Book Preferred Hotels With Choice Privileges

The other day I took a deep dive into Citi ThankYou points newest transfer partner, Preferred Hotels. It was an eye catching addition because of the 1 ThankYou point to 4 Preferred Hotels iPrefer point transfer ratio. That kind of rate is unheard of in the space. While the deep dive did result in a mixed bag for the new partner, it did open up some discussion of another Citi ThankYou points transfer partner, Choice Hotels. It is notable because Choice Hotels makes it possible to book Preferred Hotels with Choice Privileges points online. Not only that, but Choice has a much better hit rate of finding award space versus Preferred Hotels iPrefer program.

Yes, it is easier to book Preferred Hotels with their outside partner, weird I know. It is similar to how it is better to book flights with a partner airline at times when you think about it though.

Citi ThankYou Points To Choice Privileges Transfers

Before we get into how you book Preferred Hotels with Choice Privileges points, we should discuss the best way to rack up points in the Choice Hotels program. That would be Citi ThankYou points, because they offer an industry best (tied) transfer ratio of 1 ThankYou point to 2 Choice Privileges points. Plus, they have a great array of cards to go with it. If you are earning your ThankYou points on the Citi Strata Premier card, that is like get 6 Choice Privileges points per dollar on gas, grocery and restaurant purchases.

While ThankYou points are not the only transfer partner of Choice Hotels (ToP Transfer Partner Tool), they are one of the only ones that gives a 1 to 2 ratio. Here are your other option for transferring points to Choice Hotels:

• American Express Membership Rewards: 1 to 1 rate
• Capital One Miles: 1 to 1 rate
• Wells Fargo: 1 to 2 rate

Wells Fargo is the only other option for a 1 to 2 rate with their recent dive into transferrable currencies. Their lack of compelling cards, and other great transfer partners, slides them below Citi for earning Choice Privileges points in my opinion though.

How To Book Preferred Hotels With Choice Privileges Points

Now that we know how to earn Choice Privileges points, let's get into the details on how to use one hotel program (Choice Hotels) to book another hotel program's (Preferred Hotels) rooms.

Step 1: Go To The Choice Hotels Preferred Hotels Booking Page

It would be nice if Preferred Hotels simply showed up on Choice Hotels main search engine, but it isn't that easy. You need to go to the Choice Hotels Preferred Hotels landing page. Once there, you will need to sign into your Choice Hotels account to be able to search Preferred Hotels.

Step 2: Narrow Down Your Search

On the next screen you will need to narrow down your search by area. You can skip right to the city option at the end if you want to as well. You don't need to actually select in every category is my point. It is far from the best search engine, but there are not a ton of hotels to comb through at least.

You will also notice the map view highlighted above. This may be the quicker way to search their hotels on a computer. If you are having issues getting the book now button to come up, which sometimes happens when you don't have enough points to book the room, the map search can help get around that too.

Step 3: Check Hotel Availability

The search results can give a bit of false hope at times when you see the award price per night, since there are times you will click through and no rooms will be available. Once you click through the hotel may actually show now award space throughout the entire calendar.

As we saw with the Preferred Hotels iPrefer program, some hotels don't like to play nice with award space. Having said that, the Choice Hotels program seems to face that problem a whole lot less than Preferred Hotels' own program does.

Book Preferred Hotels With Choice Privileges: ToP Thoughts

Now that you know how to book Preferred Hotels with Choice Privileges points you are aware of one of the more valuable, and niche, hotel options out there. Finding space can be a bit more difficult than some other programs, but it is leaps and bounds (remember those as a kid?) better than Preferred Hotels own iPrefer program for finding bookable award nights.

If you pair this new booking option up with Citi ThankYou or Wells Fargo points then you can see why this can be so powerful. The pictures above show some nice hotels in New York City for under 30,000 points a night when factoring in the 1 to 2 transfer ratio. That is tough to beat, especially with Hyatt jacking up all their hotels' cost in the NYC area.

Let me know if you have ever used Choice Hotels to book a Preferred Hotels stay over in the ToP Facebook Group.