Daily Getaways has been sort of a washout for me this year with 36,000 Choice Privileges for $155 my only purchase on Friday, April 28. Most years of Daily Getaways I buy over 100,000 Choice Privileges points, but they only offered 1,040 sets of points for sale in 2017 Daily Getaways compared to 2,030 sets of points in 2016. All 1,030 sets were snapped up in the first couple seconds of the sale. I only managed to land one set for 36,000 points at $155.
36,000 points were deposited into my account last night.
I booked six (6) Points Plus Cash reward nights for hotels in Stockholm, Copenhagen and Prague for summer travel using 6,000 points per reward night and paying $7.50 per 1,000 points for the remaining 34,000 points needed. $155.00 paid for 36,000 points in Daily Getaways and an additional $255.00 to buy 34,000 more points instantly at time of booking Points Plus Cash reward nights provided a huge discount on the cost of six hotel nights in Scandinavia and Prague.
My total cost for 6 hotel nights in Europe = $410.00.
Total room rate for these same hotels, room type and dates, if I had booked advance purchase, nonrefundable rates = $1,039.00.
Stockholm Gamla Stan – Old Town
My $155 Daily Getaways purchase of 36,000 Choice Privileges points on April 28 allowed me to book 6 Points Plus Cash hotel reward nights using only these purchased points acquired 10 days before to drop the average nightly rate from $173 per night to $68 per night for a 60% discount rate.
Even without Daily Getaways, I could have booked these room nights buying all 70,000 points through Points Plus Cash rewards for $525 or $87.50 per night.
Even better, if I had been successful at purchasing 80,000 Choice Privileges points in Daily Getaways for $320, the cost of these hotel nights would have only been $280 or $47 per night.
Daily Getaways needs to grow in 2018
Many of the providers of travel items to U.S. Travel Association’s Daily Getaways really need to expand the number of items for sale. When items sell out in the first couple seconds of the Daily Getaway site going live, then these sales become more of a frustration to travel consumers than an opportunity.
I became a huge fan of Choice Privileges, Wyndham Rewards and Best Western Rewards primarily due to the Daily Getaways annual sales since 2011 when I acquired hundreds of thousands of hotel points in these loyalty programs.
If not for opportunities and value I found with Daily Getaways hotel points purchases at what are generally considered lower market segment hotels, I might still be overspending for hotels and limiting my travel destinations to places where there is a Hyatt or Starwood brand hotel.
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