Preferred Hotels & Resorts now cost more Choice points

If you want to redeem Choice points for your Preferred Hotels & Resorts stay, unfortunately, award rates are now higher at many properties within the portfolio.

Until recently, you could redeem 25,000 to 55,000 Choice points per night for stays at participating Preferred Hotels & Resorts. Now, less than three months after it became possible to book Preferred Hotels & Resorts with Choice points online (previously, you needed to call to book), award rates at many properties have jumped, and you’ll need to redeem between 20,000 and 87,000 Choice points per night. Travel with Grant first reported this award pricing increase.

Interestingly, previous award rates are still advertised for six hotels on the Preferred Hotels & Resorts landing page on the Choice Hotels website.

But when you click through to book on the Preferred Hotels & Resorts website, each costs more than listed. For example, the Splendid Venice Venezia-Starhotels Collezione in Venice, Italy, previously cost 55,000 Choice points per night. But now, every award night at this hotel you can book costs 66,000 points.

The Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles used to cost 45,000 points per night, but now award rates have jumped to 51,000 points per night.

And Cavallo Point in San Francisco previously cost 55,000 points per night but now costs 71,000 points per night.

The list goes on. Plus, now you’ll find Preferred Hotels & Resorts properties that cost as much as 87,000 Choice points per night. These four properties are:

• Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan, Florida
• Half Moon in Montego Bay, Jamaica
• Hawks Cay Resort in Duck Key, Florida
• Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada

Award rates don’t drop off quickly, either. The Chatham Bars Inn in Chatham, Massachusetts, costs 86,000 Choice points per night, and two more properties cost 85,000 Choice points per night.

Award rates for Preferred Hotels & Resorts bottom out at 20,000 Choice points per night at The Thief in Oslo, Norway.

Many travelers are disappointed in this award pricing increase. But the partnership was likely seeing far more redemptions once online bookings became available, and that could have forced — or at least encouraged — an increase in award rates. We’ve seen high award rates with many similar hotel partnerships, including how you can redeem Hyatt points for some Mr & Mrs Smith properties.

Related: 14 ways to earn Choice Privileges points

I had considered redeeming 55,000 Choice points per night for Noku Maldives, but this hotel is no longer bookable through the Preferred Hotels & Resorts partnership. So, given the current list of properties and their award pricing, I don’t expect to redeem Choice points for any Preferred Hotels & Resorts.

Instead, I’ll continue getting great value when redeeming Choice points for stays in Japan at a rate of 8,000 to 12,000 points per night and expensive destinations where award costs top out at 35,000 points per night. After all, award nights at Choice Hotels properties still cost between 6,000 and 35,000 points in most parts of the world (except Asia Pacific, where award nights cost up to 75,000 points). I’ll also watch for Choice Hotels Sweet Spot Rewards properties and Choice Privileges Experiences, as both are good ways to get solid value when redeeming Choice points.