Here is a post to breakdown each of the hotel points sales for Daily Getaways.
The run down of Daily Getaways
- Place: DailyGetaways.com
- Date: Weekdays, May 19 – June 20
- Time: 1pm Est
- Cost: Whatever it is, save 10% by using an Amex card.
Each day a different hotel or travel company offers different packages, the more expensive packages are slightly “better deals”. Every sale has a limited number of packages.
A good sale with a low number of packages offered, like Hyatt’s top package offering 72,000 points at $775 which only has “15 available”, will go instantly. 1pm hits, and by 1:00:01, those suckers will be sold out.
Other crappy packages with tons of available will never sell.
Conclusion
Yes, I’m starting with the conclusion. Normally I save that for the end…
But listen. Don’t buy these points speculatively. There are cheaper ways to earn via MS and many many many other ways with slightly more time. This is a flash sale tactic to justify spending a lot of money and getting little value.
Even in Hyatt’s case… Don’t get stuck paying $775 for points you’ll cash in on three nights at a $200/night hotel.
However, if you have a use that you find is a good deal, do it. Some redemptions are better than others. Obviously, I’m half jokingly critical of how bad some (all) of these deals are. (More than half). But my bias is that these won’t actually save you money because you don’t have to stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney when you go to Sydney Right? You can stay anywhere, so why lock yourself into a high rate to save money.
I have a friend that says, “you can go broke saving money.”
But if your income doesn’t require saving money or isn’t near going broke, do what you want. I don’t judge.
Here’s why if it’s not a great deal, or if you don’t have a plan, you shouldn’t buy.
When you use points on a hotel you give up two things:
- The ability to earn points, complete promotions and gain elite night credit, like you would with a paid night.
- The ability to choose outside the chain. Sure $300-$400 is a good “deal” for the Park Hyatt Sydney, but you don’t have to stay there. But worse yet, $500 is a terrible deal for the Conrad Hong Kong. Terrible, but your locking yourself in by buying ahead.
You also run the risk of devalutions.
Wyndham points – Mon, May 19
I’ll just cut to the chase and say that this is not what it was. The transfers to miles have gotten worse and the price has gone up.
Who is this deal for: This deal is for suckers – people with more money than common sense.
Choice Hotels – Wed, May 21
Choice hotel points suck, but not quite as bad as their hotels. So why would anyone go in on $175? Probably for miles.
Choice does transfer to airlines. Like Air Canada, American Airlines, Alaska, United and US Airways at a ratio of 5,000 points to 1,000 miles. Good deal? No, not all. But if you need to top off, you need to top off. Although the slightly better ratio would be to Southwest. 6,000 choice points to 1,800 Southwest miles.
Who is this deal for: Over all, this deal is for suckers – people with more money than common sense. Not saying there aren’t good uses… but ya know.
Fri, May 23 – Hilton HHonors Points
Would I like to jump on a sinking ship or buy Hilton points? Probably not. Are there exceptions? Certainly.
This is pretty straight forward, would you pay $50 for 10,000 HHonors points?
Now that’s a free night at the DoubleTree Kuala Lumpur. It’s an actual deal… not enough for me to buy and go to the hotel, but good enough that I would pay $50 for a night at the DT KL. So Category 2 hotels are rare, but there are some good ones. At this level it makes sense.
On the other end, top level hotels… this is not a deal. It’s highly likely that you would spend more money buying points than you would if you had booked the hotel with cash. Now with the Conrad Maldives you can tell me it’s a “deal” to pay $500 a night… but I can’t afford that kind of “deal”.
But believe it or not, this deal would really tempt me if I saw a Category 1 hotel that I actually wanted to stay at.
Who is this deal for: This particular deal is targeting suckers – people with more money than common sense. However, I honestly believe there are some worthy redemptions, and a lot of redemptions other people would call a good deal because it’s “saving” them money they wouldn’t have spent.
Mon, May 26 – IHG Rewards Points
I’m calling it now… They’re suckering you in with the PointBreaks list. They will post a decent list, you’ll go to buy points, and the points will take several days to transfer, and then you get them and the hotel you wanted will be off PB list.
I’m calling it.
As far as deals go, $31.50 for 5,000 points isn’t terrible. Rather, it’s slightly lower than what you can currently buy using the Cash + Points trick (where you book with cash and points, cancel and get it back in points only… like what it would have cost in points).
But you can do a LOT better by using the IHG Earning on Steroids Trick, and by completing the Big Win. Like a lot better. But, I know, that takes time and you actually have to go to a hotel to earn the points.
