Park Inn is the upper midscale hotel brand of the Carlson Rezidor Hotels Group. The Park Inn 1 + 1 promotion earns 44,000 points with a single stay at a Park Inn from May 22 to July 22, 2012 for the first 20,000 Club Carlson members to register.

Park Inn 1 + 1 Registration.

Most Park Inn properties are located in Europe which is why this promotion launched at 3:00pm Pacific time, 6:00pm Eastern on May 21. The time was midnight May 22 in France and Germany and other European cities where Park Inn is a more abundant hotel chain.

There are currently only ten Park Inn hotels in the U.S.

• Park Inn by Radisson Fresno, California
• Park Inn by Radisson Harrisburg West, Pennsylvania
• Park Inn by Radisson Dallas – Love Field
• Park Inn by Radisson Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan
• Park Inn by Radisson Tulsa Airport, Oklahoma
• Park Inn by Radisson Toledo, OH
• Park Inn by Radisson Hotel & Water Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Park Inn by Radisson Sharon, Pennsylvania
• Park Inn by Radisson DFW Airport South, Irving, Texas
• Park Inn by Radisson Houston North Hotel & Conference Center, Houston, Texas.

Register now if you really think you will get to a Park Inn during this promotion. This is a great offer for the Europeans, so maybe don’t take up one of the 20,000 slots for 44,000 points if you have little hope of getting to a Park Inn by July 22.

Looks like I’ll be taking the wife to the Sierra Nevada mountains via Fresno in a few weeks. Time to see some big trees.

Club Carlson announced last week that a major hotel reward category reassignment will occur May 31, 2012. The full list of 264 hotels changing reward category and organized by geographic location with state and country has been published.

137 hotels going up in reward category. Read More…

Club Carlson will announce in the next couple of hours that existing reservations made prior to the May 15 launch of the Radisson Big Night Giveaway, Country Inn and Park Inn promotions will count for the promotion bonuses.

A few minutes ago I received a call from Molly Biwer, Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Relations at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. The Club Carlson team have decided to change the promotion terms in light of the inaccurate information going out on Facebook and through my blog last week that existing reservations booked prior to May 15 would count for the current Club Carlson promotions.

The good news is that this change in the promotion terms applies to any existing reservations made prior to May 15. So even if you booked in January 2012 for a stay in the May 15-July 15 promotion period for Radisson and Country Inn or May 22-July 22 promotion period for Park Inn, you can register and earn bonus points for your hotel stay. Read More…

Radisson Big Night Giveaway II repeats a similar PR fiasco as Radisson Big Night Giveaway last November. Hotel loyalty programs and their PR reps want to create social media buzz about their offers prior to revealing the promotion’s full “official” details. Without full disclosure and transparency the buzz often stings.

Update May 19, 12 noon California time: Club Carlson has decided to change the terms of the Radisson, Country Inn and Park Inn promotions to allow reservations booked prior to May 15 for stays within the respective promotion periods to count for the bonus points. There were communications errors made last week regarding this term of the promotion and Club Carlson has rectified the error by changing the promotion terms to count existing reservations. This is a fine resolution to the issue. Thanks Club Carlson.   Read More…

May 2012 promotions from Top Ten hotel loyalty programs:

Links to my Loyalty Traveler posts provide more detail and promotion analysis for each offer.

Most hotel loyalty promotions are two to four months in duration.

The easiest way to quickly see a list of all hotel loyalty promotions discussed on Loyalty Traveler is to check my Loyalty Traveler Facebook page. All Loyalty Traveler post links feed into Twitter and all my tweets feed into Loyalty Traveler Facebook.

Summer 2012 hotel loyalty promotions Read More…

Loyalty Traveler has some new company-source information on the Club Carlson promotions for Radisson, Country Inn and Park Inn brands.

Update May 11: Turns out FrequentFlyerBonuses posted the Priority Club promotion last week so I am actually late with the Priority Club news.

Here are the promotion summaries I was provided: Read More…

Club Carlson normally sells points for $7 per 1,000 (limit 40,000 points in calendar year) and the Daily Getaways price is as low as $3.50 per 1,000 points with a 50,000 points purchase for $174.60 when paying with American Express.

There are two Club Carlson points offers on sale Thursday, May 10 at 1:00pm Eastern. There is no noon presale for these offers.

Members can buy 2 sets of points from each offer for a total 300,000 points for $1,042.20. There are dozens of Radisson Blu hotels around the world where six hotel nights for $1,042 or less than $175 per night will be a substantial savings on the published rates. Read More…

The verifiable facts are Club Carlson has two webpages with countdown clocks for Radisson and Country Inn & Suites promotions. These two promotions, and supposedly a Park Inn promotion, launch next week for stays May 15-July 15, 2012 in what looks to be a blockbuster follow-up to last November’s Radisson Big Night Giveaway. And I was just lamenting in my InsideFlyer column for June that summer promotions were back to 2008 levels – except for Marriott Rewards. And now Club Carlson. Read More…

British Airways Executive Club is offering 25% Avios bonus points on hotel point transfers between April 20 and June 20, 2012 from eight hotel partners:

• Le Club Accor
• Club Carlson*
• Hilton HHonors
• Hyatt Gold Passport*
• InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club
• Marriott Rewards*
• Shangri-La Golden Circle
• Starwood Preferred Guest*

* I placed an asterisk next to the four programs I think are the only hotel programs worth using for this bonus offer. Read More…

The first skyscraper was built in Chicago and completed in 1885 after William Jenny won an 1883 building design contest by the Home Insurance Company.  The first skyscraper at 138 feet had a 10-story design using a metal cage covered in stone for fireproofing. Preventing fire in downtown Chicago was a major concern after the great fire of 1871 destroyed much of the city’s business core. In 1890 two more stories were added to the Home Insurance Company building raising its height to 180 feet.  The Home Insurance Company building was demolished in 1931.

Read More…

Carlson Rezidor Hotels in Asia Pacific offer a special 3 nights for the price of two nights for stays through July 31, 2012. Hotel bookings using this offer must be made by April 30, 2012. This sale is for 35 hotels in Radisson, Park Plaza and Country Inns & Suites.

This offer requires a 3-night or longer stay, but only one free night per stay. The rate used for this offer is the flexible Best Available Rate (BAR).

Rate checks I made showed day of arrival or day before arrival cancellation policies.

Last year Carlson had a 3-for-2 rate that appeared to always deduct the rate of the third night, even when the third night was the highest rate. This was an advantage for stays where the last night was high like on a Sunday or Monday for business locations or a Friday for weekend destinations.

The Radisson Resort Gold Coast, Australia rate check showed a Wednesday to Saturday three night rate as giving the second night free when the highest daily rate was for the third night, a Friday weekend night. This is actually less of a discount than taking 33% off a 3 night stay.

In my initial check of hotel rates I actually found a Country Inns & Suites with a booking error offering $0.00 rates and a day of arrival cancellation policy. The 0.00 INR rate will less likely be honored than if it were a 1000.00INR rate (US$20.00), but if your travel plans take you to Ahmedabad over the next few months, then you might want to give it a go. I doubt the hotel will honor the rate though.

And remember Club Carlson offers 1,000 points for online booking.

Carlson Rezidor 3-for-2 rate in Asia Pacific.