What are Choice points worth?

Choice Privileges is a bit of a red-headed stepchild in the world of points and miles, as most of the chain’s properties are budget- to midrange lodging. No one ever waxes rhapsodic about their recent stay at a Quality Inn.

That said, Choice has a massive footprint in the US, oftentimes serving as the only points option in more remote locations. Additionally, the growing Ascend Collection, combined with the ability to redeem Choice points for Preferred Hotels and Resorts stays, has even Greg the Frequent Miler working through a small pile now and again.

So, Choice Privileges can be useful, but what exactly are the points worth? Should we be putting all of our spending on a Choice card this year? In order to try to answer those questions, we do a deep dive into what Choice points will get you in 2026.

Overview

At Frequent Miler, we keep a database of point valuations called “Reasonable Redemption Values.” These are estimates of the “worth” of airline miles, hotel points, transferable points, and more. The idea is that we try to identify the point at which it is “reasonable” to get that much value or more from your points.

This information is critical for making informed decisions. In fact, it’s a key component of the First Year Value information shown on our Best Credit Card Offers page, and it’s similarly used to show which cards offer the best value for everyday spend and which offer the best category bonuses.

When we first started looking at the value of hotel points, we used a laborious process that involved manually comparing the cash and award prices of hundreds of stays each year, then using those results to create RRV estimates. However, we now have a much better way of pinning down the value of Choice points.

Gondola is a terrific free hotel search tool that shows prices for properties in both cash and points, and it keeps data on both for searches on its platform. Gondola has made this data available to us to identify hotel program point values. Thanks to them, we now have access to results from ~980,000 domestic and international Choice Privileges award searches across almost 5,000 properties, and each one shows both the cash and award prices for the same room. Using this data, we can provide a far better estimate of the “Reasonable Redemption Value” of Choice points than we were ever able to obtain by using manual calculations.

Based on Gondola’s data, the Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) for Choice points has increased. It’s now 0.75 cents per point, up from the previous value of 0.67.

Methodology

To determine the value of Choice points, we examined Gondola’s collected real-world cash and point prices across almost 5,600 Choice Privileges properties. Since Choice award bookings are fully refundable, we excluded data on all non-refundable cash rates to make the comparison apples-to-apples. We also used the Total Cash Rate, which includes taxes and any local fees.

Hotel Programs that Waive Resort Fees on Award Stays

Hilton, Hyatt, and Wyndham waive resort fees when you book stays using points or free night certificates. For these chains, the resort fee need not be considered separately from the Total Cash Rate (which includes it). So, the RRV calculation is as follows:

RRV = Total Cash Rate ÷ Point Price

Hotel Programs that Charge Resort Fees on Award Stays

IHG, Marriott, Accor, Choice, and many other hotel programs impose resort fees on award stays. For these chains, the resort fee must be explicitly accounted for in the calculation. We do that by having Gondola subtract it from the Total Cash Rate. The RRV calculation is as follows:

RRV = [Total Cash Rate – Resort Fee] ÷ Point Price

Gondola Data

For our hotel RRV values, we use the median observed from Gondola data. If the median is 1 cent per point, meaning that half of all searches produced a value of less than 1 cent per point, and the other half above 1 cent per point.

• Gondola Median Observed Value for Choice redemptions: 0.75 cents per point
  (based on data as of February 26th, 2026)
• Range: .30 to 7.52 cents per point

Brand Comparison

Another cool feature of the data set Gondola provides is that we can see how point values vary across a program’s brands. There isn’t much variance among Choice’s brands, especially with the well-known ones like Quality Inn, Clarion, Ascend Collection, Comfort Inn, etc. These all tend to cluster right around that 0.75 cent-per-point range.

Here are some examples of properties that stray further beyond:

Results

Point Value

The median observed point value for Choice points was 0.75 cents per point. This means that half of the observed results offered equal or better point value, and half offered equal or worse value.  Another way to think about it is that, without cherry-picking the best awards, you have a 50/50 chance of getting at least 0.75 cents in value from your Choice points when booking free-night awards.

