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Choice Hotels Gets Charitable with their Loyalty Program

October 30, 2009 at 9:03 AM | by KatieK | 0 Comments

Aww. It always cheers us up to see hotel brands using their power for good. This month Choice Hotels supported Make a Difference Day, a national day of neighborly help. Choice Hotels employees joined Rebuilding Together volunteers to work with low-income homeowners, with roughly 700 reps from Choice Hotels doing their part to contribute some 5,000 volunteer hours.

But here’s how that relates to you: For every volunteer who joins the Choice Privileges rewards program by Dec. 31, Choice Hotels will donate $1 to Rebuilding Together, up to $50,000. Just for signing up, new loyalty program members get 500 bonus points, plus 500 more points if you stay before the end of 2009. Choice Hotels also offers similar charity programs with the American Red Cross and Armed Forces Relief Fund.

The best part? You’ll be able to sleep sound knowing you’ve made a tiny dent of good in the world—and as a new Choice Hotels loyalty program member, you can enjoy the extra sleep with late check-outs.

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For Better or Worse, These Hotels Have Realized 'There's An App For That'

October 13, 2009 at 5:43 PM | by Omri | 0 Comments

We've been variously hot and cold about hotel chain iPhone apps. As a rule we embrace anything that can help us travel easier while already on the road, and we certainly embrace it if it lives in the App Store. But hotel apps fall into that dicey category where we're not sure that the bother that goes into them is worth whatever comes out.

Hotel iPhone applications generally help you find a nearby chain hotel and check in through your rewards account. Sometimes they may automatically dial customer service. All of which is great except people rarely book within just one chain. Price is usually the most important factor, which means using a search engine, and rarely is someone in so much of a pinch that exact GPS-pinpointed location matters.

As for checking in, well, we're not talking about flights. The hotel will still be there waiting when you arrive, and you'll still have to wait in line to get it. Checking in doesn't have to happen from the road.

Nonetheless, hotels aren't going to stop producing apps. It's just what companies do these days. So here's our roundup of the industry's current offerings. Feel free to sound off in the comments: would you make space on your beloved iPhone for something like this?

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Choice Hotels Giving $25,000 in Cash to One Lucky Winner

September 16, 2009 at 4:48 PM | by juliana | 0 Comments

If you're a devoted viewer of the "Today Show" on NBC, then you may have been keeping up with the shows's "Where Are We Today?" segment where viewers have to guess the correct location before it's revealed the next day. But maybe you didn't know that the segment was being sponsored by Choice Hotels and as part of this sponsorship, the hotel collection is offering a lucky viewer to win a $25,000 cash prize. And no hotel stays needed!

Of course, Choice would like you to spend your nights at their hotels (which include Comfort Inns, Cambria Suites and Quality Inns) and indeed you must be a member of their Choice Privileges program to enter.

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Like, Duh! Hotels Realize How Valuable iPhone Apps Can Be

August 11, 2009 at 4:53 PM | by amandak | 1 Comment

From the tales of stuff-we-already-knew (but hotels didn't): potential guests who use iPhones are worth chasing. Of course they/we are! Chains like Choice Hotels and Wyndham Hotels are getting serious about mobile sites and iPhone apps so that future guests can get all the info they need while on the run, and it's all a whole lot more successful than they thought.

A Wyndham spokesperson said that potential customers accessing their mobile site "are converting at much higher rates than assumed" and the Choice people claim to have been the first brand with an iPhone app, and they're keen to keep doing more in this direction.

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If You're Into Rachael Ray, You'll Dig Into This Comfort Inn Promo

July 21, 2009 at 3:43 PM | by Jenna | 0 Comments

We realize that not everyone is a Rachael Ray fan. We get that. She can be, uh, grating, and the cutesy acronyms like "EVOO" and catchphrases like "Yum-O" are not for everybody. But! We know she's got a loyal following, her magazine seems to be doing okay, her E! True Hollywood Story was surprisingly endearing and she remains ubiquitous on our TV, so we'll pass along this info to those of you who are keeping her on our radar: Comfort Inn is offering a Rachael Ray-themed "girlfriend getaway." Oh, yeah, we forgot to mention that you should probably have some friends in mind that might be into RR, too.

But you've gotta win the package: Now through August 27th, you can log on to this siteand enter for their chance to win the "ultimate girlfriend getaway."

The goods: a trip for four to New York City to attend a taping of the Rachael Ray Show (woohoo!), as well as roundtrip airfare for four, two-nights accommodations at a Comfort Inn hotel and $2,000 in cash-money for a shopping spree. Which, like, usually just ends up being a bunch of fancy spices and olive oils from gourmet shops that you will use for one recipe and then probably never again, right?

Go to this site to enter.

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Choice Frequent Stayer Program Gives Lovin' To Europeans

June 24, 2009 at 9:40 AM | by amandak | 0 Comments

Members of the Choice Privileges rewards program from the Choice Hotels chains (which include places like Cambria Suites and Comfort Inns) have got a double points bonus coming their way — but only if they're from Europe.

To celebrate the fact that it's now one year since the Choice Privileges program started up in Europe, European-based members will earn double points on any qualifying stay between now and November 19. And that's not limited to your stays in Europe: if you vacation in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australasia or the Caribbean, you're getting bonus points too.

Even if you're not based in Europe, we think joining the Choice Privileges program sounds like it can't hurt; there's no cost to join and then you get express check-in and late checkout just for signing up, even if you don't stay in a Choice property often enough to add up to serious points. Or maybe we just love collecting memberships.

