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.

Club Carlson has a couple of great car rental discounts and points bonuses through April 30, 2012. You earn 9,000 points from Avis for 3-day rentals and 5,500 points from Budget for 2-day rentals or 9,000 points for 3-day rentals. In addition these offers include car rental discount rates of 20-25%. Club Carlson offers its category 1 hotels for 9,000 points per night.

Budget offer link.

Avis offer link. Read More…

I feel compelled to issue a reality check based on the overwhelming pitch by bloggers for Starwood Preferred Guest being the primary program to consider when transferring hotel points for the US Airways points-to-miles 50% bonus from March 11-31, 2012.

Several travel blogs over the past 24 hours have discussed the US Airways hotel points transfer bonus promotion and most of the commentary suggests no other hotel program is worth considering besides SPG to get the best miles value from your hotel points. Read More…

The hotel guest has one primary objective – a sense of getting good hotel stay value for the money paid. The goal of the traveler is to find hotel value for any hotel whether booked through Priceline, Expedia, or a major hotel brand website.

Elite member recognition as a frequent guest can tip the scale for sticking to a specific hotel loyalty program member hotel over other lodging choices. The benefits of being an elite member in a hotel program combined with rebates on the cost of rooms in the form of hotel points, free nights and airline miles offers added value to the frequent guest.

Elite is High Value Strategy for Hotel Stays

An $80 upscale hotel room bargain gets blown out of budget with a $40+ hotel restaurant breakfast charge for two. Internet access can set you back $10 to $25+ per night at many high-end hotels.

Hotel loyalty program elite status is the best way to upgrade your hotel life for less cash. You do not have to be top tier elite with 25+ hotel stays a year in a loyalty program to receive valuable benefits like free internet, free breakfast and room upgrades.

Lower Elite Tier Benefits Survey

Hilton HHonors Gold (16 stays or 36 nights)elite offers rewarding benefits with free internet, breakfast globally except for Waldorf Astoria, and room upgrades, some with executive lounge access. Award stays count for elite credit.

Hilton HHonors Silver (4 stays or 10 nights) earns 15% bonus points which amounts to 16.5 points per dollar rather than 15 points/$1 for Points & Points earners. HHonors Silver elite has few benefits besides the 15% to 25% points discount for elites on award stays of four nights or more. Marriott and SPG offer all members 20% discount with 5^thnight free awards.

Marriott Rewards Gold (50 nights) elite gets complimentary breakfast, except at resorts and Courtyard Hotels. That is a big gap in coverage with over 800 Courtyard hotels globally. It is hard to be Marriott Gold and an infrequent guest. Marriott Rewards Silver (10 nights)provides few useful hotel benefits except late checkout. The 20% bonus points is slightly more than HHonors Silver elite (15%).

IHG Priority Club Platinum (50 nights or 60,000 points). Priority Club counts all points earned and reaching 60,000 points is far less costly and easy to earn on far fewer than 50 nights. Platinum elites do not have a defined benefit for breakfast or even internet access, but room upgrades are a possibility and 50% elite bonus grows points more quickly. Gold elite is a 10% elite point bonus and little more benefit. Ambassador membership ($200 or 32,000 points)is useful for room upgrades, late checkout, 5,000 bonus points, annual Buy One Get One Free weekend night and other defined amenities only available at 170 InterContinental Hotels.

Club Carlson Silver elites (10 stays or 15 nights) are eligible for room upgrades, earn an extra 1,000 points online booking bonus, early check-in and late checkout and elite roll over nights. Gold elite (20 stays or 35 nights) adds a welcome gift. All Club Carlson members receive high speed internet, but only top tier Concierge elites (30 stays or 75 nights) have a free breakfast benefit.

Starwood Preferred Guest – Gold elite (10 stays or 25 nights) has a benefit of 4pm late checkout and a higher room category upgrade; mostly preferred view room, and with luck, sometimes a suite. Upgrades do not apply to Aloft or Element and late checkout is limited at resorts and conference hotels.