Compared to our last analysis, the value of Choice points has increased slightly. My guess is that this is primarily due to the inclusion of international properties this year, which can often be excellent value when booking with Choice.

Pick your own point value

When we publish Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs) for points, we conservatively use the middle value, i.e., the 50th percentile. The idea is that just by randomly picking hotels to use your points, you have a 50/50 chance of getting this value or better.

But what if you “cherry-pick” awards? Many people prefer to hold onto their points until they find uses that represent good value. If that’s you, then you may want to use the table above to pick your own point value. For example, if you think that you’ll hold out for the best 10% value awards, then pick the 90th percentile. If you cherry-pick a bit, but not that much, you might want to use the 75th percentile (for example). We’re guessing that most cherry-pickers will land around the 75th percentile: 0.88 cents per point.

This analysis shows that those who cherry-pick good-value awards can expect to receive around 0.88 cents per point in value or better.

Reasonable Redemption Value for Choice points: 0.75 CPP

Our Reasonable Redemption Value (RRV) for Choice points was previously set at 0.67 cents per point, but we’ve now raised it to 0.75 cents per point. RRVs are intended to be the point at which it is reasonable to get that much value or better for your points. Therefore, we believe the median observed value is a good choice for our RRV.

• Reasonable Redemption Value for Choice: 0.75 cents per point
• Targeted Redemption Value for those who cherry-pick awards: 0.88 cents per point

Points are worth less for elite members

In most hotel programs, elite members earn more points per dollar on paid stays than non-elite members do. As a result, the relative value of an award stay compared to a paid stay decreases. The following table shows the median point values with various levels of elite status.

As you can see above, points are worth a bit less for elite members and during double-point promotions, but these factors don’t make a huge difference

Overvaluing vs. Undervaluing Points

There is no perfect way to estimate the value of points. Decisions we made here, in some ways, overvalue points and, in some ways, undervalue points. The hope is that these things roughly offset each other…

Factors that cause us to undervalue points

• With hotel programs that offer 4th Night Free Awards (IHG, with some credit cards), or 5th Night Free Awards (Hilton & Marriott), or award discounts (Wyndham), we do not consider the point savings in our analyses.
• With hotel programs that offer free parking on award stays to top-tier elites (Hyatt), we do not factor this in.

Factors that cause us to overvalue points

• We do not use discount rates (other than member rates) in our analyses.  In real life, many people book hotels more cheaply (and sometimes far cheaper) by using AAA rates, government & military rates, senior rates, etc.
• We do not use hotel promotional rates. Often, individual hotels have deals such as “Stay 2 Nights, Get 1 Night Free,” which can greatly reduce the cost of a stay.
• We do not use prepaid rates in our analyses. Sometimes these rates are significantly lower than refundable rates.
• We do not factor in rebates earned by booking hotels through shopping portals.
• We do not factor in extra points earned on paid stays for elite-status members.
• We do not factor in rewards earned from hotel credit card spend.
• We do not factor in hotel loyalty program promotions: Most promotions, but not all, only offer incentives for paid stays.  We often see promos offering bonus points, double or triple points, free night awards, etc.
• With hotel programs that waive resort fees for top-tier elites on paid stays (e.g., Hyatt), we do not factor this in.

Conclusion

Based on the latest analysis, we’ve raised our Choice RRV to 0.75 cents per point.  The idea is that you have an equal chance of getting that much value or more from your award stays.

See all our Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs) here

The idea behind using the median for our RRVs is that you have a 50/50 chance of getting that much value or more from your award stays, and so it is reasonable to expect to get that much value or better. For those more advanced, this post’s percentile results indicate it’s reasonable to expect 0.88 cents per point or better if you cherry-pick good-value awards.

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