Free $50 gas card after 3 seperate stays

As a person who stays in quite a few hotels, let me tell you that the Choice hotels deals give you lots of points. You need to get a free Choice Privileges card and then book your stays on the internet. Choice is awesome about rewarding the points - you will get them automatically as long as you book using the website (I think you can book by phone and still get the points, but you have to call the reservations center, not the hotel where you're staying).

The rewards points can be used on any part of their program - gas, future hotel stays, retailer/restaurant gift cards, airline miles, etc. The "$50 gas" thing is just a marketing ploy. What you're getting is 16,000 bonus points. Pretty good deal, because it really is worth $50, if not more.

The bad thing about Choice is that rewards points don't get you as much stuff as TripRewards or even Best Western Gold Crown Points. So you get more rewards points but it takes more points to get stuff.

One final note: In the Fall, they usually do 2 stays = 8,000 bonus rewards points (= ~1 stay or $25). Remember, this goes by the number of *stays*, not numbers of nights in one hotel. Don't be fooled. You have to go to different hotels, or check out and check in separate times with a day off in between. A "stay" is defined as consecutive nights at the same hotel.