SPG launched new elite benefits March 1, 2012:

SPG Gold members

· Hotel Stay Welcome Gift – Choose from Starpoints (up to 250 points/stay) or free internet or free beverage.

SPG Platinum elite (25 stays or 50 nights) receive free internet and consistent room upgrades including suites and lounge access. Hotel Stay Welcome Gift – Choose from Continental Breakfast for entire stay or Starpoints (up to 500/stay) orlocal gift.

Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum elites (5 stays or 15 nights) are eligible for room category upgrades, free internet globally, 2pm checkout and every third stay earns a Platinum Extra Award for a choice of bonus points and F&B choices. Stay 15 to 24 times and the Award includes Regency Club upgrade or free breakfast. Diamond elites (25 stays or 50 nights) receive free breakfast and four confirmed suite upgrades.

Best Value Lower Tier Elite Benefits:

1. Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum (5 stays or 15 nights) free internet, upgrades, 2pm late checkout and 15% bonus points.

2. Hilton HHonors Gold (16 stays or 36 nights) free breakfast, internet, upgrades, lounge access and 25% bonus points. Award stays count for elite credit.

3. SPG Gold (10 stays or 25 nights) free upgrades, 4 pm late checkout, 50% elite bonus points and choice of free internet. Award stays count for elite credit.

4. Club Carlson Silver (10 stays or 15 nights) room upgrades, online booking bonus, elite roll over nights, early check-in/late checkout and 25% bonus points.

Consider the benefits of elite status that offer you the most value and choose your hotel loyalty programs accordingly in 2012.

This Loyalty Traveler article originally appeared in the February 2012 issue of InsideFlyer and this version has some SPG benefit updates announced a couple of weeks after this article was originally published.

Do a Marriott Courtyard and a Hilton Garden Inn have about the same room rate on average? How do Hyatt Place and Starwood Hotels aloft brands stack up in room rates?

STR and STR Global package hotel industry data. I like to read HotelNewsNow.com to see hotel industry trends and average room rates, although to get detailed information about hotel brands and places requires paying for information. I stick with the free stuff.

One of the valuable STR resources for me is the chain scale hotel list that categorizes hundreds of USA and global hotel brands on a scale of six market segments from economy to luxury. Hotel brands are placed on the scale solely using average daily rate as the factor. Note: the average daily rate data was added March 7 based on Smith Travel Research data for January 2012.

• Luxury = $262 ADR
• Upper Upscale = $148 ADR
• Upscale = $112 ADR
• Upper Midscale = $94 ADR
• Midscale = $73 ADR
• Economy = $50 ADR

Any specific hotel may have a large rate differential from another hotel in that brand, but the average rate says something about the brand overall across the hotel chain and across the USA and globe.

STR and STR Global have moved some hotel brands to a higher chain scale based on 2011 average daily rates.

• Best Western Premier moved from upper-midscale to upscale. Best Western launched a rebranding campaign in 2011 to distinguish the better hotels in the 4,000+ global chain.

All the other chains operate several different hotel brands across different market segments and Best Western finally got into the game with three tiers of Best Western, (3,000 or so hotels), Best Western Plus (1,000+ hotels) and Best Western Premier (over 100 hotels). The numbers given here are just rough estimates based on past data I have seen.

Best Western Premier moves to upscale hotels. My stay last year in Napa was a great room in an old motel style building. The room was definitely upscale.

Napa, California Best Western Premier Hotel Ivy

Hotel Ivy Napa, Best Western Premier Hotel.

Hotel Ivy Napa, Best Western Premier.

• Country Inns & Suites moved from midscale to upper-midscale. That is a huge accomplishment for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group working to become a more recognized name in the chain scale competition.

Upper midscale includes brands like Hampton Inn, Clarion, Best Western Plus, Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.

Candlewood Suites, La Quinta and Ramada are examples of hotel brands in the midscale segment.

Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard, Residence Inn and Four Points are in the higher upscale segment. The bad news for Club Carlson members is this chain segment change indicates rates are rising at Country Inns.

