20
May
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…
The 117 hotels dropping reward category April 30, 2012 are mostly from the two mid-tier HHonors categories 3 and 4. 49 category-4 hotels currently at 30,000 points per reward night will drop to category-3 at 25,000 points per reward night. Another 47 hotels will drop from category 3 to category-2. These new category-2 hotels will require only 50% points at 12,500 points per standard reward night in May 2012 compared to the reward rate now. Read More…
Hilton HHonors is bumping 330 hotels up one hotel reward category on April 30, 2012. One of the biggest impacts for members is going to be the change of 38 hotels rising from category 2 to category 3 which doubles the points required for a standard reward from 12,500 points per night to 25,000 points per night.
In all fairness to Hilton HHonors, 47 hotels are dropping down to category 2 from category 3 and will be half the points from April 30. Also, 49 hotels are dropping from category 4 to category 3, however, 77 hotels are rising from category 3 to category 4.
This post shows the current category 2 hotels rising to category 3 hotel rewards on April 30 by location. All but two of these hotels are located in the USA. Read More…
Hilton HHonors is moving 330 hotels up one reward category on April 30, 2012. Hilton HHonors published a hotel list but there is no country, state or city information included on the list. I have made tables showing the hotels going up to Hilton HHonors rewards category 6 and 7 and hotels rising to HHonors category 5 on April 30 in these two linked posts.
Hilton HHonors released its list of hotels changing reward category on April 30, 2012. There are 330 hotels going up one category level. There are 117 hotels moving down one category.
HHonors has seven categories of hotels used to designate the hotel reward level for all Hilton brand hotels except Waldorf Astoria Hotels.
Category 6 and 7 hotels will receive 123 new hotels into the ranks of the top tiers. Only three hotels will drop in category with the Hilton Beverly Hills dropping to category 6 from category 7. Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing in Branson, Missouri drops from category 6 to category 5 as does Hilton Mumbai International Airport India.
SPG posted a link to a pdf list of Starwood Hotels changing category for 2012 on February 16, 2012 on this FlyerTalk thread with changes taking effect on March 1. Turns out that several hotels listed on the originally published list from Starwood Hotels did not actually change category, mostly hotels that were listed as going down, and some hotels not listed went up in category. The pdf list that is currently accessed through this link is different from the initial Feb 16 file. There are still inaccurate hotel category changes on the list today.
Here are a few of the hotels originally listed that did not change category and some new hotels that did change category since the February 16 list was published.
The hotels listed here are the discrepancies between the February 16 list of SPG hotel category changes and the March 16, 2012 list of SPG hotel category changes. At least two hotels are still listed with the incorrect category level on the SPG March 16 list with Le Centre Sheraton Montreal and Le Meridien Chiang Mai. There may be more changes, but without an accurate list from SPG those changes will be hard to detect.
This really is a regular occurrence with SPG annual category reassignments. I have written articles over the past few years and been burned by reporting SPG category changes for Hotel Gritti Palace, The Pulitzer in Amsterdam and Prince de Galles, Paris that didn’t happen after the original SPG list was published.
I want Starwood to continue publishing the annual changes, but keep in mind next February 2013 that the initial published list of Starwood Hotel category changes is not set in stone.
Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel shown as dropping from Category 4 to 3 in pdf list online March 16.
This hotel actually increased and is listed on the Sheraton Montreal website today as SPG category 5.
Marriott Rewards posted its hotel category reassignments for 2012. While my primary complaint about reward nights hotel category transparency for consumers has been addressed with a complete list of hotels going up and down being posted, my other pet peeve is posting a list by hotel brand rather than geographic location.
Here is a geographic quiz to illustrate the issue with no city, state and country being used to organize the Marriott brand hotels for the reward category changes. The answers are at the end of this post.
