As you know, travel is a big part of my job. Huge part. It’s not that my gig is all about travel, but when in sales, and working for an old company that still believes in the value of face to face contact, well, you travel. And I’m happy with my job, the travel, new places to see and stay. Great food to eat. All the above.

What’s less than satisfying, sometimes, however is the tools that travelers like myself are sometimes forced to use to allow us to do our jobs. Currently I have at least a dozen different rewards programs for airlines, hotel chains, car rental places and various others. When I started oh so long ago, I was told this would be one of those “off the books” perks. At first I didn’t put much effort into it, but then I got wise.

One of the programs I tend to use a lot, and get rewarded for a lot is my Choice Privileges account. Not sure how long I’ve been using it, but seems like forever. As such, when I’m booking my travel for the month, they are one of the first links that I go to in order to see if they have the best deals for when and where I’m staying.

Just this morning I thought I’d get a jump on some of my scheduling for next month and headed over to the Choice Hotels website.

Wow! Apparently they did a complete site redesign and boy does it pop. I guess the best way to describe it is that things are much more refined, and cleaner. Not sure if “de-cluttered” is an actual word, but that’s sort of the feel I get now when I hit their home page.

The only thing I’m not wild about is the large banner just under the top navigation and search bar at the top of the page. I’m guessing, though, that this will either get smaller or go away after the “new site is here” time has passed.

I think my favorite feature on the home page is that they have placed the find hotels search right up near the top of the page. It feels clean, orderly and has less distracting links. Now, as I’m doing my searching for the various legs of my trips, I’m able to get right to the results.

Like I mentioned earlier, often times the tools make or break the sense that this type of work is great or just blah. I feel confident that the new Choice Hotels redesign will push me towards feeling great about my work. Give it a try for your next trip and then let me know in the comments how you feel about it.

Can’t wait to hear from you soon!

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