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Best U.S. Choice Privileges Hotels for Families: 1+ Bedroom Suites [Map]

Categories: Maps, Redeeming Points, Where to Stay with PointsBy Last Updated: January 26, 2024

Finding rooms to book on points for families can be a challenge, especially large families! Choice Privileges hotels are often overlooked as a hotel program because it has a lot of lower-end properties in the US–but it still has some family friendly gems.

The Ascend Collection is its higher end brand and for this post I scoured the Choice website and app to focus on finding the best Ascend redemption options for families. Ascend Collection hotels are often independent, historic, or boutique hotels that partner with Choice Hotels. This means this collection includes a lot of unique options — from 4 bedroom cabins in Big Bear, CA to B&B properties in Florida and historic hotels in the Northeast! I also included a few Cambria hotels if they seemed like a good option.

Most hotel chains only allow you to book a standard hotel room with points. Some offer the option to use more points to upgrade to a suite. With Choice, though, the number of points charged is the same no matter the room type. So if a property has larger suites or even 2-4 bedroom villas available to book with points, they cost the same as a 1 room hotel room! This makes these properties great options for families.

Note that hotels can still block rooms out from the points booking options, so sometimes not ALL rooms at a hotel can be booked with points.

Choice also has a partnership with Bluegreen Vacations which has timeshare properties that usually include a full kitchen and separate living room, these are included in the Ascend Collection.

Scroll down to browse my map of all the Choice Privileges Hotels properties I could find that have separate bedrooms and sleep 4+.

Map of Choice Privileges Hotels with Suites by room occupancy

Click the top right corner [ ] to see a bigger view of the map. I have only included Choice Privileges Hotels that had suites with separate bedrooms that slept 4+ people.

Blue shows suites that sleep 4. Some of these are 2 bedroom suites. Green shows suites that sleep 5 (some require an additional bed). Yellow shows suites that sleep 6. Purple shows suites that sleep 8+.

Shoutout to my husband Micah who helped me scour the Choice hotels site and app to find these!

Booking Tips for Choice Privileges Hotels

100 Day Limitation

The biggest limitation of booking award nights with Choice is that you can only book award stays 100 days in advance. If you are searching past 100 days it will show the hotel as sold out if you are looking for award stay or give you an error message.

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

Finding Availability for Choice Privileges Hotels

The Choice website doesn’t have a search tool that easily lets you search flexible dates to find award availability.

When you are looking at a specific hotel, it sometimes shows a flexible date calendar. But other times this calendar won’t populate with any information.

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points
When looking at Big Bear Village, it wasn’t showing me any dates as available using the drop down calendar. But by searching, I could find available dates.
Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

When searching the Cambria Hotel Anaheim Resort Area, it drops down a calendar that shows availability on all dates

When I was searching I searched a variety of dates and included properties if I could find award stays with suites.

Tip: Play With Your Search

Some properties seem to enforce a 3-4 minimum night stay requirement, especially some of the Bluegreen Vacations properties. Others seemed to only show availability if I searched one day at a time. Some had more suites available for dates that were closer in and some had more availability for dates further out.

It may be a fair amount of trial and error to find certain suites at certain places. I suggest starting with your preferred dates. If no award availability shows, try searching each date individually. Then also try searching 3-4 nights. If you have a certain property you’re interested in, I would start checking as soon as the 100 day window opens.

The Choice app has a map feature that can make it easier to search.

How to Earn Choice Privileges Points

While you can earn Choice Privileges points by staying at Choice properties, the easiest way to earn a big chunk of them for a family vacation is to open a credit card with a bonus offer!

Wells Fargo offers a Choice-branded credit card. Citi, American Express, and Capital One also allow you to transfer their points and miles to Choice, so there are a lot of options. The strongest option is the Citi Premier® Card since the transfer ratio is 1:2, meaning for every 1,000 Citi ThankYou® Points you transfer, you will get 2,000 Choice points.