[Photo: Squid!]

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The Saddest Non-Jail View in All of Mexico

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: Nieto No. 102 , Aguascalientes, Mexico
June 11, 2009 at 2:07 PM | by Jenna | 0 Comments

You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.

Do you ever wonder what kind of shenanigans you would get into if you wandered down to Mexico with a few of your friends and a few bucks, and no responsibilities to attend to except for drinking and getting into trouble? Eh, you probably wouldn't get into too many shenanigans because you'd probably end up in a Mexican jail.

Or maybe you'd end up at the Quality Inn, Aguascalientes, a room for which you'd shell out about $55 (USD) and end up with this view — which is what happened to jabbusch. What a bummer.

Rooms go up to $108 (USD) for a two queen-bed-suite, so you can pack all your friends into one and not have to worry about the view. Or you can land yourself in jail and not have to worry about finding a place to crash for the night.

[Photo: jabbusch]

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Three Reasons to Crash at Choice Hotels This Summer

June 10, 2009 at 11:03 AM | by KatieK | 0 Comments

Road warriors, take note: Choice Hotels have rolled out a few extra perks for summer guests. Umbrella brand Choice Hotels harbors a well-stocked armory of budget hotel brands scattered throughout the U.S. and Canada — you know, the sorts of cheap-and-reliable spots that have long punctuated impromptu road trips and cross-country family vacays. Here are three more reasons to take the next highway exit and sleep over:

1. The Comfort Suites Golf Getaway Sweepstakes is doling out trips to golf destinations, with the top prize being an all-expenses paid trip for four to the 2009 Solheim Cup in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The prize includes roundtrip airfare for four, five nights hotel stay at a Comfort Suites hotel, four tickets to the Solheim Cup, 18 holes golf at a Chicago course, a set of PING golf clubs, two one-hour golf lessons by a pro, 30,000 Choice Privileges reward points, $1,000 cash and four Golf Free Play Certificates. Three runners up will win a scaled-down version of that trip. Travelers can enter the contest at choicehotels.com/golfgetaway through June 25.

2. Travelers who stay three separate stays at any qualifying Choice Hotels brand between May 21 and Aug. 13 can earn a free $50 prepaid cash card. Participating hotel brands are Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, and Ascend Collection.

3. Choice Hotels guests can also automatically earn a “double scoop” of Choice Privileges points on every qualifying stay (translation: any MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge or Rodeway Inn hotel). This promo is good May 21 through Aug. 13.

Book rooms at choicehotels.com.

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Choice Hotels' iPhone App Makes a Whole Lot of Sense

April 3, 2009 at 12:47 PM | by Jenna | 1 Comment

Choice Hotels' hot little new iPhone application, which, officially, is the first global hotel booking app launched by a hotel company, allows users to find and reserve rooms at any of the 5,800+ Choice hotels in the whole wide world — that's Comfort Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites and other budget brands.

Totally appropriate? We think so, since those are the types of hotels we find ourselves booking on the fly and staying in on long-haul road trips and such; it's gonna be nice to be able to hop onto our iPhones wherever we are and find and book hotels close by.

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There's a New Lobby Look for MainStay Suites

March 19, 2009 at 2:50 PM | by juliana | 0 Comments

Choice Hotels has opened its 100th extended stay hotel with a MainStay Suites in Clarksville, Tenn. But there's something else that's special about this MainStay aside from being the "lucky 100th winner." The hotel also features the brand's new lobby prototype design. And by the by, it's not a lobby but rather a "community room." From Choice Hotels:

The warm and inviting interior design focuses on guest comfort and convenience and features a comfortable community room with big screen TV and internet nook for socializing and relaxing, a sundry shop, and newly designed guestrooms with all the comforts of home.

We've never stayed at a MainStay Suites before so we can't really judge how much better the new lobbies are compared to the old lobbies. But big-screen TVs and internet nooks (and free WiFi in the rooms) sound good to us!

Another photo is after the jump.

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Choice Hotels Gives Elite Gold Status to Armed Services Members

November 11, 2008 at 2:46 PM | by Jenna | 0 Comments

Good news for members of the U.S. Armed Forces: effective immediately, active duty or reserve military members, retired military, National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, and eligible spouses and dependents can join Choice Hotels' Choice Privileges rewards program automatically at the Elite Gold level (which is normally obtained by staying 10 nights in a year). Just a little somethin-somethin' to say thank you for serving our lovely country.

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Choice Hotels Announces Ascend Collection of Hotels

October 27, 2008 at 1:59 PM | by juliana | 0 Comments

Choice Hotels has been busy lately, what with ads about dog poop and several promotions for their Choice Privileges loyalty program. Today, they have another announcement--the formal launch of their Ascend Collection of hotels in the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Ascend Collection properties, all of which are historic, boutique, or unique hotels, must meet well-defined membership criteria and demonstrate a commitment to service excellence. Travelers have the peace of mind that comes with staying at hotels that offer authentic experiences and attentive guest care yet are still a part of one of the world’s largest lodging companies.

Choice Hotels actually announced their plans for Ascend way back in May. While there are a few historic properties in the collection, Choice is also re-branding several of their Clarion hotels as Ascend. Some Ascend properties to look for? There's three in New York City under the GEM Hotel name as well as the Golden Hotel in Colorado, and the historic Hotel Bothwell in Missouri. For more on the brand and its hotels, go to AscendCollection.com.

We're guessing Choice Hotels won't be releasing any ads involving dog poop for this brand. Just a thought.