Who is this deal for: People with more money than time. If you had the time, you would be able to earn points cheaper. However, if you go ahead and buy the points for the this coming PointBreaks list and they don’t post in time… that would be unfortunate and I would say that you would have been “suckered” into the promo.
At the same time, PointBreaks may have more availability this time due to a change in rules. AND a free night at a nice hotel for ~$30 is an actual deal. Not a “this would have been $1,000, so I’m like totally saving $500” kinda deal.
Wed, June 4 – Hyatt Gold Passport Points
You know how I said, “you can go broke saving money”? The Hyatt deal is just that. But if you got da money and are gonna shell out $300/night anyways, it might as well be a Park Hyatt.
It’s at best $100 per 10,000 points.
On a lower level hotel, like the Hyatt Regency Phuket, it makes no sense. The Hyatt in Phuket can be had by Diamond members or via a BRG at $100 a night. It would make no sense to pay $150 to get the points and then use points. Again, you’d then not be earning points and what not.
On the top end, hotels that are 20,000 to 30,000 points a night would be at most $300 a night with this deal. Which at something like the Park Hyatt Sydney or the Park Hyatt Milan, it’s a de… d… d… I can’t use the word deal when talking about $300 for one night at a hotel. But it’s a something.
Because this is a better… de… purchase, for people who would already pay for luxury accommodations in expensive cities, AND considering that there are very limited packages, it will sell out instantly. There are only 15 of the best deal. Be there exactly at one.
Who is this deal for: People with more money than me. My honest opinion is that if you’re in my financial situation and you take this deal, shame on you – you moron. But if you’re like, one of those people who live above the poverty level, it could be a good deal.
Mon, June 9 – Marriott Gift Card
Buy a $1,000 gift card for $900 is a deal if you’ll spend $1,000 at Marriott hotels anyways. You still earn points, you can still BRG.
I looked on plasticjungle and there’s no opportunity to resell at a profit.
Tue, June 17 – Club Carlson Points
This has gone up, right? I’m pretty sure it was cheaper last year.
You can buy 10,000 for a little less than $50, which isn’t all that as generally category 1 hotels (9,000 points) are only going to be worth a little more than $50 a night.
But let’s take an actual real example – the Radisson Blu Budapest. The hotel isn’t incredible itself, but it’s in Budapest, which is a cool city. It’s 15,000 points a night. With this sale you can get it for less than $75 a night, when normally it’s $75 before taxes… but at least you’d earn points. A less than break even deal, in my mind.
However, with the Club Carlson credit card, you’d get a free night per award night booking. We stayed there for two night stays the last two times in Budapest and therefore it was like a buy-one-get-one-free.
Using the card’s perk of a free night like this could potentially get a free night for closer to $35 a night. $35 a night is actually decent for such a stay, assuming you have the card and book two night stays. A lot of assuming.
On the high end, let’s just take the neighboring city and take for example, the Radisson Blu Vienna Styles. It was 50,000 points a night. Under this sale that would be more like $250 a night, when normally the hotel goes for $250 a night before taxes – I kid you not.
It’s obviously a loss, given that you’re not earning points and whatever crap I said at the beginning.
But if you have the credit card, you could do like we did and do two nights for 50,000 points. This would be $125 if you bought the points in this stay. Now I love the hotel- well really I love that area of Vienna, but in all honesty, I’d have a hard time spending that money and not earning points.
Obviously there are better deals, but both of these are good deals on the low end and high end and they aren’t great deals. Maybe $125 in London would be a great non-rev stay. But my point is that I wouldn’t recommend buying speculatively. There are good redemptions, but they’re hard to find.
Who is this deal for: Compared to all these other deals… $35 a night at the Radisson Blu Budapest sounds like a great deal. So, it’s not a no-brainer, but better than the others. Too bad the Radisson Blu Budapest isn’t still 9,000 points a night.
Will I buy anything?
Probably not. If I did, it’s because the PointBreaks list was so good that I used all my points and still want more, and it seemed availability would last. Or if a category 1 Hilton was appealing (of the few in the world known to me, none seem to cross paths soon). OR, if there was a Radisson Blu plan… but a lot of ifs.
They (whoever is selling) have already run the math on this, and hope you don’t.
Would the IHG points be a bad deal if redeemed for the IC Thalasso?
My Big Win was the minimum amount (forget what the exact amount was), and even with paid stays and promo stacking from FT- I’m not sure one could earn 100K for substantially less than $567 (with 10% Amex discount), could they? What would be your time horizon for it?
