(EXPIRED) Choice Privileges: Book 2x Cambria Stays & Earn At Least 20,000 Points

Hyatt isn’t the only hotel chain launching a great new promotion today. Choice has also launched a new promotion which is only applicable for stays at their Cambria brand and is being marketed as offering a free night at any Cambria property, but in reality is awarding you with enough bonus points to earn at least 20,000 points after two stays.

The Deal

• Stay twice at Cambria properties by September 7, 2020 and receive enough bonus points to earn at least 20,000 points across the two stays.
• Direct link to register.

Key Terms

• Registered members with two qualifying stays at Cambria Hotels will be awarded a minimum of 5,000 to a maximum of 20,000 bonus points after the second qualifying stay. The number of bonus points awarded depends on the number of base points earned from the two separate qualifying stays, with points varying by hotel. The total of base points plus bonus points awarded, however, will be at least 20,000 points, which will allow redemption for a future free night at 50+ at Cambria Hotels (subject to Cambria Free Nights section, below).
• Cambria Free Nights: There are no blackout dates, but rooms are subject to availability. Restrictions, taxes, and fees apply. There are 50+ Cambria Hotels with reward nights available at 20,000 points or less until 11/30 to allow for a free night redemption at all Cambria Hotels during this period. Point requirements may vary based on time of year starting 12/1.
• Qualifying Channel: Members must book stays via ChoiceHotels.com, the Choice Hotels mobile app, or 800.4CHOICE. Stays directly booked through Book by Google are also eligible, if the member adds his/her Choice Privileges number to the reservation prior to check-in. Corporate travelers may book through their online booking tool, GDS, or with a travel agent; however, reservations booked through Egencia’s Preferred Rate Program do not qualify for promotional bonus points. Choice Privileges member number must be provided upon check-in. To be eligible to earn bonus points, members must set their earning preference to Choice Privileges points in their online account. Any change made to earning preference will remain in effect after the promotion has ended, unless the member changes it. Allow 72 hours from check-out for points to post. Request for bonus points made by members who did not register for the promotion will only be considered up to 60 days after the promotion ends; request thereafter will be automatically denied.

Quick Thoughts

Even by itself, earning at least 20,000 points after two stays is potentially a great deal if that’s done as two separate one night stays. This offer is made even better though by the fact that it’ll stack with Choice’s other promotion which offers at least 8,000 points when staying twice.

This latest offer is only valid at Cambria properties, of which there are at least 50 around the country – you can find the full list here. While that’s a fairly small footprint, the properties are spread around the country and can be found in most large cities.

Although Cambria is one of Choice’s higher end brands, prices can still be fairly reasonable. For example, a weekend stay at the Cambria Hotel New Orleans Downtown Warehouse District can be booked for only $108 per night before tax. That’s a non-refundable rate, but a rate with free cancellation can still be had for only $120 per night before tax.

The bonus points are awarded in a similar way to Choice’s regular promotions, albeit at a higher bonus level. Choice will award you with enough bonus points to earn at least 20,000 points after two stays at Cambria properties, with you earning a minimum of 5,000 bonus points. If you’re booking two expensive stays, you might therefore only end up receiving 5,000 bonus points, but if you’re booking two cheaper one night stays then you’ll end up at the higher end of bonus points being awarded.

For example, let’s say you book two non-consecutive one night stays at the Cambria property in New Orleans mentioned earlier. If the two stays each cost $120 before tax, you’d earn a total of 2,400 base points as Choice awards 10 points per dollar. That means they’d subsequently award 17,600 bonus points to take you to the 20,000 point threshold.

That’s on top of the minimum of 5,000 bonus points you’ll earn from their other promotion that is also earned after two stays. That promotion guarantees that you’ll earn at least 8,000 total points, so if both your stays are at Cambria properties, you’ll end up with at least 28,000 Choice Privileges points which is an excellent return.

If you receive an email about this promotion from Choice, some of their wording initially seems confusing. That’s because it says the following:

Then use your points to enjoy a free night at a Cambria Hotel by November 30, 2020.

That makes it seem like the ~20,000 points that are awarded will expire at the beginning of December. That’s not the case though because the terms go on to state the following:

There are 50+ Cambria Hotels with reward nights available at 20,000 points or less until 11/30 to allow for a free night redemption at all Cambria Hotels during this period. Point requirements may vary based on time of year starting 12/1.

It therefore seems like Cambria properties (and possibly the Choice Privileges program at large) might undergo a devaluation on December 1, 2020, but the points in your account won’t be expiring on that date.

There won’t necessarily be a devaluation though; Choice uses somewhat dynamic pricing depending on the day of the week and time of the year. Their award pricing has only been released up to November 30, 2020, so it might be that it remains the same from December 1. For example, here’s what the award pricing looks like for the Cambria Minneapolis Maple Grove for the next few month:

With at least 28,000 points on offer across the two promotions, this might even be mattress run-worthy. It’s probably not going to be worth booking two one-night stays at Cambria properties if you have no need for either of them, but if you’ll be staying at a Cambria hotel once during the promotion period, it could certainly be worth considering booking a second stay to earn the two sets of bonus points.

Seeing as these bonus points are only earned on paid stays, be sure to also click through from a shopping portal before making reservations, checking Cashback Monitor beforehand to compare rates across portals. There are many different listings for Cambria on Cashback Monitor, so you’ll need to check all of them; at the time of writing this, TopCashback seems to be offering the best rate at 6% cashback.

Although there’s a registration link, it seems like if you’ve already registered for Choice’s other promotion then you’re automatically registered for this one. Still, it’s worth trying to register anyway just in case.

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