AwardWallet receives compensation from advertising partners for links on the blog. The opinions expressed here are our own and have not been reviewed, provided, or approved by any bank advertiser. Here's our complete list of Advertisers.
Finding Preferred Hotel award space using Choice Privileges points can be tricky. While it's great that you can make these bookings online, unfortunately, searching and finding award space is complicated. More often than not, if you are unaware of a few tricks, you can run into a brick wall.
Follow on to learn how to simplify your searches for Preferred Hotels award space using Choice Privileges points.
Page Contents
The Issue With Searching for Preferred Hotel Awards
In an ideal world, you would log into your Choice Privileges account and search for award space availability. You would then find the suitable dates and properties, use your points to book, and be done.
Sadly, this has not been the case when for booking Preferred Hotels awards through Choice Privileges.
First, you log into your Choice account at the partnership page. Once you have logged in, you click on “Start Booking,” and you'll be taken to the hotel search page. In this case, we searched for a hotel in Dublin, Ireland.
We selected the Lovely Fitzwilliam in Dublin and clicked on “View Hotel.” However, this is when you run into a problem. The site will not display any award available unless you have the required number of points to make a booking. Essentially, you have to have a balance of points before you can view any availability by date.
At this point, all the site does is helpfully encourage you to buy Choice points to have the privilege of discovering whether you can use them. Clearly, this is not an ideal situation and is a risk nobody will take. Fortunately, there is a workaround.
Old vs. New Site for Searches
The first thing that needs clearing up when it comes to booking Preferred Hotels with Choice points is that there are two sites you can use.
First, you can use the older site, which has the following URL: https://preferredhotels.com/offer/choiceprivilegesparticipatinghotels
You don't need to sign in to use this site. However, it does have some shortcomings. It doesn't include all participating properties, and points pricing (in the results) is often incorrect.
Secondly, you can use the new Choice–Preferred Hotel partnership page: https://www.choicehotels.com/ascend/preferred-hotels-partner
You must be signed in to your Choice Privileges account to use this site. However, to make the most of its functionality, you must take some of the extra steps outlined below.
Related: Current Choice Privileges Promotions
Searching for Availability by Date and Location
When planning travel, you typically start with a general location and dates to see what is available. For instance, you may know that you will be in New York for the last weekend in August and want to see what's available.
To perform this search, follow a few simple steps:
- Sign into the new Choice Privileges–Preferred Hotels site.
- Click on “start booking” to begin the process.
At this point, you need to manipulate the URL to trick it into displaying the correct date-based search. The standard search URL should be as follows: https://preferredhotels.com/choicepoints/search
Next, you need to add dates to your search. You can do this by using the following URL. We have selected the last weekend in August, checking in on the 24th and checking out on the 25th.
https://preferredhotels.com/choicepoints/search?arrivalDate=2024-08-24&departureDate=2024-08-25
Once the page reloads, the underlying results will display the availability — or lack thereof.
Now, you can filter your search by location to see all the properties at your destination. In this example, we choose New York City. As you can see, the first four properties on the list have availability. However further down the list some of the properties are unavailable.
Searching by Location or Map View
Sometimes, you know you want to visit a location but are flexible with your dates. In cases like this, where you base your travel plans around availability, you can search by location. For this search, you need to log into the new Choice Privileges page as if you were searching by date.
On the home page, filter by your desired destination. For this example, let's assume we want to visit California sometime this year. Filter your search by country and state, then click on the map view. Note: At this point, no date range has been selected.
The site will display a map of your selected state and its properties. However, not all of them will be available.
At this point, you can explore the map and click on any property. And a popup window will display its points per night starting price.
To narrow down your date, range, you need to hit “book now,” and the booking calendar will show all the available dates.
If you already have the points in your account, you can proceed with your booking. Alternatively, you can note your desired dates, boost your points balance, and then return to finalize your booking.
Searching for Availability at a Specific Property
Accessing the award calendar to find availability at a specific property is straightforward, although it does require some technical manipulation of the website.
The first step is going to the Choice Privileges booking page, logging in, and searching for a destination as you would normally. Proceed as normal until you're blocked from booking since you don't have enough points in your account. For example, we looked for space at the One Farrer Hotel in Singapore.
At this point, you will have to manipulate the site data to discover the hotel ID number. To do this, click “View Page Source” on your browser. This will generally open a new window with the page's source code.
Next, find the term “fieldSynxisId:” This is followed by a number, which is the hotel's unique individual ID.
Finally, you can manipulate the search URL to display the calendar for a specific property. The URL with the ID should look as follows:
https://preferredhotels.com/choicepoints/book/hotel/59925
Once you hit enter, the property availability calendar will display all available dates.
Boosting Your Choice Privileges Points Balance
Once you've found the right redemption, the next step is to ensure you have enough Choice Privileges points in your account. Considering that Preferred Hotels redemptions are expensive, you may need to boost your points balance quickly.
Fortunately, Choice Privileges is a transfer partner with several points programs, providing several options to boost your balance. However, it's worth mentioning that your best option is to transfer Citi ThankYou® Points or Wells Fargo Rewards, which have an excellent 1:2 transfer ratio.
Choice Privileges enthusiasts should remember that Wells Fargo offers two Choice Privileges co-brand credit cards. Using these, members have to worry less about transferring points and instead can earn Choice Privileges points directly for everyday spending on their credit card.
Related: Do Choice Privileges Points Expire?
Our Take
You have to wonder why Choice or Preferred Hotels is making it so hard for members to search for award availability, especially when you consider the high price of these awards. Choice must be dreaming if they think people will speculatively transfer huge numbers of points to their accounts simply to see availability.
That said, people are always inventive and will find a way around obstacles. As we have just shown, you can now easily find Preferred Hotel awards using Choice Privileges points.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.