If you’ve ever wondered why you couldn’t earn Choice Privileges points for stays at Choice Hotels in Scandinavia and the Baltic region, it’s because the Clarion, Comfort Inn and Quality Inn brands in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden participate in a separate hotel loyalty program, Nordic Choice Club. The Nordic Choice Club is free and open to residents of the U.S., so you may want to join the program if you are planning on traveling in the Nordic region. Members earn one point for each krone spent on the room rate but if you are staying at Choice hotels outside the Nordic region and Baltic states, you can earn 750 points per night (hotel receipts must be sent to Nordic Choice Club Customer Service). Award nights with Nordic Choice Club start at 10,000 points and points are valid for three years.

Bottom line: As Loyalty Traveler Ric Garrido points out, “Since it is possible to earn Nordic Choice Club 750 points on stays outside Scandinavia, there may be potential to leverage stays to earn Nordic Choice Club points for stays in the U.S. and get a better redemption value for free nights using points in Scandinavia than you will find with Choice Privileges. Some hotels costing 16,000 points per night with Choice Privileges are only 10,000 points per night with Nordic Choice Club in summer season and weekend nights.”