Your Guide to the Choice Privileges Award Chart

Choice Hotels features more than 7,000 properties around the globe through brands like Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn and Ascend Hotel Collection, as well as its Vacation Rentals by Choice Hotels properties.

Stay at any Choice hotel brand and you'll earn 10 points per $1 spent — that’s 1,000 points for spending $100. It’s that simple.

The big question: How many points are needed for a free night?

Choice Privileges members can cash in points for free nights starting at 6,000 points per night, going up to 35,000. The exception is in the Asia-Pacific region, where award nights go as high as 75,000 points per night. You’ll really need to look closely at the available properties near your destination to figure out how to get the most of your points.

For example, near Disney World in the Orlando area, the Quality Inn & Suites Near the Theme Parks goes for 25,000 points per night on the dates we checked, while the Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista required 8,000 points.

Choice Hotels has 12 brands to choose from:

• Ascend.

• Cambria.

• Clarion.

• Clarion Pointe.

• Comfort Inn & Suites.

• Econo Lodge.

• MainStay Suites.

• Quality Inn.

• Rodeway Inn.

• Sleep Inn.

• Suburban Extended Stay Hotel.

• Woodspring Suites.

Choice Hotels has also partnered with Bluegreen Vacations, which provides a collection of resorts, including Ascend Collection properties.

Two important things to note when booking rooms using Choice points:

• Rates can differ based on the time of year you book, and even the night of the week you book.

• You can only book rooms a maximum of 100 days ahead of time.

Points Plus Cash

Don’t have enough points for a free night award? The Points Plus Cash system allows you to combine your points with cash. It’s only good for hotels requiring 8,000 points or more.

How many Choice Privileges points will I earn on hotel stays, and how can I use them?

Choice makes it easy to rack up rewards for future free nights, especially when every night at a Choice Hotel gives you 10 points per $1 spent.

» Learn more: Best hotel credit cards

Need more points? Loyalty is rewarded

Choice Privileges rewards its most loyal travelers with several perks:

• Gold members earn an additional 10% bonus points.

• Platinum members earn an additional 25% bonus points.

• Diamond members earn an additional 50% bonus points.

If you're an elite member through another hotel loyalty program, Choice will match your status.

Good news for meeting planners

If you need to plan an event, specifically for work or family gatherings, Choice offers an 4 points for every $1 spent, including on food and beverages. In order to receive these rewards, you’ll need to enroll in Choice Privileges Meeting Planner Rewards. Members can earn up to 200,000 points per year with this program.

Book with plastic to accelerate your earnings

The Choice Privileges® Visa Signature® Card grants users Gold status for faster earnings. But what's especially great about this credit card offer is the welcome bonus: Earn 32,000 bonus points after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.

In addition, every year you spend $10,000 on the card, you’ll receive 8,000 anniversary points.

Book a Choice property with your card and you’ll earn 15 points per $1 spent. Choice Privilege points and gift card purchases earn 5 points per $1. All other purchases on the card earn 2 points per $1.

How else can you use Choice Privileges points?

Hotel loyalty programs are nothing without travel partnerships, though in general you won't get as much value from your points if you use them this way. For example, you could use Choice Privilege rewards to book a cruise on more than 20 different cruise lines using 85,000 or 160,000 points for $250 or $500, respectively, off your purchase price.

Feeling generous? You can donate points in 1,000 point increments to the American Red Cross, Polaris Project, Operation Homefront or the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation.