Guide to Booking Preferred Hotels (+ Map)

The Preferred Hotels collection advertises itself as the world’s largest independent hotel brand. It has a unique collection of 650+ hotels in over 85 countries. Most of them are bookable with points! Select Preferred Hotels can be booked using either Choice or I Prefer points.

The program has some quirks that can make searching for availability somewhat challenging. But if you don’t mind spending some extra time, you can certainly find a good deal!

This post goes over how to book Preferred Hotels with points and some things to watch out for. I’ll show you how to work through the website quirks to help you find and book a great hotel for your next trip.

What’s Special about Preferred Hotels

Unique Properties

The Preferred Hotels collection includes so many unique and interesting properties. You can find small boutique hotels, historic properties, luxury spa resorts, all-inclusives, castle hotels, and more!

In general, it can be hard to find boutique or independent hotels that are bookable with points, but Preferred Hotels has a lot of really nice options with tons of character.

Unique Locations

Preferred Hotels can be found all over the world.

They have hotels in many different types of locations as well, not just major cities. That opens up some options where there might not otherwise be a hotel that’s bookable with points.

Strong Transfer Ratio from Citi

With the right credit card, you can transfer Citi ThankYou® Points to the I Prefer program at a 1:4 ratio (more on this below).

Rates start at 15,000 points per night, which means you can book a stay for as few as 3,750 points.

Many very nice hotels fall in the 50,000-100,000 point per night range. When you transfer from Citi, you would only need 12,500-25,000 points per night to book with I Prefer points. That’s a great value for a hotel that might otherwise cost you $500-$1,000+ per night.

Two Ways to Book: I Prefer and Choice

You can book Preferred hotels with points in two different ways.

You can book them through the I Prefer program using I Prefer points, or book through Choice Hotels using Choice points.

Not every hotel in the Preferred Hotels collection is bookable with points, but many are. Some can only be booked with I Prefer points, some can only be booked with Choice points, and some can be booked through either program.

Pricing is often different between the two programs. If you’re looking at a particular property, it can be worth comparing both I Prefer and Choice to see which method will use fewer points.

Availability can vary between programs as well. You might find award availability with Choice, but not I Prefer, or vice versa. If you don’t see availability for the dates you want with one program, try checking the other.

Map: Preferred Hotels Bookable With Points

Neither the Choice nor Preferred Hotel website have a good search function. Even figuring out if a hotel can sleep 4 people takes a number of screens to click through. So our team has done the research to make it easier for you!

On this map, you can filter by price in points, as well as which program you’d use to book. Remember that if you have Citi ThankYou Points, you can transfer to Preferred Hotels at a 1:4 ratio and Choice at a 1:2 ratio.

If you find a property or two you’re interested in, then follow the steps below in the article to confirm availability before you transfer any points.

The cash prices are taken as an average across their calendar and won’t be 100% accurate but will give you a gauge. As with all our resources, let us know if you find something that needs to be updated!

 

Booking Preferred Hotels with I Prefer Points

How to get I Prefer Points

As a loyalty member, you earn points when you stay with Preferred Hotels. For the average person, it can be hard to earn a lot of points this way. Here are some more ways you can earn I Prefer points!

Transfer from Citi

If you hold either the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card or the Citi Strata Premier® Card, you can transfer Thank You points to I Prefer at a 1:4 ratio. That means for every 1,000 ThankYou points you transfer, you will receive 4,000 I Prefer points.

Transfer from Capital One

Capital One Venture Miles transfer to I Prefer at a 1:2 ratio. If you have access to Citi points, that’s obviously going to give you a better value, but 1:2 is still a solid transfer ratio.

Purchasing Points

It’s not possible to buy I Prefer points. They can only be earned or transferred through partners.

Combining I Prefer Points with Friends and Family

The I Prefer program does not allow you to share points, but you can combine points through either Capital One or Citi before transferring to I Prefer.

Both Capital One and Citi allow you to share points with another member, for free. This makes it easy to pool points with friends or family.

For example, if you and a friend both have Venture miles with Capital One, your friend can transfer some of their miles to you, and then you can transfer those miles (along with your own) to I Prefer to make the booking.

How I Prefer Point Pricing Works

Point prices are static, meaning they don’t vary by date or demand. The price to book a room with points is always the same. Prices can be changed at any time.

Point prices start at 15,000 points per night and go up to 150,000 per night.

When you go to book a hotel with points, you’ll often see two different options on the checkout screen. I Prefer Reward Nights and I Prefer Reward nights Plus.

