Lodging choices

I was doing a little research for myself and thought I'd share it here, in case someone else was searching for the same information. My husband and I have joined a couple of lodging clubs/rewards/perks systems, hoping to save points and get free night of lodging here and there. It worked for us this past trip. So here's a list of hotel/motel groups, what properties they own, the name of their perks/rewards/points club, and a website. I'm sure it will change, as groups sell and purchase new ones, but it's a good start for 2016:

Choice Hotels - Choice Hotels
Choice Rewards – (points don't expire)

Rodeway
Econo Lodge
Mainstay Suites
Suburban
Clarion
Sleep Inn
Quality Inn & Suites
Comfort Inn & Suites


Wyndham Hotels - Wyndham Hotels
Wyndham Rewards – (points expire!)

Knights Inn
Travelodge
Howard Johnson
Super 8
Days Inn
Baymont Inn & Suites
Ramada Inn
Microtel
Hawthorn Suites
Wingate
Wyndham
Wyndham Garden
Wyndham Grand

Best Western - Best Western
Best Western Rewards -

Best Western
Best Western Plus
Best Western Premier


Marriott Hotels - Marriott Hotels
Marriott Rewards

Courtyard by Marriott
Residence Inn by Marriott
Springhill Suites by Marriott
Fairfield Suites by Marriott
TownePlace by Marriott
Westin Hotels
Sheraton Hotels

RitzCarlton by Marriott - Marriott Hotels
Ritz Carlton Rewards

Ritz-Carlton
JW Marriotts
Renaissance Suites
Delta
Marriott
Marriott Vacation Club


La Quinta Inns - La Quinta
La Quinta Returns

La Quinta Inn & Suites
LQ Hotels



Vantage - Vantage Hotels
Vantage Rewards

Americas Best Value Inn & Suites
Canadas Best Value Inn & Suites
Value Inn/Hotel Worldwide
Signature Inn
Country Hearth Inn & Suites
America's Best Inn & Suites
Jameson Inn
3 Palms Hotels


InterContinental Hotels Group - IHG.com
IHG Rewards

Hotel InterContinental
Crowne Plaza Hotels & Suites
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn Express & Suites
Candlewood Suites
Staybridge Suites
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants


Accor
Red Roof Inn
Motel 6


Hilton Hotels - Hilton
Hilton HHonors

Hilton Hotels
Waldorf Astoria Hotels
Conrad Hotels
Canopy by Hilton
Doubletree
Embassy Suites
Hilton Garden Inn
Hampton Inn & Suites
Homewood Suites
Home2 Suites


Red Lion - Red Lion Hotels
Hello Rewards

Red Lion Hotels
Red Lion Inn & Suites
Hotel RL
Settle Inn Extended Stay

Extended Stay America - ESA
Extended Perks

Extended Stay America – full kitchens






Donna

Donna,

Nice work preparing this list. What affinity clubs do you belong to?

I have membership in 3-4 of these groups.

Without question the best value, in my opinion, in terms of accommodation, free lodging and remarkably free and excellent food is Drury Inn Drury is mostly located in the Midwest. In addition to the free breakfast, which is not pre-cooked for guests, they also provide what they call Evening Drinks and Snacks and it is good enough to get your evening meal from it. More about the offerings of this chain here.

The one program I use for about 70% of my motel accommodation when working is IHG.

Mark

Addition to list (thanks, Mark!):

Drury Hotels Drury Hotels
Drury Gold Key Club

Drury Inns and Suites - in 21 states
Pear Tree Inn
Drury Plaza Hotels

The ones where I have annotated whether or not points expire, are the ones we belong to: Choice and Wyndham. Of the two, after the past two trips, we have decided that we like the Choice Hotels better, particularly Quality Inn and Comfort Inn. At Wyndham's properties, we always seemed to be stuck down on the end of the hallway in a small room - and we were coming in on a reservation made via the Internet, not on a coupon (where you expect that).

I did look up a couple of so-called "hotel chains" which were more hotel management companies -- Access Hotels was one of those -- and at least one that was only located overseas, such as Four Seasons. (Don't confuse the latter with Lodge of the Four Seasons at Lake of the Ozarks, it's independently owned but managed by Access Hotels.)



Donna

Quote:

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Choice Rewards – (points don't expire)

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Actually, there's a little bit of some small print on that one. Choice's points don't expire, as long as you are using/earning them at least once every 18 months. If you aren't active for a year and a half, then your points would expire.

Choice is really about the only one I use, as they very frequently have a "get your 3rd stay free" promotion going on, and within the last year they even changed the policy so their budget motels (Rodeway, Econolodge) qualify for the program with even a 1 night stay. Those promotions have saved me a lot of money, and given me several free rooms.


It's not a loyalty program, but I also use priceline quite a bit and it seems like more often than not, I've wound up at an Extended Stay America when I win a bid on a 2 star property - which is quite nice due to the full kitchen.

...Actually, just about every company on your list are.... "hotel management companies." With rare exception, very few of those brands own any of the buildings that they manage. They manage the operations of the motel -- so, technically ~ 89% of them are management companies.

My problem with some of the booking sites such as Priceline, TripAdvisor, etc., is that they usually require pre-purchase with penalties for cancellation. If your trip plans change, you can't get out of it without losing either a portion or all of what you paid. This past summer, we prepaid for one place, through Priceline or something, and there was no cancellations allowed, period. When we got there, we did NOT like the room, though its location was fine. Had we not prepaid, we would have canceled and moved on, as we were there long before most of the places that had "up to 4pm of day of arrival" type cancellation policy. After that, we decided, no more prepaid.

Our Choice points were still in effect from summer 2014, when we added to them in 2016. Choice bent over backwards to get us more points when I called for help in booking a free night just before we ended our trip in July. So if they have the same "18 month" policy that Wyndham has, they didn't bother cancelling our points like Wyndham did at the end of 2015. So....who knows!


Donna

You should log into your choice account to make sure - they did make some changes to their policies within the past year and that may have impacted you and your points.

Prepaid is certainly taking a risk, but I've usually had pretty good luck as long as I picked at least 2 or 2.5 stars. The savings can be significant, if you're willing to roll the dice, but as you said, you have to be certain that you know where you want to be at the end of the day. On a roadtrip, if I'm going to use priceline or hotwire, I don't make that reservation until usually just a few hours or less before I'm ready to stop for the day.

Accor no longer owns Motel 6 or Red Roof. Most of Accor's properties are overseas, they are based in France. They are primarily high end establishments.

Joining the "clubs" for the airlines and rental car agencies are also a virtual necessity. Sometimes an affiliate credit card will keep your reward points from expiring. Some of the affiliate credit cards cost money and some do not. Sometimes it makes sense to pay the $99 for an airline (or other travel) affiliation if it loads a bundle of points one can put to good use. Read the fine print!

AAA and Costco can also help secure good deals. For some reason the AAA of Southern California is much better than other AAA localities. Not sure why better deals or even lists can show up around the USA from the AAA of SoCal than my AAA on the east coast!!! And you don't have to be a member of AAA/SoCal, just an AAA member to use it.

Costco recently has saved me a bundle for an upcoming car rental in Puerto Rico. I have not used their hotel or airline travel components yet.