Best: Transfer Citi ThankYou® Points to Choice Privileges Hotels (1:2)

Citi added Choice as a transfer partner for Thank You points in October 2021. With the 1:2 ratio, this makes this an amazing option for families looking to book these Choice Privileges hotel rooms! The max price I found was 30,000 points per night on any of these, so you’d only have to transfer 15,000 Thank You points per night.

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

The Citi Premier® Card generally offers 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in 3 months. This means it can be converted to 120,000 Choice Privileges points, getting you 4 nights at any of these properties! (or more, depending on prices and dates). In August 2022 it is offering 80,000 bonus points which means you can get 160,000 Choice points!

non affiliate link

Citi Strata Premier® Card

Current Bonus:

60,000 points

Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening. Plus, earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on hotel and car rentals, and attraction bookings on the Citi Travel℠ portal

Annual Fee:

$95

My Take

This card is a new card and existing Citi Premier customers have been converted to this one. Citi was very stingy with approvals for the Citi Premier so we don’t know yet how stingy they will be with the Strata Premier. The extended warranty is the best of all the starter cards and offers an additional 2 years of protection on items you purchase.

An offer of 75,000 points ended in April 2025. The previous version (Citi Premier) had a standard offer of 60,000 points. We saw some 80,000 point offers as well — the last one expired in January 2023.

non affiliate link

Citi Custom Cash℠

Current Bonus:

$200 Cash Back

Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 in purchases within the first 6 months of account opening.

Annual Fee:

$0

  • Earn 5% cash back on your top spending category each month (up to $500).
  • Cash back is given as Thank You Points and if you have a Citi Premier card, you can combine points from the cards and these points will have all the transfer partners of the Premier as well.

How to transfer ThankYou® Points to Choice Privileges:

Step 1: Sign in at Citi.com

Navigate to on the top bar to Rewards & Offers > ThankYou Rewards

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points
Sign into your account at Citi.com

Step 2: Select Travel, then Points Transfer

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

Step 3: Scroll Down to Find Choice Privileges

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

If you have a Citi Premier® Card, it should show 1,000 points = 2,000 Choice Privileges points

Step 4: Confirm Account Details

Some people are reporting errors when trying to transfer points. If this happens to you, try transferring in 15,000 point increments.

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

Make sure the name and Choice Privileges number matches exactly.

Other Transfer Options:

Transfer Capital One Venture miles to Choice (1:1)

Capital One offers the option to transfer Capital One Venture miles to Choice at a 1:1 ratio. A standard offer on this card is 60,000 miles after spending $3,000. For most families, using Capital One Venture miles to transfer to Wyndham and book Vacasa rental homes might be a better option.

card_name
card_name

ELEVATED OFFER!

welcome offer:

bonus_milesbonus_miles_full

 

Targeted 100k Offer: Some people receive a targeted offer for 100,000 miles after spending $5000 when going through preapproval at certain links (like the one below) Just be careful because many people see a 75k offer and other people are only pre-approved for a different card with low offer. (Community Referral below)

Annual Fee:

annual_fees
  • Miles can be redeemed to erase any travel purchase. 50,000 miles = $500
  • Can be transferred to a variety of partners like Wyndham, Avianca, Turkish Airways and more
  • Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
  • Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®
  • Also worth considering the Venture X which has more benefits.

My Take

This card often has a very comparable welcome offer to the higher annual fee Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card — but with a lower annual fee.

The miles you earn are worth a minimum of 1 cent per mile so 75,000 miles at minimum can be redeemed to offset $750 of any travel expense. You also have the option to transfer miles to airline partners or hotel partners just like you can with the Venture X.

This card also includes a credit for TSA Precheck or Global Entry!

An offer expired in July 2021 for a total of 100K: 50K after $3K in the first 3 months + 20K after $20K in the first 6 months.

