Daily Getaways Travel Deals – Week Three

The third week of the U.S. Travel Association’s Daily Getaways begins tomorrow, April 18, 2016.

Here’s the rundown of this week’s offerings:

Monday

5 night stay at a Diamond property worldwide

Tuesday

Caesars Entertainment packages

Wednesday

Hilton HHonors Points

Thursday

Las Vegas stays

Friday

Hertz rental car offers

My Thoughts and More Details

Diamond Property Stays

5 consecutive-night stay at select Diamond Resorts International properties. Price: $525 (200 Available)

To be completely honest, I am not familiar with Diamond Properties. Its website calls it “a global hospitality and vacation ownership company.” Which to me means, timeshare. Which also means to me, high-pressure sales pitch.

Now, I have no way of knowing whether you’d be subject to a pitch to buy a timeshare if you’d purchase one of these stays or not. I would hope not. Just something to consider, though.

Let’s look at a couple properties and their pricing to see if this would be a deal or not.

Sedona (Arizona) Summit for the 5 night stay, June 4, 2016 – June 9, 2016 – $885. You’d save $360 purchasing the Daily Getaways deal for this property on those dates. Not too bad. And looking at Trip Advisor traveler photos and reviews, the property looks pretty good.

Thurnham Hall, Lancashire, United Kingdom for the 5 night stay, August 6, 2016 – August 11, 2016 – $575 or a savings of $50 if you purchased the Daily Deal. A savings, but not so much so that I’d go out of my way to purchase the deal.

The Diamond Properties deal might be something to consider, depending on where in the world you want to travel and the dates of your travel. There are 71 Diamond Properties from which to choose, so do some research before jumping on this deal.

FYI: I used Trip Advisor for my pricing info since the Diamond site doesn’t appear to allow searches/bookings.

Caesars Entertainment Packages

As with last week’s Caesars offerings, there are six deals from which to pick at various Caesars properties.

• 2 nights at The Cromwell (Las Vegas), $100 breakfast dining credit, access to day pool and nightclub, in-room Champagne and airport/hotel transfers. $590 (5 Available)
• 2 nights in a Harrah’s Las Vegas Mini-Suite, 2 Buffet of Buffets passes, complimentary Internet access and hotel/airport transfers. $299 (10 Available)
• 2 nights at Caesars Palace, 2 all-day Buffet of Buffets passes, complimentary Internet access and airport/hotel transfers. $450 (15 Available)
• 2 nights at the Las Vegas resort of your choice (see the individual deal for participating Caesars hotels), $100 dining credit, $150 spa credit, in-room Champagne, hotel/airport transfers. $425 (10 Available)
• 2 nights at the LINQ Hotel, 2 tickets to the High Roller, the highest observation wheel in the world, 2 tickets to a show of your choice, in-room Champagne, hotel/airport transfers. $350 (20 Available)
• 2 nights at Bally’s Las Vegas, tickets to any Caesars Entertainment show, 2 Buffet of Buffets passes, in-room Champagne and hotel/airport transfers. $315 (5 Available)

As I said on last week’s Caesars’ deals, it’s best to check for yourself whether any of these are really deals. All of the properties can be found here. They all will provide some level of value, but whether you want to stay at a certain property, or will actually use the amenities that are part of a specific package will determine its true value.

Hilton HHonors Points

A speculative purchase of any points deal is questionable as to whether it will truly provide a deal or not.

The best reason to purchase points is to top off your current HHonors balance to book an award redemption you’ve been eying, but just didn’t have enough points to make it happen.

That said, points will always give you some amount of value. Only you can decide if the price paid for the amount of points is worth it for your specific situation.

• 100,000 Hilton HHonors Points – $500 (160 Available)
• 150,000 Hilton HHonors Points – $750 (200 Available)
• 250,000 Hilton HHonors Points – $1,250 (200 Available)

Let’s take a quick look to see if buying a points package would be a good deal for a trip I’d like to take.

My wife and I currently have 60,000 Hilton HHonors points and would like to stay 3-nights at the Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock. Price per night for our travel period is $222 + $20 resort fee + tax for a rough, per night total of $256 or 50,000 HHonors Points per night. So, to stay free, we’d need 150,000 points or 90,000 more than we have right now.

As you can see, for our specific situation, it’s almost a wash if we purchased the 100,000 points package. We’d spend $500 and get our 3-nights for free, or we could get 1 night for free (using the 50,000 points we already have) and pay for the other 2 for a total of $512.

I might almost forego Hilton altogether and purchase the Diamond Property (Sedona Summit) deal I mentioned above.

As I always say, look at your specific travel situation/desires and make an educated decision that’s right for you.

Las Vegas Stays

Wow, Vegas is a big part of this year’s Daily Getaways.

Here are two more stay packages for more upscale Vegas hotels.

• 2 consecutive nights in a Siena Suite at The Palazzo – $608 (21 Available) Blackout dates apply; check the individual deal listing prior to purchasing.
• 2 consecutive nights in a Piazza View Suite at The Venetian – $495 (25 Available) Blackout dates apply; check the individual deal listing prior to purchasing.

If you wanted to book the Piazza Suite at The Venetian for October 21, 2016 – October 23, 2016, it would cost $974.84. There would also be a $32 plus tax, per night, resort fee on top of that price (resort fee is included in the Daily Getaway deal price). So, total for that 2-night stay, you’re looking at over $1,000. In this scenario, the deal would save you about $500.

Hertz Rental Cars

• 1 week Hertz standard vehicle rental in the form of 5,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points deposited into your account. $250 (45 Available)
• 1 week Hertz Prestige Collection (Infiniti, Mercedes, etc.) rental in the form of 16,500 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points deposited into your account. $698 (50 Available)
• Hertz Prestige Collection Weekend rental in the form of 13,200 Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points deposited into your account. $560 (35 Available)

If you are a regular customer of Hertz, you may find these deals beneficial. It’s about the points, and how you can use them. If you already have points, adding a specific amount could get you a rental (or rentals) that you really need.

And, potentially, a speculative purchase of Hertz points could save you on an upcoming rental. You need to check the reservation prices for your travel destination/dates to know for sure.

This link will show you how many Hertz points it takes for any given free rental redemption.

Daily Getaways Ins and Outs

My typical Daily Getaways post reminders go as follows:

All deals go on sale at 1:00 pm ET the day they are listed.

I’ve noted the quantities available next to each deal – they’re also listed on an individual deal’s page on the Daily Getaways calendar. For popular deals, they will go quickly, so be ready to click the “Buy Now” button right at 1:00 pm.

Actually, if there is any deal in which you’re interested, just to be safe I’d be ready to buy right at 1:00 pm when the deal opens.

As with anything in life, the details matter, so for deals you’re interested in, be sure to look at the fine print…it’s listed on each individual deal at the Daily Getaways site.

So, scope out the deals that interest you for this week, set your cell phone alarm for 12:50 pm the day of the deal and get ready to buy!

I’ll see you next weekend with my rundown of Week 4 deals.

Until then, here’s hoping you get the travel deal(s) of your choice!