
This is a great partnership, since Choice Privileges’ portfolio otherwise lacks high-end properties. Historically, stays at Preferred Hotels properties have cost anywhere from 20,000 to 55,000 points per night, which often represented good value. There was even a positive update a few months ago, as these redemptions became bookable online.
Unfortunately there’s now some bad news. These redemption rates have largely been devalued, as flagged by Travel With Grant and YHBU. At this point, you can expect to pay up to 87,000 Choice Privileges points per night for stays at Preferred Hotels properties, in some cases representing a nearly 60% price increase. Ouch!
It’s not that all properties that previously cost 55,000 points now cost 87,000 points. Rather, you’ll find that prices are all over the place, and there are also all kinds of price points between those two amounts as well.
I’m sure there are still some situations where these redemptions could be worthwhile. Though Choice’s capacity controls don’t help either, as finding availability can be really difficult…
These kinds of redemptions tend to devalue
It’s of course disappointing to see these kinds of devaluations, especially without any notice. Choice Privileges has a history of making changes without notice, so it’s not out of character for the program.
I can’t say I’m surprised by this devaluation, given that Preferred Hotels properties aren’t actually part of Choice’s direct hotel portfolio, and presumably these redemptions were therefore quite expensive for the program.
It’s no different than how Wyndham Rewards recently devalued Vacasa redemptions, whereby you can redeem your points for vacation rentals. While these redemptions used to cost a flat 15,000 points per night, new tiered pricing was introduced, whereby awards now cost either 15,000 or 30,000 points per night. I imagine the motivation there was similar.
Suffice it to say that these 60-100% devaluations are rough…
Bottom line
Choice Privileges has increased redemption rates for many Preferred Hotels properties. While these awards used to cost up to 55,000 points per night, the pricing now maxes out at 87,000 points per night, which is rough. This is hardly Choice’s first significant devaluation without notice, so I can’t say I’m surprised…
What do you make of this Choice Privileges devaluation?
As I had warned when Choice swallowed Radisson, there would be faster and worse devaluation of Choice points because of that acquisition with the assimilation of the Radisson devaluation mentality and a review of the finances of the program. In the last several months, the pace and extent of the point devaluations in the Chocie program has indeed gotten worse. I strongly suspect that there will be further devaluations of the points even before the...
As I had warned when Choice swallowed Radisson, there would be faster and worse devaluation of Choice points because of that acquisition with the assimilation of the Radisson devaluation mentality and a review of the finances of the program. In the last several months, the pace and extent of the point devaluations in the Chocie program has indeed gotten worse. I strongly suspect that there will be further devaluations of the points even before the end of the year.
Annoying as it is, I have been pursuing a strategy of keeping most all of my Choice points locked into a rotating series of refundable award night reservations in order to minimize the chance of being whacked as badly by additional devaluations. Been doing that for the last year or so after I got word that they were looking to devalue the mix of hotel night redemptions of relevance to me.
Actually first reported by Travel With Grant, who YHBU appropriately hat-tipped
@ Craig T. -- Whoops, thanks for bringing that to my attention. Missed it all the way at the bottom. Fixed now.
Thanks, Ben. You’re very good at attribution, which I always appreciate. And thanks for all your hard work and skill to inform and educate all of us in the travel and points & miles world!
Too bad about the Choice-Preferred devaluation. But if they’d ever open up availability for those Montage properties, I’d still book them in a heartbeat!
The clock was ticking once they made award bookings available online
Ben, it's worth noting that individual Preferred Hotels can opt out of redemptions. Even within the Preferred Hotels' own loyalty program. Sherry-Netherland in NYC is one. Quite unfortunate.
That very property was available a few days ago for redemptions next week and later this month. Only one of the two choices at that classic hotel in NYC was an “accessible” room, so they did seem to have two basic room types for sale using Choice points.
Hmmm. A while back FT said that it was bookable. I subsequently tried but no dice. I called both Choice and Preferred and was told it opted out of redemptions. So, I gave up. Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep checking.
Just tried again. iPrefer still shows it's not bookable on iPrefer points. And, Choice doesn't even list it as a property . . . even via the Choice/Preferred partner site. Tried several dates. Any thoughts?
Go to
https://www.choicehotels.com/ascend/preferred-hotels-partner
Login using your case-sensitive Choice email address and password.
Conduct the search by first filtering by city by pulling down New York in the city list.
Then apply the filter.
Scroll down to Sherry-N hotel and then look up availability and book using Choice points. Just got an “interior room” for a mid-September 2024 date with a 72-hour cancellation policy.
I didn’t click on the final step today, but it seemed...
Go to
https://www.choicehotels.com/ascend/preferred-hotels-partner
Login using your case-sensitive Choice email address and password.
Conduct the search by first filtering by city by pulling down New York in the city list.
Then apply the filter.
Scroll down to Sherry-N hotel and then look up availability and book using Choice points. Just got an “interior room” for a mid-September 2024 date with a 72-hour cancellation policy.
I didn’t click on the final step today, but it seemed to be set to work to draw down my point balance and confirm the reservation by showing my before and after balance if I were to then click confirm. Did you have enough points after trying these steps? Did it error out for you on that link?
I literally just read about this and was planning to book the Hanover for 45k a night less than 24 hours ago. Now it costs 54k.
Devaluation without notice is really the worse. Now I remember last time at least Turkish gave us a notice