Choice Privileges Goes Upscale . . . Huh?

I am not a hotel snob.   Aside from spending as little as possible — my personal priorities are:

• safety
• location
• non-smoking
• room with a view
• clean
• free wifi
• comfortable bed
• indoor pool
• recreational amenities
• business center with printer
• free coffee or breakfast

In that order.

When I bid on Priceline, I like to get a 4 star hotel for a 2 star price.  But if none is available, sure, I will bid on a 2.5 star hotel, or a 2 star hotel, and sometimes I will be pleasantly surprised.

What I really enjoy when traveling though, are unique, special, quirky, or historic properties.  We’ve stayed in the teepee motel on Route 66, and the caboose hotel in Dunsmuir, California.

When nothing was available on Priceline in chi chi Laguna Beach, California, we ended up in a 2 star Best Western, a bit inland in San Capistrano.  It wasn’t fancy, but the swimming pool was surrounded by fuchsia and coral bougainvillea, and we spent a delightful morning visiting the historic Mission at San Capistrano — a real gem.

To be perfectly honest, I have never given the Choice Privileges program or their rewards credit card a second glance.

The hotels in this chain are just not very exciting.  Think Rodeway Inn, Econolodge, Quality Inn, and Clarion.  Comfort Inn and Suites is about as good as it gets.

Think again.  

Choice Privileges has added a new collection of hotels — the Ascend Collection— which it is marketing as “boutique, historic, and unique” hotels.

The collection includes about 100 hotels, mostly in North America, but a few in Scandinavia, Central America, or the Caribbean.

The hotels range from the funky Admiral Fell Inn in Baltimore to the modern LGBT-friendly Blue-Green Vacations Club 36 in Las Vegas.

The Federal Pointe Inn in Gettysburg, PA is in an old, refurbished school house.

The 1950’s-style Postcard Inn is right on the white sand beach in St. Petersburg, Florida.

There are five hotels in various trendy Manhattan neighborhoods like Soho, Chelsea and midtown.

Here is a list of places where the Ascend hotels are located.  I cannot vouch for any of these hotels.  If these locations are in your travel plans, I would recommend checking out the reviews on TripAdvisor.