In my opinion, if you want to go to Bora Bora and will end up paying more in cash… then yet it would be a good deal. If you have other options to get cheaper/free stays, it’s not a good deal.
On the other hand, I once earned 34,000 points from one cheapish paid stay. So… YMMV, it depends on promotions out and what not.
Plus, I need hotel stays anyways, might as well get nights out of the money I’m spending for the points.
So it totally varies. Also, it’s pretty minimal effort.
While I generally agree with you, you are dead wrong that the Choice deal is for “suckers.” It actually represents excellent value for many (actually most) of their hotels. Just take any hotel in the system and compare the cost of buying the room to redeeming an award on purchased points. The savings tend to average close to 50%.
And there are some extreme values. Look at Venice, Italy. Wow.
I’m particularly surprised that “broke” travelers such as yourself thumb your noses up at Choice hotels. Yes, they’re generally no place to vacation (with some significant exceptions). But do you ever need a room in a small town or by an airport? If you do — particularly in North America — most Choice hotels are more than adequate for that purpose. And with these points, they can be had for cheap.
concur with you iahphx…. far too black and white the generic slams here….
Puzzled esp. by the whacks at the IHG. Suckering us in? first, I seem to recall you were quite keen on this very same promotion last summer…? Again, this is the same promotion as last summer, and with the Amex discount, it comes out to $30 or less per point break stay…. and yet you downplay it this time around with a link to a now rather stale post about IHG points on steroids…. I did great last fall with the program last fall. Got the big win, the cc, and another 50K or so in bonuses. Appreciate Drew’s many tips then. But this year, nearly all the various IGH codes (via ft and elsewhere) that I’ve tried since January come back as errors — claiming I already registered for them. (have seen this complaint far and wide, so its not just me) Yes, I got the spring big win — half what the fall one was worth, and it cost me much more out of pocket.
The “new and verified” codes thus far (such as via loyaltyroom) are truly pathetic by comparison…..
(ps. sorry for the typos….would be nice if you could upgrade your software to include a link to let respondents edit their own posts….)
but hope core point is clear….. you need to respond to the widespread complaints that the IHG points system — the “steroids” as you hawk them — aren’t working so hot this year.
Okay, in response to why I promoted more last year. Two reasons.
1) I’ve gotten better at this hotel points thing. Way better.
2) My voice on travelisfree.com even a year ago, especially two years ago, was to copy the other bloggers’ voices.
“Another good promotion for you”.
I just decided not to promote things I don’t buy. Most of the time I just don’t write about buying miles and crap… because I don’t do it. Here I wrote about why I’m not buying, which normally I don’t even bother.
In regards to the steroids. It goes through seasons. They seemed to do some house keeping at the turn of the year, and they haven’t produced any new codes in a while. Don’t know what that’s about.
And there are growing options with Club Carlson bogos, BW BRGs, etc… Manufactured spending alone could do better, imo.
But, maybe you’re right in that I shouldn’t be so black and white. Maybe it’s way more helpful to say, “actually there are good deals and it would be good for people… going to Scandinavia… or something.” I appreciate your feedback.
In regards to the technology of the blog… I’m not a point where I can do that myself or hire someone to build something. lol
Agree, and this is why I’m bummed I wasn’t able to get in on the deal. I’m going to Scandinavia this fall and hotels are up the wazoo! But choice has a bunch of low-level redemptions. Luckily I’ve got a pretty CS-gung ho friend in Stockholm, but will have to be a little more creative elsewhere now.
Also- messing around with Wyndham right now due to not finding apt/sorta a problem illegally living in my RV (yes, it’s illegal in LA…grrr). There are a couple low level deals to be had, tier 1 is 5.5k. I guess easy enough to earn though. Managed to get in on promo where I’m paying $70/night for hotel, but after 1st stay you get 8k bonus (up to 24k). AND I also have another promo where you get 1k united miles w/each stay. We’ll see if both post….
Dizzy, you live out of an RV? In LA? I thought you lived in Arizona? Who are you?
Not sure I appreciate mocking my saying I’m “broke” and telling me I “thumb my noses up at choice”, as if I’m too good for that… but I’ll respond as if it wasn’t meant to be personal.
Look, the choice promotion is good for crappy hotel stays. Personally, I’m not staying in the middle of nowhere Kansas, and if I was, I could probably find a different crappy hotel even cheaper. The difference is that choice is locking you into their hotel.
Why wouldn’t I just BRG a Best Western and get a $100 gift card ontop of my $30 stay, instead of locking myself into a nonpoints earning stay with Choice?
