Today Only: $24 Hotel Rooms, The Best Daily Getaway of the Week

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Update at 2:55 PM ET: All deals sold out. I missed out. Being in Hawaii for Daily Getaways makes it tough to get in on the deals.

Today is the tenth day of five weeks of discounted travel packages from the US Travel Association called Daily Getaways. Every weekday at 1 PM ET, a discounted travel package or packages will go on sale and will often sell out in a few minutes. Every weekend I’ll preview the deals for the next week, and the morning of interesting deals, I’ll have a full write up.

Today only, Choice Privileges points are being sold for 0.4 cents each.

Today’s deal is:

• 20,000 points for $90, 0.45 cents each, 220 available
• 32,000 points for $132, 0.41 cents each, 655 available
• 36,000 points for $155, 0.43 cents, 785 available
• 40,000 points for $160, 0.4 cents each, 380 available

Note that the packages have names like “Cambria Suites: Stay 2 Nights for $160,” but the terms and conditions and my experience make it very clear that you just get the number of points I listed above in your account, and you can use them however you’d like.

You can buy two of each package, eight total. If you bought the maximum, you would be getting 256k Choice Privileges points for $1,074.

Choice Privileges points can be used at over 4,100 hotels with the following brand names:

• Comfort Inn
• Comfort Suites
• Quality Inn
• Sleep Inn
• Clarion
• Cambria Hotel & Suites
• Mainstay Suites
• Suburban Extended Stay
• Econo Lodge
• Rodeway Inn
• Ascend Hotel Collection

These are utilitarian places, not fancy at all.

How far do Choice Privileges points go?

• There are no blackout dates!
• There are over 1,500 Choice hotels with reward nights at 8,000 points or less. Click here to see the list.
• Reward nights at Choice hotels worldwide are available from 6,000 to 35,000 points (excluding Australasia where points required are up to 75,000)

But sometimes a hotel sells out before you can book it with points because you cannot book very far in advance.

• Book up to 30 days in advance for hotels in the U.S. or Canada or 60 days in advance for hotels outside of the U.S. and Canada
• Reward nights can be booked 50 days in advance for Elite Gold members staying in the U.S. and Canada or 60 days in advance for hotels outside of the U.S. and Canada.
• Reward nights can be booked 75 days in advance for Elite Platinum members and 100 days for Elite Diamond members

I have personally gotten more value out of purchasing Choice Privileges points in 2013 and 2014 than any other Daily Getaways deal. The big value I got from my purchase of Choice Privileges points was using them to book expensive European hotels for very few points.

Namely, I used 20k Choice points for two nights at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden including free internet and breakfast:

• My Price: 10k points per night (cheaper than a hostel in Stockholm), which I had bought for $40
• Retail Price: $325 per night
• Savings: 88% off

During Oktoberfest, I stayed three nights at a Comfort Inn a few miles outside of Munich proper, but with easy train access, for 12,000 points per night ($48) when a Munich hostel wanted 75 euros per night and hotels wanted several hundred euros.

Plus I have stayed at adequate airport hotels in Oslo and Rome and motels in the United States.

Using Choice Privileges points in Europe was never glamorous, but was always a huge money saver.

My Plan

I’m going to be ready at 1 PM ET to purchase two 40k packages, and then I’ll try to purchase two 32k packages. Those are the cheapest per point and will set me up with 144k points, which should get me to next year’s Daily Getaways deal.

Note

If I’ve convinced you to compete with me for one of the limited number of packages, do sign up for a Choice Privileges account here now. In years past, you had to have an account before buying the points.

Will This Deal Sell Out?

Last year, the 40k and 32k packages sold out in seconds.

Purchasing the Packages

To maximize your chances of getting in on the deal, I recommend using a site like whattimeisit.com to figure out the official time. The sale starts at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT / 7 AM HT. This year’s sales all started on time to the second. Keep refreshing the deal page until you see the BUY NOW button replace the SEE DETAILS button.

This is what happens if you try to purchase something when all quantities are already in someone’s cart.

This doesn’t mean the deal is sold out. If someone doesn’t complete his purchase, that quantity will immediately become available for someone else. Keep checking until the dreaded “Sold Out” appears.

Key Links

• Daily Getaways home page
• Daily Getaways Help
• Daily Getaways FAQ
• 20,000 points for $90, 0.45 cents each, 220 available
• 32,000 points for $132, 0.41 cents each, 655 available
• 36,000 points for $155, 0.43 cents, 785 available
• 40,000 points for $160, 0.45 cents, 380 available

Do you plan to buy Choice Privileges points? Post your successful or failed attempt in the comments, so we can gauge how quick you had to be to snag a deal.