[Update 2024.12] I took another look just now and found that the whole system has improved significantly. The previous “phantom room” issue seems to be gone. You can now just search directly on the official website:

By default, it shows cash rates, so remember to change it to Show Rates: Points.

Once you go in, you can see the available dates. I tested it, and every date shown on the calendar had availability.

There is one minor issue, though: after entering from the points booking path, it may switch back to cash pricing, so you need to click “I Prefer to Use Points” one more time.

However, taxes and fees are not waived on points bookings.

Compared with the cash price, the redemption value comes out to 0.3 cents per point. Considering that Citi transfers at 4:1, that makes the value of Citi ThankYou Points 1.2 cents each here, which is decent but not amazing.

I did some quick searches across a few hotels, and the 50,000-point tier seems to offer the best value. For a hotel that costs about $250, the redemption value is around 0.5 cents per point, which works out to 2 cents per Citi ThankYou Point. That is quite good, so this tier should be your priority. Also, some properties cap out at 150,000 points per night, so you may want to look at popular hotels in major tourist destinations, where the value can also be quite strong. This does not appear to be a dynamic award chart, so there should always be a sweet spot to target.

About Preferred Hotels & Resorts

Preferred Hotels & Resorts℠ is the world’s largest independent hotel brand, with 650 hotels, resorts, residences, and unique hotel groups across 70 countries and regions. Each property in the portfolio participates in the brand’s Integrated Quality Assurance Program and maintains high service and quality standards.

Preferred Hotels & Resorts has five hotel collections—Legend, L.V.X., Lifestyle, Connect, and Preferred Residences—offering guests a luxury lodging experience tailored to different travel styles and preferences. Overall, the hotels are of quite good quality.

Loyalty Program

I Prefer™ is the company’s loyalty program and has three elite tiers. After joining I Prefer, members can use the points they earn to redeem free stays and other on-property expenses at 650 participating hotels worldwide. Members can also download the mobile app for free and easily manage their accounts before, during, and after each stay. The app also lets members search, book, redeem award certificates, and contact hotels directly. The program has more than 4 million members globally.

Elite Status

Elite status can be earned through stays and points earning. You receive Silver status just by signing up, and each higher tier includes the benefits of the lower tier.

  • Silver member (earn 0-25,000 points per year) : early check-in, late checkout, room upgrades (though upgrade priority is probably quite low) , free Wi-Fi, and other standard perks.
  • Gold member (earn 25,000-50,000 points per year) : adds a welcome amenity and a 20% bonus on stay points.
  • Titanium member: adds a Food Beverage Voucher, an annual Digital Gift, a 50% points bonus, and access to special events.

Earning Points

You can earn points by booking through the following channels:

  • IPrefer.com
  • PreferredHotels.com, StayBeyondGreen.com, and associated websites
  • I Prefer or Preferred Travel Group call centers
  • Participating hotel websites
  • Hotel direct
  • Travel agent bookings using official Preferred Travel Group booking codes

The earning rate is 10 points per $1 spent. If you have elite status, you also get a 20%-50% bonus.

At most properties, you will earn 10 base points for every US$1 in reservation spend, excluding taxes and charges, on eligible stays. For example, if you spend US$100 per night for three nights, you will earn 3,000 points.

Redeeming Points

Points can be used directly when booking a hotel, or redeemed for certificates, with the conversion ratios shown below. It is basically 2 points = 1 cent, so the value of this program’s points is fixed at 0.5 cents per point. Earning 10x points on hotel spending is therefore roughly equivalent to a 5% rebate.

The redemption ratio for direct use at booking is unclear, but I would guess it is the same.

Fast Ways to Get Elite Status

Status Match

Although the benefits are fairly average, having elite status is still better than not having it. The program does allow status matches, but it has not publicly disclosed which outside tiers map to which I Prefer tiers. You just need to send a screenshot showing your current elite status to the email address below.

Yes, you may contact [email protected]  and provide proof of your status at another hotel rewards program.

