The 5th hotel reward program under examination is Priority Club, which includes the standard hotels like Holiday Inn and more exclusive brands like Crowne Plaza and Intercontinental. This was a really tough program to review because there is not a standard point redemption and the hotels are not given categories like every other hotel program I have looked at.

Point Values

Read the table below according to this example: Getting 15,000 points requires spending $1,150 on Priority Club stays assuming 13 points/dollar spent. A free night at an $150/night hotel might cost 15,000 points. $150 divided by $1,150 is about 13%.

Points Required	Dollars Spent (assume 13 points/dollar)	Typical Room Cost per Night	% Rebate
15,000	$1,150	$60-$285	5%-$25%
20,000	$1,540	$115-$230	$8%-$15%
25,000	$1925	$70-460	4%-24%
30,000	$2,300	$215-$285	9%-12%
40,000	$3,075	$388-$490	13%-16%

Reward Structure

The amount of points that you earn varies widely! Earn 10 points/dollar at Crowne Plaza, Indigo, and Holiday Inn Brands. Earn 5 points for dollar at Staybridge and Candlewood Suites, and get a flat 2000 points per stay at Intercontinental. The Priority Club Credit card will only give you an extra 3 points per dollar as well.

Furthermore, most of you stays will cost either 15,000 points or 25,000 points. There were only a few hotels outside of that range. 15,000 points is the minimum for a free night with Priority Club.

Priority Club

Rate this hotel!

10 points per dollar No Blackout Dates Get Bonus points on some stays Earn 1 or 2 airline miles per dollar (miles vary per hotel) 3,700+ hotels Transfer points between members If you want the Priority Club credit card you will also get 15,000 Bonus Points 10,000 annual bonus points if you spend $15,000 3 extra points per dollar on hotel stays 1 point per dollar on everything else Upgrade to Elite Gold Status

Club Level

• Requires staying less than 14 nights
• Extended checkout
• Free newspaper

Gold Elite

• Requires staying 15-49 nights or earning 20,000 points
• Priority check-in
• 10% point bonus
• Gold Elite customer service line

Platinum Elite

• Requires staying 50 nights or earning 60,000 points
• Complementary room upgrades
• 50% point bonus
• Guaranteed room with 72 hour advanced notice

Conclusion

At best, I would consider this program just average. Priority Club won a Freddie award just like the Westin program for “Best Elite Level Program” but I don’t see what is so great about it. The Freddie Awards just don’t seem to be that accurate when it comes to getting more travel for your money.

I think the Choice Privileges program which was the first review in this series has a little bit of an edge over Priority Club as far as value goes.

I will admit that the Priority Club brands like the Crowne Plaza are a step up from most of the Choice Privileges hotels, but it is important to keep in mind that Choice has partnered with some luxury hotels and started buying up boutique hotels in their Ascend collection. You will generally more for your money with Choice Privileges.