Choice Privileges hotels and Why you should look into this

[masco131]

Just bought 20K points, to pay for 2 nights at the Clarion Hotel, Jeddah Airport next February.

Points cost: A$197
Hotel cash cost: A$859

I booked the suite, as it was the same points cost/night as the most basic room. Only drawback is you can't get the breakfast deal with the points

I am not actually sure why it is not included. I know for sure you get free breakfast in Nordic countries and Japan from experience.

 

[Seat0B]

We really liked the Clarion and Comfort hotels we stayed in on our scent Scandi/Nordic trip and I am interested in following up the good info in t his thread for future stays.

Can I just ask those who have used it (@masco131 , @RooFlyer! @Flashback etc) how the buy points and use to book nights process works. Are the “points nights” hard to find or can you use points to pay for pretty much any night, or partially pay with points and the rest with $$?

Also, what’s the relationship to their “Strawberry” offering please?

 

[burmans]

Strawberry is what was NordicChoice, some of the best value hotels to use points on. You can only book with points 2 months out I think (it’s been a while for me). I’ve always been able to use my points but usually do get in as soon as bookings open.

 

[masco131]

We really liked the Clarion and Comfort hotels we stayed in on our scent Scandi/Nordic trip and I am interested in following up the good info in t his thread for future stays.

Can I just ask those who have used it (@masco131 , @RooFlyer! @Flashback etc) how the buy points and use to book nights process works. Are the “points nights” hard to find or can you use points to pay for pretty much any night, or partially pay with points and the rest with $$?

Also, what’s the relationship to their “Strawberry” offering please?

I’ve been able to book rooms immediately after purchasing points, which is great. The nice thing is that you can check room availability even before buying any points.
In my experience, availability is generally quite good, especially across the Nordic countries.
Just a heads-up though they recently had a devaluation, but the bonus points offer has also increased to balance it out.

 

[RooFlyer]

@Seat0B

Repeating a bit from the above.

You can do a dummy booking and see how many points are required. That's exactly what I did when I first went to use the scheme, after @Flashback introduced it to me. It was 15K points/night for the Clarion at CPH, I needed 3 nights, so bought 45K points and booked immediately. That was outrageous value - I see they are now 20K, so probably just very good value with the devaluation+bonus purchase.

And breakfast included!

No option to book points+$, just one or the other.

There is a bonus points offer available on now, until 10 November with 'up to' 40% bonus.

I've always found points nights easy to find - but a data base of only 2 - at Copenhagen airport and at Jeddah airport. But a search on Copenhagen just now shows availability across about 12 hotels there.

I couldn't figure out between Strawberry and Clarion, esp in respect of booking. I have both apps and they bring up the same hotels in Copenhagen, but my points only show in the choice app???

 

[Flashback]

We really liked the Clarion and Comfort hotels we stayed in on our scent Scandi/Nordic trip and I am interested in following up the good info in t his thread for future stays.

Can I just ask those who have used it (@masco131 , @RooFlyer! @Flashback etc) how the buy points and use to book nights process works. Are the “points nights” hard to find or can you use points to pay for pretty much any night, or partially pay with points and the rest with $$?

Also, what’s the relationship to their “Strawberry” offering please?

Note that the points purchase transaction isn't instantaneous, it can take up to a few days. However, have never had any issues with availability disappearing.

Strawberry is what was NordicChoice, some of the best value hotels to use points on. You can only book with points 2 months out I think (it’s been a while for me). I’ve always been able to use my points but usually do get in as soon as bookings open.

I've not seen any time limitations in regards to how far out you can book.