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; although booking isn’t intuitive. 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 a total of 650 hotels worldwide. Of these, nearly 400 properties participate in the partnership with Choice Privileges Rewards. You’ll pay as few as 25,000 points per night for a stay in these hotels, with top options ranging up to 55,000 points per night.

While 55,000 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.

» Learn more: The best hotel credit cards right now

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, London and Hawaii.

Royal Lancaster London

The Royal Lancaster London, for example, is a high-end hotel featuring expansive views of Hyde Park. Rooms here will cost just 35,000 points per night.

When not using points, rates can be as high as $500 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 also 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.

Chateau Elan

If you’re looking to stay closer to home, the Chateau Elan in Georgia provides luxury accommodations inside a sprawling vineyard. Rates are cheap when redeeming points; you’ll pay 35,000 points per night for a room. Cash rates for the property vary, but can easily top $500 per night in the summer.

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

How to book Preferred Hotels with Choice points

Nowadays, it’s almost an expectation that you can book your reward rooms online. This isn’t the case when booking Preferred Hotels using your Choice points. The process for finding availability and booking a room begins by navigating to the page of participating hotels.

From there, you can filter and sort results:

• By location.

• Alphabetically.

• According to relevance.

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

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of properties, you’ll need to individually click on the hotel you’re looking for.

Selecting “Book with points” will bring you to a calendar where you’ll fill out more information about your stay.

The next page will show you an availability calendar, where you can see dates during which you can check in and check out.

Once you’ve found appropriate dates, you’ll need to whip out your phone. As we mentioned above, you can’t book these hotels online when using your Choice points.

Instead, you’ll need to call Choice customer service at the following phone numbers:

• U.S. residents: (888) 770-6800.

• Canadian residents: (866) 283-3510.

• European residents: +800-800-44-700.

Earning Choice points

Those looking to use Choice points to book these hotels will be happy to know that it’s very easy to earn Choice points. Aside from earning points with a co-branded credit card, you can also earn credit card points with three different card issuers and then transfer those points to Choice.

Citi

The Citi-Choice partnership is one of the most exciting recent developments because it offers the best rate for transferring points. The ratio will vary according to the card you hold:

• Citi Strata Premier® Card and Citi Prestige® Card (no longer open to new applicants) holders: 1:2 ratio

• Citi Double Cash® Card, Citi Rewards+® Card and Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card holders (no longer available to new applicants): 1:1.5 ratio.

This means that if you hold the Citi Strata Premier® Card, it’ll cost you just 17,500 Citi ThankYou points for a $500+ stay in Tokyo.

American Express

American Express Membership Rewards also transfer over to Choice Hotels, though these are at a flat 1:1 ratio.

Cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards include the American Express® Gold Card and American Express® Green Card. Terms apply.

Capital One

Like American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles transfer over to Choice Hotels at a 1:1 ratio.

» Learn more: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card review — a worthy option

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.

To view rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, see this page.