Loyalty Traveler note: This post originally had seven hotel brand changes based on a HotelNewsNow.com article (media arm of STR and STRGlobal). I received an email on March 7 stating HNN will issue a correction on their article and only Best Western Premier and Country Inns are changing in the hotel chain scale. I deleted references to the other hotel brands originally included in this post.

Club Carlson launched March 31, 2011 as the redesigned hotel loyalty program for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. The loyalty program includes over 1,100 hotels globally in the hotel brands of Radisson Blu, Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites. Hotel Missoni, a luxury brand with only two properties currently open in Edinburgh and Kuwait is not yet participating in Club Carlson.

Six competitive advantages of Club Carlson 

1. Members receive complimentary internet at all hotel brands in North America and all Radisson hotels worldwide.

2. Club Carlson offers the fastest earning standard free nights of any hotel loyalty program when compared to rate of base points earned per dollar in hotel spend. Top category 6 hotels at 50,000 points require $2,500 in hotel spend to earn 50,000 base points. Bonus points and elite status and online booking bonuses reduce this spend level. HHonors Points & Points earners need $3,333 to earn 50,000 points for a top tier category 7 reward. Marriott Rewards members need at least $4,000 in hotel spend to earn 40,000 points for a top tier category 8 hotel reward night.

Read More…

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Global Business Conference 2012 last week in Nassau, Bahamas is the third annual conference I have attended. This is the annual conference bringing together hotel owners, managers and parent company executives for the hotel brands of Radisson, Country Inns & Suites, Park Inn and Park Plaza hotels.

The Radisson hotel chain has puzzled me for a decade as I tried to understand the difference between several different Radisson brand names like Radisson in the USA and Radisson SAS, then Radisson Blu in Europe and Radisson Edwardian in London.

The variability in earning points in goldpoints plus depending on whether your hotel stay was in the U.S., Asia, Europe or Africa was another confounding aspect of the hotel loyalty program. Goldpoints plus had the feel of IHG Priority Club and InterContinental Ambassador, another program where hotel brand acquisitions brought together a European/international program with a US based hotel loyalty program and an odd mix results.

This Loyalty Traveler post will attempt to share the basics of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group for readers who may have recently joined the Club Carlson program after the 2011 Q-4 Big Night Giveaway for 50,000 points with one hotel stay at a Radisson. This is an overview of the hotel chain and I will follow up with another post describing the Club Carlson loyalty program in detail.

Ambition 2015

In 2010 the Carlson Hotels company launched a five year initiative – Ambition 2015 – to create a stronger global presence as a major hotel company and hotel loyalty program.

Two years ago in Orlando the company executives pledged an investment of 1.5 billion dollars to support the five year improvement plan.

Read More…

The major news item for Loyalty Traveler readers from day one of the Carlson Rezidor Global Business Conference 2012 was an announcement that the hotel group just signed a deal with US Bank to issue a Club Carlson Visa credit card. I have no details on earn rates for the credit card and the launch date was not announced, although I was told it may be available Q4 2012.

Most other aspects of Atlantis are impressive. This place definitely is impressive as a full service resort. More posts with conference details and a review of Atlantis Resort will come later when I have a stable internet connection.

The Royal Towers at Atlantis

The Royal Towers is the iconic Atlantis hotel structure with the central arch. This photo gives the appearance of being one long building. The far right is actually a separate Atlantis hotel building called the Cove and is located a few hundred yards northwest of Royal Towers.

View from my room in Royal Towers Atlantis.

Another view from the room.

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group

The Carlson Hotel Group and Rezidor Hotel Group (EMEA – Europe, Middle East, Africa region hotels) was officially renamed as Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group January 18, 2012.

Junkanoo – A party Bahamian style

The Royal Deck opening night party outdoors included some noise makers on the tables. Later in the evening their purpose was revealed when the Junkanoo paraded through the evening party crowd.

This is a traditional Bahamian celebration that takes place at 1am on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas and also on New Year’s Day where extravagant costumes and music play out on the streets of Nassau.

