Sep 12, 2007
If you're 50 or older, there's only one U.S. hotel chain to use
I've been reminded by several aging readers that I should occasionally seek out the travel tactics that will assist the middle-aged or older American to travel. At a time when nearly all the airlines and even some hotels have dropped their senior-citizen discounts, there remains one travel company -- Choice Hotels -- that heavily promotes its price cuts for mature travelers and makes sure that those cuts are substantial. Choice Hotels is a travel giant with tens of thousands of properties operating as Comfort Inns, Quality Inns, Rodeway Inns, Econo Lodge, Clarion Inns, Sleep Inns, Comfort Suites, Cambria Suites and MainStay Suites, and every one of them provides a 10% discount to people 50 and older (the "Mature Travelers Rate"), and a 20% to 30% discount to people 60 and older (the "Sixty Plus Rate"). The latter requires an advance reservation made to tel. 800/4CHOICE. Choice also offers a 15% discount to members of AARP, who can be as young as 50.
Because all the above brands have good rates to begin with, an additional discount of 10% to 30% brings them into bargain territory. Readers seeking the cut should first have their reservations confirmed at the rate quoted to them, and then advise the telephone reservationist that they are eligible for either the Mature Travelers Rate or (better yet) the Sixty Plus Rate.
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Because all the above brands have good rates to begin with, an additional discount of 10% to 30% brings them into bargain territory. Readers seeking the cut should first have their reservations confirmed at the rate quoted to them, and then advise the telephone reservationist that they are eligible for either the Mature Travelers Rate or (better yet) the Sixty Plus Rate.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, deals
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