An offer ended September 2024 for 75k miles + a $250 travel credit to be used in the Capital One travel portal.

card_name
card_name

welcome offer:

bonus_milesbonus_miles_full

Annual Fee:

annual_fees
  • $300 annual travel credit when booking through Capital One’s portal
  • Earn 5X on flights and vacation rentals booked through Capital One Travel
  • Get my downloadable checklist here so you can max your benefits
  • Can be transferred to a variety of partners like Wyndham, Avianca, Turkish Airways and more.
  • Miles can be redeemed for reimbursement on any travel purchases. 75,000 miles = $750

  • Enjoy complimentary access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge locations and the Partner

    Lounge Network

  • Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®
  • 10,000 miles every year on account anniversary (worth at least $100)
My Take

Don’t let the annual fee of $395 scare you. The $300 annual travel credit and a slew of other benefits make this card a keeper. Plus you’ll immediately up your travel game with airport lounge access and Hertz Presidents’ Club status. Read my complete guide here.

This is the second card in my Three Year Plan despite the annual fee because I really think it is the easiest premium card to get your value back. Between the $300 annual travel credit and the 10,000 miles every year on account anniversary (redeemable for a minimum of $100 in travel), that’s huge value right there.

When this card was released in November 2021, it had a 100,000 miles bonus offered (with a $10,000 spend requirement over 6 months). Since March 2022, it has had the same 75,000 mile bonus offer.

Starting October 6, 2023 – a new 90k offer was available exclusively through select referral links. This ended early in December 2023.

Transfer American Express Membership Rewards® to Choice (1:1)

American Express offers a lot of cards that earn American Express Membership Rewards® which allow you to transfer to Choice. Strictly speaking, this might not be the best value you can get from your Membership Rewards points. If you are calculating your points used versus the actual cost of a redemption, business and first class flights will always come out ahead. But for families looking for larger suites, I think transferring to Choice can still make sense. We may do this with some of our Membership Rewards points.

card_name

Community Referral

American Express® Gold Card

welcome offer:

100,000 points

Earn 100,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.

(Reader Referral) All information about American Express® Gold Card has been collected independently by Katie’s Travel Tricks. The American Express® Gold Card is no longer available through Katie’s Travel Tricks.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment is required for select benefits. Visit americanexpress.com

Annual Fee:

$325

(Terms Apply | Rates and Fees)

  • Earn 4X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent on purchases at restaurants worldwide, on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year.
  • Earn 4X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent at US supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year.
  • 84 Dunkin’ Credit: With the $84 Dunkin’ Credit, you can earn up to $7 in monthly statement credits after you enroll and pay with the American Express® Gold Card at Dunkin’ locations.
  • $100 Resy Credit: Get up to $100 in statement credits each calendar year after you pay with the American Express® Gold Card to dine at U.S. Resy restaurants or make other eligible Resy purchases. That’s up to $50 in statement credits semi-annually. Enrollment required.
  • $120 Dining Credit: Satisfy your cravings, sweet or savory, with the $120 Dining Credit. Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys. Enrollment required.

My Take

Amex almost always has higher personal referrals on this card than the public affiliate offers and I always try to post them on my blog when I have them! This is a strong offer for points that transfer to a lot of airline partners.

If you’re interested in this card, just know that getting this offer will make you ineligible to get the a welcome offer on the American Express® Green Card. So to maximize your points you’d want to get that card first. Also if you have (or have had recently) a The Platinum® Card from American Express, you’ll be ineligible for thos offer.

Public offer is usually closer to 60k. The current 90,000 offer is the highest widely available offer. Occasionally highly targeted offers to certain people will be higher.

Community Referral

The Platinum Card® from American Express

welcome offer:

175,000 Membership Rewards® Points

Earn 175,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.†

Resy Link for 100k + 10x on Restaurants

All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express®has been collected independently by Katie’s Travel Tricks. The Platinum Card® from American Express® is no longer available through Katie’s Travel Tricks.

Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com

Annual Fee:

$695

(Terms Apply | Rates & Fees)

  • Up to $200 annual airline incidental statement credit, enrollment required
  • $240 Digital Entertainment Credit: Get up to $20 back in statement credits each month on eligible purchases made with your Platinum Card® on one or more of the following: Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and The Wall Street Journal. Enrollment required.
  • $199 CLEAR® Plus Credit: CLEAR® Plus helps to get you to your gate faster at 50+ airports nationwide and get up to $199 back per calendar year on your Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use your Card. CLEARLanes are available at 100+ airports, stadiums, and entertainment venues.
  • Lounge access to Centurion Lounges and Priority Pass lounges and more, enrollment required
  • Hilton Honors gold status, enrollment required
  • Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status, enrollment required
  • Enjoy Uber VIP status and up to $200 in Uber savings on rides or eats orders in the US annually. Uber Cash and Uber VIP status is available to Basic Card Member only. Benefit renews annually. Enrollment required. Terms Apply. You must have downloaded the latest version of the Uber App and your eligible Platinum Card from American Express must be a method of payment in your Uber account. The Amex benefit may only be used in United States.

My Take

This has a high annual fee. BUT may be worth it for some people, especially if you can leverage the airline, digital entertainment, and Uber credits. The airline incidental statement credit is per calendar year. That means most people can actually get the $200 airline credit twice in the first year of holding the card.

Just note that if you get this offer, you’ll become ineligible to earn a welcome offer on the Gold or Green cards. To maximize your points earned, start with the Green card, then get the Gold, then this one.

The offers on this card fluctuate greatly. It has been as low as 80,000 points. Typically personal referral links show higher offers than affiliate links and I always try to keep my pages updates with these.

Other Ways to Earn Choice Privileges Points

Earn with the Choice credit card from Barclay

The Choice credit card generally varies its sign up offer from 32,000 points to 64,000 points. It has no annual fee so you can plan to keep it long term. Sign up offers seem to raise in the summer. In summer and early fall of 2021, it had a 75,000 point offer. It is issued by Barclay, which generally won’t approve you for more than 1 of their cards every 6 months.

Buy Choice Points

Generally I don’t recommend buying points, but if you find a great redemption, sometimes it can make sense. Make sure to do the calculations to make sure you’re getting a discount by buying points instead of paying cash. You can buy points on the Choice website.

Each fall, you can buy discounted Choice Points through the Daily Getaways Promotion from US Travel Association. This is generally the cheapest time each year to buy them.

Earn Bonus Points

Like many hotel programs, Choice offers you the opportunity to earn more points by making online purchases through its shopping portal or making purchases from partners.

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

It offered 50,000 Choice points in fall 2020 for booking a $500 stay at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico — so be sure to check the Choice website for current promotions.

Choice often offers a 3-4 night stay at one of the Bluegreen Vacation properties for $199 plus a bonus of 20,000-60,000 Choice points. You will have to sit through a timeshare presentation and be prepared to say no! You can call Call 844-235-6813 to check for current offers.

Have you stayed at one of these properties or did you find one I missed? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! I will update the info under the property with reviews or tips.

Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points
Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points
Best Choice Hotels Ascend Properties for Families to Book on Points

Advertiser Disclosure

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Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

5 Comments
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    […] out my posts on IHG and Choice hotels for families, […]

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    […] Check out my full post on booking 1+ bedroom properties with Choice! Bluegreen Vacation has a number of properties within the Choice program. […]

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    […] Check out my full post on Choice Ascend Properties Here […]

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    […] also has some great family options in the US with 1 bedroom suites or […]

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    […] Hotel points! Choice Hotels max their hotel rates out at 30,000 points per night and there are some great 1+ bedroom options in the US or great hotels in Europe, too. Read my full post on the Citi Premier for other flight […]

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