Choice Privileges Points vs. Cash Calculator

Cash Currency

Select the currency used by the hotel — for example, if you are staying at a hotel in Toronto, select Canadian Dollars (CAD). The currency will be converted to USD for the points calculation. The actual exchange rate used by Choice may differ slightly from the rate used here, resulting in a small difference in estimated points.

Total Cash (excl. Tax)

Enter the total stay cost excluding taxes and fees, as shown on the hotel booking site or final invoice. Choice Privileges base points are earned on the pre-tax room rate only — taxes and fees are excluded.

Total Cash (incl. Tax)

Enter the total stay cost including taxes and fees, as shown at the final stage of the booking process or on your invoice. This field is used for credit card points earning and for the return-on-spend calculation.

Points Required

Enter the number of Choice Privileges points needed to book your stay as a reward night. You can find this on ChoiceHotels.com by searching for your hotel and dates and selecting the points rate. Choice uses dynamic pricing for awards — costs vary by hotel, room type, and demand. Leave this blank if you only want to calculate points earned on a cash stay.

Points + Cash

If you want to compare a hybrid redemption, enter the points and cash portions here. Choice’s Points + Cash option lets you book a reward night using fewer points plus a cash co-pay. You can find these amounts on ChoiceHotels.com when selecting the Points + Cash rate for your hotel and dates. Both fields are optional — if left blank, the comparison will only show cash vs. full award.

Status

Select your Choice Privileges elite tier. All members earn a flat base rate of 10 points per $1 spent, regardless of hotel brand. Your status tier adds a percentage bonus on top of the base points: Member receives no bonus; Gold adds 10%; Platinum adds 25%; Diamond and Titanium each add 50%. The bonus applies to base hotel points only — credit card and promo points are not multiplied.

Offers

Active Choice Privileges promotions are listed here. Check any offer you have registered for and that applies to your stay. Deadlines and stay windows are shown where applicable. Select the Custom Offer option to enter a new or targeted offer. You can choose from a fixed amount of bonus points per stay, per night, or a multiplier of the total base points.

Nights

This field only appears when needed to calculate points from an offer that is based on nights stayed.

Credit Card

Choice Privileges co-branded Wells Fargo Mastercard cards earn additional points on hotel spend:
Choice Privileges — Earns 5 points/$1 on stays at participating Choice Hotels (no annual fee).
Choice Privileges Select — Earns 10 points/$1 on stays at participating Choice Hotels ($95 annual fee).
Credit card points are earned on the total spend including taxes and fees. Select No Credit Card if you are paying with a non-Choice card.

Extra Points

Use this field for any additional points not covered by the other fields — for example, a targeted email offer or bonus-point package.

Point Value

The assumed value of one Choice Privileges point in US cents, used to convert your earned points into an estimated cash equivalent. The default of 0.6¢ per point reflects a reasonable average redemption value, though actual value varies depending on the property and room type.

Buy Points

Use this when you would buy points to cover the award — either because your balance is short, or because a points sale is cheaper than paying the cash rate. Enter the price you would pay per point, in cents. If a sale is running, use the sale price. Purchase prices are always in US cents, like the point value below, because points are sold in dollars regardless of the currency your hotel quotes.

The second field is how many points you already hold. It starts filled with the full award, meaning you have enough and are buying nothing — so the comparison you get by default is the ordinary one, points against cash, with no purchase in it. Edit it down to the balance you actually have and the calculator buys only the shortfall. Enter 0 to cost buying the whole award, which is what you want when weighing up a sale purely to book one stay. Clear the field and it goes back to tracking the award total.

Points that come out of your existing balance are costed at their redemption value (the Point Value field below), because spending them means giving up that value. Points you have to buy are costed at what you actually pay in cash.

Buy points →

Purchase rules: Points are sold in blocks of 1,000 — the calculator rounds your purchase up to the next whole block and credits any leftover points back at their redemption value. No tax or processing charge is added on top of the purchase price. Purchases are capped at 180,000 points per calendar year. If a stay needs more than that, the calculator flags it and costs the excess against your existing balance.

The award card then shows a break-even price: the price per point at which buying the points and booking the award costs exactly the same as paying cash. Below that price, buying wins; above it, pay cash. When the award can never beat cash whatever the points cost, the card says so instead.

Two things the calculator cannot check for you: purchased points generally do not count toward elite status or tier qualification, and in some programs they cannot be transferred to partners. Read the terms of the sale before buying.

Comparison Results

After clicking Compare, three cards show the effective cost of each option. Cash shows your out-of-pocket cost minus the value of points you would earn. Points converts the points spent to a dollar value using your chosen point valuation, plus any fees. Points + Cash combines the cash paid with the dollar value of points used. The option with the lowest net cost is marked “Best value.” A higher point value favors cash stays (your points are worth more kept), while a lower point value favors using points.

Not Included in the Calculator

Milestone Rewards: Choice Privileges members earn a milestone reward for every five qualifying nights stayed per calendar year. Options include bonus points or gift cards to popular restaurants and retailers. Because milestones are cumulative across an entire year of stays, they are not factored into this per-stay calculator. If you know how many milestone points you will earn from a particular stay, add them in the Extra Points field.

Non-hotel earning: Choice Privileges points can also be earned through car rentals, shopping partners, and other activities. These earning methods are not covered here — the calculator only estimates points earned from hotel stays.