In the walkway to the west tower of the Royal Towers is the Dec 26. 2011 costume winner ‘Atlantis Rising’ from the Shell Saxons Superstars Junkanoo Group.

“Atlantis Rising”

The Water of Winter

This is the fourth time I have been to a Caribbean island. This is the first time I have visited in winter and the ocean is not like the warm bath water temperature I experienced in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and US Virgin Islands in summer months. The ocean temperature is certainly tolerable and probably as warm or warmer than swimming at the beach in Southern California in summer.

On the flip side though, the air temperature is ideal for me at 65 to 75 degrees and low humidity. I have been sleeping with the patio door open and listening to the beach surf at night. The skies have been almost totally clear of clouds and the stars are lovely to watch from bed in the tranquil hours from midnight to dawn.

Blogger Disclosure

I am attending the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Global Business Conference 2012 as a media guest. My hotel room at Atlantis and conference fee are provided complimentary by Carlson. I paid my own airfare to come to Nassau.

In between the schedule of events from 9am to 9pm meetings, meals and parties are a few precious moments of down time to relax. I haven’t turned on the TV since my arrival.

February 14 is Day 1 of a 25% discount sale for participating Radisson, Country Inns & Suites and Park Inn hotels in the U.S.

• Sale ends February 16 11:59pm Central Time.
• Bookings available for stays February 14-February 29, 2012.
• Discount is 25% off standard room rate.
• Radisson Hotels sale
• Country Inn & Suites sale
• Park Inn sale

Remember Club Carlson offers online booking bonus and currently has the Triple points promotion for hotel stays through March 16, 2012.

Club Carlson – January 10 – March 16, 2012 Triple Points for all hotels worldwide is 60 points/$1. Club Carlson already has the fastest earning program for free nights and triple points gets you there so much faster. The highest category hotel reward night requires about $800 in hotel spend. Most hotel loyalty programs will require $2,000 to $4,000+ for a free night at their top hotels – even with promotion bonuses. LT post January 11.

Life in the slow lane

I am seriously suffering through the worst internet service here at the Sheraton Nassau Resort that I have experienced in years. $40 resort fee includes high speed internet. This data flow may have been high speed in 1995.

On the other hand I have a suite room I love and the patio doors are open letting the sounds of birds and waves fill the room space.

When I get a decent internet connection I’ll share photos of the Sheraton Nassau.

I’m outta here.

Gone to beach.

Here is a spreadsheet with the ten largest hotel loyalty programs worldwide and all their airline partners for earning miles and points-to-miles transfers.

Hilton HHonors is far and away the biggest program for airline partnerships. That can be a major factor for a frequent guest earning miles from hotel stays in a frequent flyer program where there might be few opportunities to earn miles other than flying.

• Hilton HHonors = 57 airline partners
• IHG Priority Club = 43 airline partners
• Marriott Rewards = 36 airline partners
• Hyatt Gold Passport = 35 airline partners
• Starwood Preferred Guest = 34 airline partners

There are 8 airlines that only partner with one of these ten programs.

[click on image to see full-size in new window]

I will follow up this post with comments and details on airline miles differences in earning rates between different programs.

This seemed like a useful table to create as I work on my series of hotel points-to-miles exchange rates across loyalty programs for a selection of major airlines.

Loyalty Traveler – Airline Tables for Hotel Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates

• American Airlines Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates for 9 Hotel Programs. (Feb 5, 2012)
• American Airlines Points-to-Miles Exchange Rates for Elites and Credit Card members. (Feb 6, 2012)
• Delta Skymiles hotel points-to-miles rates in 9 hotel programs. (Feb 7, 2012)
• United Mileage Plus hotel points-to-miles rates favor Marriott, Club Carlson, Wyndham. (Feb 8, 2012)
• Hotel Loyalty Program Airline Partners: 10 programs compared on one spreadsheet. (Feb 9, 2012)
• Why Change hotel points into airline miles? (Feb 9, 2012)
• Hotel points conversion into Southwest Rapid Rewards points favors Marriott, Choice and Hyatt. (Feb 10, 2012)