I Prefer Reward Nights are booked fully on points. The only cash you’ll need to pay is any resort fees or taxes that are not otherwise included (additional fees are always shown on the search page and the checkout screen, more on that below).

I Prefer Reward Nights Plus are cash + points bookings. These can be good when you don’t have enough points to cover the full booking, but you’d like to use some points to help reduce the cost of the stay.

I Prefer Reward Nights Plus may or may not offer a good value. For example, in some instances, you might pay more when using a small number of points than you would pay without using any points at all, so it’s worth it to check.

Taxes and Resort Fees

Resort fees (also called destination fees) are not included. You’ll need to pay those separately at the hotel. Not every hotel charges resort fees.

In general, taxes are included, but some hotels have additional taxes or fees. All fees are shown right on the search page.

How to Find Available Hotels with I Prefer

Searching the Preferred Hotels website is not the easiest. The system is somewhat quirky, and it can take some time to find what you’re looking for. That’s why we created our map above to help! But you’ll still need to use their website to confirm availability before you transfer any points and book.

To start your search, head to the I Prefer Hotel Rewards page. You can input a destination or just click “find hotels” without putting any parameters in the search bar.

On the next screen, you can filter the search by region, country, state/province, or city. Here I’ve narrowed the search to properties in the United Kingdom. You can view the results as a list or a map view.

Where it says “Show Rates”, choose “Points” to see what properties are available to book with points.

Click on “View Rates” to see a calendar of availability at each hotel. From there, you can select dates and choose a room.

Issues Finding the Points Calendar

Sometimes when you search for a hotel by name, it’s impossible to get to the calendar view. It will default to a view that just has cash pricing, and you’ll be randomly searching for dates that accept points.

One workaround seems to be to filter by city instead of searching by property name. Skip the search box at the top and instead go to destination filters. If you’ve identified a property using our map (above) you should have the Country/State/City. Then it should populate a list that includes the hotel you want to book.

If you click on “View Rates” that seems to force it to show a points calendar, rather than a cash calendar.

Issues with Occupancy and the Points Calendar

To create our map above, we have searched every hotel for multiple dates to find the max occupancy of a room you could book with points. This is your best starting place for searching if you’re trying to find a room that sleeps 3-4.

But note that some hotels with an occupancy of 4 can’t always be booked for 4. For instance, if all the standard two queen rooms are booked, a hotel might not be bookable for 4 people. There’s no way to force the points calendar to show which dates have rooms for a certain occupancy.

If you are searching for 2 adults/2 children using the points calendar, it might show availability even if a room for 4 isn’t actually bookable with points. Again, this is why we did all the research and compiled into a custom map to save you time!

Selecting a Room

Only standard rooms are bookable with I Prefer points. Some hotels have multiple room types that count as a “standard room”, such as a king room or two queens.

If a standard room is not available for your dates, you won’t be able to book that property with points.

Some hotels allow you to pay to upgrade to a different room type. You can always call the hotel and ask if you’re interested in an upgrade.

Change and Cancellation Policies

When you book a Preferred hotel with I Prefer points, changes are not allowed. If you need to make a change, you can cancel the reservation and then rebook.

Cancellation policies vary by hotel. Be sure to check the policy of the hotel before finalizing the booking.

Booking Preferred Hotels with Choice Points

How to Get Choice Points

As a member of the Choice Privileges loyalty program, you earn points when you stay at Choice hotels. To earn points faster, check out these additional ways to earn points:

Transfer from Citi or Wells Fargo

With the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card or the Citi Strata Premier® Card, you can transfer ThankYou points to Choice Hotels at a 1:2 ratio.

Wells Fargo Rewards Points also transfer to Choice at a 1:2 ratio.

Transfer from American Express or Capital One

American Express Membership Rewards points and Capital One Venture Miles both transfer to Choice at a 1:1 ratio

Open a Co-branded Credit Card

Choice has two co-branded cards issued by Wells Fargo. You can earn a welcome bonus when you open one of these cards and meet the minimum spend.

Purchase Choice Points

You can buy Choice points at any time. This can be helpful if you need a small number of points to complete a booking.

Choice occasionally runs promotions that offer extra points when you make a purchase.

Pricing Preferred Hotels through Choice

Point prices are fixed, but can change at any time.

Prices start at 20,000 points per night, with the nicest hotels maxing out at 87,000 points per night.

Taxes and Resort Fees

Resort fees are not included. Those are paid separately at the hotel. Not every hotel charges resort fees.

Some hotels have additional taxes or fees that you’ll need to pay at the time of booking. All fees are shown right on the search page, so there are no surprises.