Based on online DPs, the match seems fairly generous. Hilton Gold can reportedly be matched to the top elite tier. I would expect Marriott Platinum could probably also match to the top elite tier.

If you want to request a match, you can use the template below and just replace it with your own information.

“Hello!

I just became a member on the iPrefer website and am inquiring to see if there are any status match opportunities available.

I have provided my membership number and information along with my status from the competing hotel chain.

Name:

Address:

Competing Hotel Chain:

AARP Membership

If you have an AARP membership, you can directly receive the second-highest Explorer status. Your first stay also comes with a 2500-point bonus, worth about $12.5.

We have covered AARP before. In fact, you do not need to be over age 50 to apply; anyone age 18 or older can join. It costs only a little over ten dollars per year, and there are sometimes promotions that more than offset the cost. It also comes with some niche benefits that can be worthwhile if you can use them.

Status Match

If you currently hold Air Canada elite status, you can directly match to top-tier Titanium status with I Preferred Hotel. You can do so by registering a new I Preferred Hotel membership through the link below.

If you already have elite status with their program, you’ll need to call or use the website contact options to get your account upgraded.

Titanium benefits are decent: 50% more points, complimentary meals, an annual digital gift, access to extra events, and more.

Award stays

Here’s a summary of the links for searching award nights:

My overall takeaways are:

  • Searching for award nights is very cumbersome; you basically have to check each hotel day by day.
  • The official site only shows the minimum points required for a hotel, but not whether award space is available across a range of dates.
  • Some hotels never seem to have award nights available, not even cash+points.
  • Some hotels only have a cash+points option and no full-points option.
  • Even if a stay can be booked with points on the Choice side, it may still not be bookable with I Prefer’s own points.
  • Point value ranges from 0.5c/p to 0.7c/p, so it is not fixed.

How to search for award nights

First, where can you search for award nights? I tried both the main official site and another Preferred site.

On this official site interface, you can’t see exactly how many points each hotel requires. You have to search room by room to see the points price.But when I searched a few examples on the official site, they were all cash+points rather than pure points bookings.The cash rate was $206, so 6,000 points only covered about $30 in value, which works out to about 0.5c/p.I found the official site pretty hard to use, since it doesn’t clearly show how many points a hotel actually requires. Then I found that there’s also an iPrefer site for searching, and that one is much more convenient.

This page lets you search all hotels, whether or not they currently have award nights. The “rates from” number means the cheapest room type starts at that many points.When you click into a specific hotel, you can even see a time-based chart of points pricing. But note that this chart only shows the minimum points required for each date; it does not indicate whether award rooms are actually available on that day.If you pick a random day, very often there’s no availability.It’s also possible that a hotel simply does not release rooms for awards at all. But for other hotels, you can find true full-points award nights.Compared with the cash rate of $144, the redemption value again comes out to around 0.5c/p.I also tried some other hotels, and cash+points can give you better value in some cases. For example, this hotel gets about 0.7c/p.So is there a better way to search? I remembered that Choice Hotel points can now be used to book Preferred Hotels, so in theory, if a hotel releases award space, then if it’s bookable with Choice points, it should also be bookable with I Prefer’s own points. Choice has a dedicated page for award bookings.

Then just search the hotel. On the Choice side, you can see the real award-night availability for a hotel.Then when we go back to the iPrefer page, we find that Preferred Hotels did not release award rooms to its own program. So at minimum, the Choice method can help rule things out: if there’s nothing on Choice, then there’s probably nothing through I Prefer either.

Promotions

They occasionally run promotions, which you can check at the links below:

Bottom line

If you don’t stay very often, I’d recommend sticking with a major hotel chain, where there’s generally less risk of a disappointing experience. But if you enjoy the unique character of independent hotels, Preferred Hotels is also worth considering. Just remember to secure elite status before your stay.

If you’ve stayed with this hotel group before, feel free to share your experience in the comments.