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…

Carlson Hotels has a 30% discount offer code 30PCTOFF for hotels in the Americas booked by December 13 for stays from December 23 through March 3, 2012.

This offer is valid for Radisson Hotels, Country Inns & Suites and Park Inn hotels in US and Mexico.

This offer has overlap with the Radisson Big Night Giveaway 50,000 points bonus for a stay at a Radisson Hotel by December 30. The Park Inn promotion for 15,000 points ends December 31 and overlaps a week when these discount rates are in effect.

[LT update Dec 2: Club Carlson extended this offer from end-date Dec 15 to December 31. Thanks to reader Kumar for pointing out the change to the promotion period in the comments of this post.]

These discount rates earn Club Carlson points and are eligible for the Radisson Big Night Giveaway bonus during the one week promotion overlap from December 23-30, 2011. The 30% discount rate only applies to standard rooms, so don’t expect big suite discounts.

Radisson Hotels 30% discount page and list of participating hotels in Americas.

Park Inn Hotels 30% discount page and list of participating hotels in US and Mexico.

Country Inns & Suites 30% discount page and list of participating hotels in Americas.

T.G.I. Friday’s loyalty program enrollment earns 1,000 Club Carlson points and 100 bonus Stripes credits.

Carlson is a family owned global company that consists of more than 900 T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants in 60 countries in addition to 1,100 Carlson Hotels.

T.G.I. Friday’s has its own loyalty program – Stripes. Enroll now and you will receive 1,000 Club Carlson Gold Points in addition to 100 Stripes credits. This offer expires December 18, 2011.

T.G.I. Fridays Stripes enrollment bonus for 1,000 Club Carlson Gold Points.