You Can Use Your Choice Points to Book Luxury Preferred Hotels

Ever heard of Preferred Hotels & Resorts? The answer may be “no,” but this group of independent luxury hotels features properties all over the world — and they’re bookable with points.

Because of a unique partnership between Choice and Preferred Hotels, hundreds of these boutique properties are available using your Choice points. Even better, they're reasonably priced with many rooms costing 50,000 points or less per night. Let’s take a look at how to use your Choice points to book with Preferred Hotels.

The Choice/Preferred Hotels partnership

Preferred Hotels & Resorts contains more than 650 hotels worldwide. Of these, more than 300 properties participate in the partnership with Choice Privileges. You’ll pay as few as 20,000 points per night for a stay in these hotels, with top options generally ranging up to 87,000 points per night. (There was only one property that priced at 150,000 points a night, but it didn't have any award availability.)

While 87,000 points for a Choice hotel may seem a bit pricey, these are all high-end accommodations; you won’t find budget lodging within the Preferred Hotels & Resorts portfolio.

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Best Preferred Hotels bookable with Choice points

Nearly all of the hotels bookable with your Choice points are a good option. However, you’ll find especially great value in expensive locations such as Tokyo and London.

Royal Lancaster London

The Royal Lancaster London, for example, is a high-end hotel featuring expansive views of Hyde Park. Rooms here will cost 48,000 points per night.

When not using points, rates can be as high as $600 per night.

» Learn more: Best ways to redeem your Choice Privileges points

Royal Park Hotel Iconic Tokyo Shiodome

The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Tokyo Shiodome occupies more than a dozen floors of Shiodome tower. Rooms here will cost 35,000 points per night.

If you've ever been to Tokyo, you're likely stunned by that price, since hotel rooms in the city can be so expensive. Rates here can hover around $230 per night, though you’ll find especially good value during times such as the cherry blossom season.

Castlemartyr Resort

If you’re looking for a lush retreat, head to Castlemartyr Resort in Cork, Ireland. The picturesque property provides luxury accommodations inside a stately manor. Rooms at this property go for 25,000 points a night, but cash rates frequently hover in the $300s.

» Learn more: How to book a vacation to the Maldives using points and miles

How to book Preferred Hotels with Choice points

It's easy to book a Preferred Hotel property with your Choice points online. To start, you'll need to sign in to your Choice account on the dedicated Preferred Hotels page. Once you do so, you'll be taken to the Preferred Hotels website where you can search for properties and book your reservation.

From there, you can filter and sort results:

• By location.

• Alphabetically.

• According to recommendation.

• By the amount of points you’ll need to pay each night.

Unlike some other platforms, you can sort all eligible properties at once — a convenient option for those who might not necessarily have a destination in mind yet. The website conveniently shows the name and location of each property, a Tripadvisor rating, and the nightly points cost. (Preferred Hotels uses a fixed-point pricing system, so every night will cost the same amount of points, as long as there is availability.) It will also list any fees that you need to pay, since resort fees are not waived for Choice points bookings.

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of properties, you’ll need to individually click on the hotel you’re looking for to see what availability looks like. This can be frustrating, as some properties will not have any availability through the end of the award calendar, but there's no way to determine that without clicking into the specific property.

Selecting “View Rates” will bring you to a calendar where you’ll see award availability.

Assuming everything looks good, you'll need to follow the prompts to completing your booking.

For online bookings, keep in mind that you can cancel your Preferred Hotels booking, but it may take up to 72 hours for your points to be redeposited to your Choice account. You're also unable to modify Preferred Hotels bookings. For any changes, you'll need to cancel your existing reservation and rebook using the steps above.

The bottom line

Choice Hotels aren’t well-known for their luxury options. Despite a large footprint, you’re more likely to think of budget-friendly options rather than aspirational properties when using your Choice points.

However, thanks to a robust partnership with Preferred Hotels & Resorts, you can redeem those Choice points at unique, high-end hotels in some of the world’s most desirable locations. Even better, the transfer partnership between Citi and Choice allows you to spend half as many points for these properties — potentially dropping your nightly rate to just 12,500 points per night for truly opulent redemptions.