And I looked, and most choice hotels aren’t 8,000 points a night or whatever. Most are like 20,000, at least in ALL the locations I’ll be heading too in the next year. 20,000 is like $97? $100? I wouldn’t pay that in Manhattan unless it was earning me A LOT of points.
So look, I’m passing up $35/night at a Rad Blu Budapest. I’m passing up $30/night with PointBreaks at potentionally great ICs, because I can do better.
And yet it’s odd that I’m passing up $97 choice hotels?
If the 10,000 choice hotels were more common, or better located… then maybe. But otherwise, I can do better in the countryside of kansas, and I can do better in the cities. Venice is a GREAT deal… but $45 is still not as good as $30 and $35. So why would I pass up $30 for $45?
Ultimately, the choice hotels deal is GREAT if you don’t know how to get cheaper nights. But I do.
Drew — you don’t seem to like to admit you’re wrong. But you’re wrong about Choice and “your ability” to get rooms for less.
First, most Choice hotels aren’t 20,000 points. Very few, actually, and usually only in the most expensive of cities. I would agree that BRGs would be useful there, but you can’t always get a free BRG when you want to. Nobody can. With years of experience playing this game (hmmm, maybe others have as much experience — or more — than you with finding cheap rates at hotels?) I would say my average Choice redemption is 14,000 points. That’s less than $60. The number of non-awful hotels that you can stay at in Europe and N. America that cost less than $60 (including tax) is small. Choice isn’t the best option all the time, or even most of the time, but I would submit it would be foolish for anyone who travels around the USA with great frequency to not buy some of their miles at the Daily Getaways price. Oh, and did I mention convenience? Like try to BRG a room for tonight. Good luck with that?
And you’re simply BS-ing folks if you’re claiming you can do better than 10,000 Choice points in Venice 1 block from San Marco. That’s like $45, including breakfast. Please tell us how anyone could expect to beat that.
I can’t beat that deal in venice. You are right.
However, that’s what hotel points from credit cards and other tricks are for.
I publicly list all of our hotel stays http://travelisfree.com/2014/05/17/analyzing-travel-costs-from-full-time-travel-so-far/
And have determined that we average down at $19 a night at a 4 star hotel. Now why would I speculatively pay $50?
Sure, it’s a good deal for some. I personally do better on average and therefore don’t speculatively pay up. And how is this better than PointBreaks?
Agree to disagree. I highly encourage you to pay $50 or $60 a night if that gets you excited.
The reason to get Choice points is to have options. As you know, the more hotel options you have, the more likely it is that SOMETHING will work to get you a good deal where you’re headed. Sure, sometimes the points aren’t a good deal to buy — like both Wyndham and Best Western sell their points too expensively these days on Daily Getaways — but when you can typically get half off a hotel room (and sometimes crazy value like in Venice) it’s good to add those points to your “toolbag.” In the USA, I would submit that Choice hotels have gotten more valuable in the past year as Expedia has cracked down on exploiting their BRG: both strategies have traditionally been good to book cheap-but-decent hotels in the $50ish cost range.
Oh, comparing Pointbreaks to Choice: Pointbreaks tends to be better, but it’s good on dozens of hotels at any given time. Choice points are good on thousands of hotels. And even when you hit the Pointbreaks jackpot these days, the deal can be marginal. I booked a fairly crummy Holiday Inn in Williamsburg today for 5,000 points. I’m not sure I’m better off than staying in a mediocre Rodeway Inn for 8000 points. It would actually cost me more to acquire the IHG points.
Thanks for being so frank about your opinions on this.
Being newish to hotel points and a complete newb to ‘Daily Getaways’, I was trying figure this out myself. Over the last few days I’ve learned a lot about maximizing hotel points and pretty much end up back at your site.
This was timely information for me!
Is there a way to get your old newsletters? ‘IHG Earnings on Steroids’ (among others) is not fully available to me and I didn’t know about you back when you wrote that one.
Thanks Colleen. I believe the IHG steroids post is full but it references something in the newsletter. I don’t even remember what is what anymore though. But currently there is not a way to get archived newsletters… although I’ve been telling everyone we would, it’s just taking longer than I thought (which is the case when we do anything techie).
But if you have any questions or something specific, just let me know and I see what I can do.
Thanks, I will ask questions as they come up then. You’re right, that steroids post made reference to the newsletter. I should have been more clear.
I love your Choice and promotion replies above.
Honestly, I don’t even remember which one, but if tell me what info you’re looking I’ll be glad to help.
Thanks. :-p