Last week my wife and I stayed at the Anaheim Marriott, adjacent to the Anaheim Convention Center and a five minute shuttle bus ride to the entrance of Disneyland. I paid $24 per day to park my car at the Marriott. We paid $5.00 each for an ART shuttle bus daily pass. That was ultimately a high value hotel stay since I only paid $110 for two nights with breakfast included through a certificate I purchased in December 2014 during an auction to benefit Omaha Children’s Hospital. The buffet breakfast alone would have cost $110 for the two mornings we ate at the Marriott.
Our third night at Disneyland was a Friday night when hotel rates rise around Disneyland. One of the options I had for a budget priced hotel night was the Clarion Anaheim for 12,000 points. The Clarion Anaheim is adjacent to the Anaheim Marriott.
Clarion Anaheim seen from Harbor Blvd. In background is Marriott Anaheim. Hilton Anaheim is across from Marriott Anaheim on same entry road.
Quality Inn Placentia-Anaheim
Instead, I redeemed 8,000 points for the Quality Inn Placentia-Anaheim, a hotel in a business park about 15 minutes drive from Disneyland.
At the $4.19 per 1,000 points rate I paid for Choice Privileges points in April 2015, when I purchased 172,000 points for $720, my hotel reward night at Quality Inn Placentia was a $34 hotel room night. Published rates were $109.
We arrived at the hotel after midnight and we were on the road by 9am. There was no need for a 4-star hotel with services. We hit Jack-in-the-Box drive through for a budget taco snack and shake. That was our food indulgence after a day of eating fruit we brought to Disneyland and salad we bought in Disneyland.
In the morning there was the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. The previous two mornings, we started our day with white egg omelets, potatoes, fruit, salmon and all the food we could desire.
At the Quality Inn we had the option of basic foods, yogurt, toast, bagel, bananas, apples, scrambled eggs, sausage, coffee and juice. I ate a filling breakfast at 7:30am in a near empty breakfast room. Kelley arrived at 9:00am to a crowded breakfast room to find most of the food gone and waiting to be replaced.
I joked a few weeks before on Twitter that I knew I was not in California when I was at Universal Studios Orlando and picked up a fish taco in a section of the park themed to look like San Francisco. There was no hot sauce to be found for my taco. Quality Inn Placentia-Anaheim revealed the real California difference with Tabasco and Tapatio hot sauce on all the tables in the breakfast room.
The front desk lobby area was clean with couches and a big TV. Off to the side was the computer station in the lobby and the breakfast buffet was located off the main lobby with a decent sized breakfast room.
Quality Inn also has an outdoor pool and a small fitness room, where a vacant guest room was filled with a few pieces of exercise equipment. Between the pool and fitness room is a laundry room.
There is a BBQ grill beside the pool. The fitness center had limited pieces of equipment, but they were good quality exercise pieces.
The hotel received a 2014 Award of Excellence with an 8.5 rating from Booking.com. Quality Inn Placentia-Anaheim is the highest rated of three hotels listed on TripAdvisor.com in this business park area of Placentia on the city line with Fullerton, California. Quality Inn Placentia is ranked higher than Residence Inn and Best Western Plus.
I enjoyed our stay at the Marriott Anaheim, but there was no reason to spend $200 for a hotel room on a Friday night that we were not planning to use between the time we left for Disneyland in the morning and arrived back at the hotel after the park closed at midnight, only to wake up and hit the road for our drive back to Monterey the next morning. Quality Inn Placentia-Anaheim is only 15 minutes drive from Disneyland and a perfectly fine hotel for a room with a good bed and necessary room amenities.
Quality Inn Placentia-Anaheim is about six miles northeast of Disneyland.
Choice Privileges points can be purchased through July 28, 2015 at a 30% discount off the standard $11 per 1,000 points rate. You can buy 13,000 to 50,000 points for $7.70 per 1,000 points. This makes the nightly price for Quality Inn Placentia-Anaheim $61.60 to buy 8,000 points for a reward night.
Loyalty Traveler – Buy 16,000 Choice Privileges points for $123.20 through July 28, 2015 (June 27)
