Can Choice Travel Agent Rates really save you money on your hotel booking?
What are Choice Travel Agent Rates?
Like other major hotel brands and travel providers, Choice Hotels is known for offering preferred lower rates to travel professionals, either for the agents to use for personal stays or so they can book on behalf of clients.
The Choice Hotels Travel Professionals site does more than just offer a discount, however. In addition to varying discounts, Choice Hotels Travel Professionals has travel tools and resources and pays 10% commission to travel agents. You'll need your own personal IATA, ARC, TRUE or CLIA number to utilize the site. Interestingly, if your agency doesn't have one, Choice will even provide you with a 'Pseudo IATA number'.
Choice also has a VIP/Preferred Rate for certain corporate accounts and consortia, as well as for qualified high-volume travel agencies. This rate is non-commissionable to travel agents.
How do I use Choice Travel Agent Rates?
You can directly access the site here or follow the link for Travel Agents from the Choice website:
Sign in to the site with your IATA, ARC, CLIA, TRUE or Pseudo number and the first character of your agency's name. You can then access the booking area, see the discounted rates, check the online commission service and utilize all the tools and resources.
Not all Choice properties offer a travel agent discount; when you search on the Travel Professionals site, Travel Agent Rates will be highlighted in red.
What else do I need to know about Choice Travel Agent Rates?
There doesn't seem to be a public way to check the rates before booking, so we can't compare to show you example savings unfortunately. However, if you're eligible, it's always worth checking both the Travel Professionals site and the main Choice Hotels site to compare rates before booking, just in case your chosen property is discounted on your chosen dates.
Note that when travel agents book a personal stay, it's likely that photo ID of proof of eligibility will be required at check-in.