Redeem Choice Privileges Points At Preferred Hotels

Choice Privileges has over 7,500 properties around the globe, belonging to 22 distinct brands, so it’s quite a big hotel group. The catch is that Choice doesn’t have all that many aspirational properties.

For those looking to redeem points, there’s fortunately one pretty exciting redemption opportunity, and that’s the ability to redeem at Preferred Hotels & Resorts properties, thanks to a partnership. Historically the process of booking these properties has a pain, though that has just become much easier, as flagged by Frequent Miler.

Basics of the Choice Privileges & Preferred Hotels partnership

It’s possible to redeem Choice Privileges points for stays at Preferred Hotels properties. For those not familiar with Preferred Hotels, this is a group of hundreds of independent properties, most of which are boutique and luxury. While Preferred Hotels has over 650 properties, only around 300 of them belong to the Choice Privileges partnership.

Choice Privileges redemptions at these properties have fixed pricing, which can range from 20,000 to 55,000 points per night, depending on the property.

What’s also nice is that you can redeem at Preferred Hotels properties up to a year in advance, while Choice Privileges limits you to redeeming up to 100 days in advance at its own properties. The catch is that there are heavy capacity controls, especially at the better properties, so don’t expect you’ll be able to redeem points every night.

For those who have a balance of Choice Privileges points but who don’t necessarily know what to do with them, I think this is a redemption option worth looking into. For example, I have around 250,000 Choice Privileges points.

That’s because I had a bunch of Radisson Rewards points (the co-branded credit card offered 40,000 anniversary points every year back in the day), then that program was split off into Radisson Rewards Americas, and then the program was merged into Choice Privileges. So this will probably be how I redeem my points.

If you want to earn Choice Privileges points but don’t yet have them, the most efficient way is to transfer them from Citi ThankYou, as points transfer at a 1:2 ratio. Choice Privileges also frequently sells points at a discount.

Book Preferred Hotels properties online with points

Historically the only way to redeem Choice Privileges points for Preferred Hotels stays was by phoning up Choice, and there’s nothing fun about booking awards by phone. Fortunately you can now book these awards online at this link.

Note that you need to have enough points in your account for one night in order to search and book — if you don’t have enough points, you can look up at availability at this link.

It’s convenient to be able to browse hotels and search availability online, especially given how hard award availability can sometimes be to come by. There are some super cool properties participating in this partnership, like Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, Germany…

…and Castelfalfi in Tuscany, Italy…

…and Kilkea Castle in Castledermot, Ireland.

Bottom line

It’s now possible to redeem Choice Privileges points for Preferred Hotels & Resorts properties directly online. While award availability isn’t great at most properties, this is an exciting redemption opportunity, since it gets you access to more than just Choice’s hotel brands. It’s also great how you can redeem more than 100 days in advance, unlike at Choice’s own properties.

What do you make of Choice Privileges redemptions at Preferred Hotels & Resorts properties?