Finding Preferred Hotels Bookable through Choice

The process for booking Preferred Hotels with Choice points is a bit different than booking Choice Hotels with Choice points. You’ll need to go to a special site to search for Preferred Hotels. Sign in with your Choice Privileges account to search.

The search page is very similar to what you see when searching through I Prefer. You can filter by region, country, or city. In this screenshot, I’ve narrowed the results to Asia & Pacific. You can view the results as a list or on a map.

After browsing the results, click on “View Rates” of the hotel you’re interested in to search for availability. You’ll see a calendar page where you can input the number of guests and select dates. Dates where you can see a price should be available. Dates that are grayed out are not available.

After selecting dates and clicking “continue”, you’ll get to a page where you can select a room. If you don’t have enough points in your account, you’ll see a button that says “not enough points”.

Unfortunately, you can’t get to the final booking page without having enough points in your account to cover the entire stay. But if you’re able to get to this screen where you can select a room, then you can be confident that the room is indeed available to be booked with points.

Changes and Cancellations

Changes are not allowed, but cancellations are. If you need to make a change, you can cancel the reservation and rebook.

When you cancel, points are returned to your Choice Privileges account as long as you cancel within the period allowed by the hotel’s cancellation policy (often 24 or 72 hours before the reservation date). Cancellation policies vary by hotel, so check the policy of your particular hotel before finalizing the booking.

Things to Watch Out For when Booking Preferred Hotels

Confirm your booking with the hotel

The Preferred Hotels system can be somewhat glitchy, so it’s a good idea to confirm your reservation directly with the hotel after finalizing your booking. You can do this by calling or emailing the hotel directly.

Inability to see point prices

When you click “View rates” on a hotel, you should see a calendar that lists prices in points.

For some hotels that are bookable with points, you’ll see the calendar show cash prices instead. After selecting dates, you will see an option to switch to “Use I Prefer points” if the hotel has award availability for those dates.

Sometimes when searching by name, you can only switch to points when you find dates that are bookable with points.

That’s why we suggest filtering down to a city and clicking “View Rates” from there, rather than searching for a hotel by name.

In general, dates are only bookable with points if a standard room is available. This can be tricky because if you see cash prices, there’s no way to tell which dates have standard rooms available (and thus can be booked with points) except by manually playing around with dates until you find one.

Not Every Hotel Shows Up

Sometimes when you search by region and filter to pay with points, not every hotel that is bookable will always show up. You can search individual hotels by typing the hotel name into the search bar. When you go to book, select “use I Prefer points” and you can then see if there is point availability.

Inaccurate Calendars

When looking at the hotel calendar, it sometimes appears that rooms are available when they’re not. To make sure there are actually rooms available, select your dates, then click “continue”. If you are able to select a room type, then that means rooms are indeed available and bookable with points.

Room Capacity

It can be easier to start your search with no more than 2 adults on the booking. You’ll be able to see more results that way. When confirming availability for specific dates, make sure to enter the correct number of people.

Use our map to help find hotels with occupancy of more than two. You’ll want to make sure there’s a room available that’s large enough for your entire group.

Getting to the Final Booking Page with I Prefer

To see the total cost for your stay (including a breakdown of any fees), select your dates, then click on “Continue” to select a room type.

This next part is kind of quirky. If you are not logged in, you may be able to select a room type and move to the next screen. Or you may be prompted to create an account or sign in before continuing.

If you’re logged in but you don’t have enough points in your account to cover the booking, you sometimes won’t be able to move past this screen. Instead of the “select” button, you’ll see a note that says “not enough points”. If this happens, you should be able to log out, then run the search again.

Once you select a room, the next screen shows you a breakdown of the taxes and fees and the total cost for the entire stay.

Don’t Let Your Points Expire

I Prefer Points expire after 24 months of inactivity. You can extend the expiration date by spending or earning points. Transferring in more points from the bank works to extend the expiration as well.

Choice Points expire after 18 months of inactivity. Just like with I Prefer points, the expiration date can be extended by transferring more bank points or by spending or earning points.

Award Search Tools

Award search tools like MaxMyPoint, Awayz, or rooms.aero can help you search multiple options at once. This can be a time saver if you’re flexible on things like dates or destinations. Most of these tools have free and paid versions.

A nice perk that many of these tools offer is the ability to set up alerts.

If the hotel you want is not available for your preferred dates, you can set up an alert to notify you if it becomes available. This can be especially helpful for popular properties where reward nights book up fast.