Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
I recently stumbled upon a great use of Choice Privileges points. No, it’s not quite as dramatic of a deal as Nick’s Napa Valley find, but it’s still sweet. Princeton NJ is a beautiful town, but most of the chain hotels are located on route 1, well away from the town’s beauty. The cool place to stay is near Princeton’s main drag, Nassau Street, but hotel prices in town are exorbitant. Luckily, the Peacock Inn, which is a charming and historic hotel located just a block from Nassau Street, is an Ascend Collection hotel. This means that you can book the hotel with Choice points.
Choice point prices vary, but at the time I booked, they wanted 20,000 points per night, or 6,000 points + $105:
When compared to a nightly rate of $400 or more, 20K per night (or 6K + $105) is a bargain:
One of the coolest things about Choice points is that you can often book any room for the same number of points. They didn’t have any suites available, but I was able to book a Deluxe King room for the same 20,000 points.
Read the captions below for my thoughts about our actual stay…
Included extras
Continental breakfast is included, but it doesn’t include much. We opted to pay for full breakfasts (which were very good). The restaurant is supposedly very good for dinner, but we didn’t get a chance to try it out.
Each room offers free bottled water, robes, and slippers. We also received a small chocolate welcome gift the first night. Either that or it was a turn-down service chocolate which wasn’t offered on our second night.
Parking was free via their free valet service. Of course tips are appreciated so it’s not really free, but better than paying a hefty parking fee.
Bottom line
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Peacock Inn. If you have Choice points to spare, this is a great use of them.
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I am glad you had a nice stay in Princeton. I Wish I knew You were in town, I would have met up with you for a drink.
Cheers,
PedroNY
Cute place, Greg! Your’s and Nick’s posts are Interesting to me, too, because Ascend has been showing up on my own (Southern) radar this summer – The Waters in Hot Springs (16k points) & The Napoleon in Memphis (20K points). Both also great properties with historical significance. The Napoleon was built by Napoleon Hill and the Waters is modern & boutique but right on Bathhouse Row.
I buy cheap Choice points every spring in the Daily Getaways promo, and these were great & economical uses of them. Choice points can also be used at Bluegreen Vacations, which is a solid timeshare company. Their properties are always nice and using points via their partnership is a whole lot cheaper than buying into one of their ownerships (unlike some other timeshare companies I do business with). Worth checking out for good locations with lots of space for family vacays.
Thanks, Greg. These types of posts are excellent for new travel ideas.