1. What state has the Courtyard Tyler?
2. What state has the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe?
3. Where will you fly to stay at the Renaissance Jaragua Hotel & Casino?
4. Is Courtyard Panama City Metro Mall within a day’s drive of Atlanta?
5. Where will I find the Denia Marriott La Sella Golf Resort & Spa?
Here is a table of the Marriott properties going down in category organized by geographic location. There are five times as many hotels going up than down. The other list will take a little longer for me to organize.
There do not seem to be many patterns or trends to point out except that the Caribbean appears to be dropping. The most overpriced hotel region of the world five years ago seems to be suffering some travel reward drops. The four Aruba hotels are currently already listed at the lower reward category level. These hotels were the same ones that rose to category 8 in March 2011. That level did not last too long.
There are no other hotels in the top four categories dropping a level.
Japan and Egypt are probably a symptom of disaster and revolution that keeps many people from wanting to redeem points for travel in those countries over the past year.
Answers to Marriott Rewards geoquiz:
1. What state has the Courtyard Tyler? Texas.
2. What state has the Teaneck Marriott at Glenpointe? New Jersey.
3. Where will you fly to stay at the Renaissance Jaragua Hotel & Casino? Dominican Republic.
4. Is Courtyard Panama City Metro Mall within a day’s drive of Atlanta? Panama City in Panama is longer than a day’s drive and you will might want a vehicle with a winch. That Darien Gap is a tough haul if you want to go past Panama on the Pan-American Highway. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap
5. Where will I find the Denia Marriott La Sella Golf Resort & Spa? Spain.
Marriott Rewards this morning released the full list of hotel category reassignments effective Thursday, March 15, 2012.
Reservations can be made using the current reward category rates until March 14, 2012. Reward reservations you already have at a hotel that will be dropping in category can be adjusted downward after March 15 to the lower rate by calling Marriott Rewards Customer Support at 801-468-4000.
The full list of hotel category changes with explanations and a category distribution graphic is available through the link in this FlyerTalk post. The hotel reward category distribution shows a competitive edge for Marriott Rewards with the high proportion of hotels in the lower four of eight reward categories.
On a personal note:
The past three years I have mounted social media attacks primarily on Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors each February and March when the announcement was made that hotel reward categories were being changed, yet these programs refused to release the full list of hotels changing categories prior to the changes taking effect.
Big thumbs up to Marriott Rewards for changing to a fully transparent announcement. Many of us using hotel loyalty programs take our loyalty as a serious investment in our travel budgeting for hotel stays. This is a consumer friendly move by Marriott Rewards. Thank you.
I will follow up this post in the next day or two with a detailed analysis of the Marriott Rewards hotel category reassignment changes.
Priority Club is spreading word through social media that reward nights will increase at 25% of IHG hotels globally on January 18, 2012 when new tiers are added across all IHG brands. This amounts to around 1,125 hotels increasing in reward cost by 5,000 to 10,000 points per night, assuming 4,500 IHG hotels worldwide.
Priority Club reward nights will cost less for 20% or about 900 IHG hotels globally.
Priority Club Brand Tiers for Reward Nights as of January 18, 2012.
Click on image for full size view. This chart is located on PriorityClub.com.
60 Days from January 18 to book or rebook at best reward redemption level
Don Berg, IHG VP for Priority Club stated to me in an interview today that members will have two months to book hotel rewards through customer service at the lower points level for reservations up to 360 days from booking date.
FlyerTalk and blogosphere comments indicate IHG customer service agents aren’t really up on the changes yet as news of the impending tier addition and IHG hotels shift spread rapidly across social media channels today.
Loyalty Traveler Analysis (based on pure statistical guesses and no detailed knowledge of actual changes other than 25% hotels going up and 20% going down.)
Every IHG brand has a new higher tier as seen in the chart.
Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express add a new 20,000 point reward tier. Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels already had a 25,000 point hotel reward for about 1,000 hotels globally and 70 % of the 3,300 Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels are currently 15,000 points (60%) or 10,000 points (10%).
[update Jan 3 2:25pm Pacific - the original post read 90% of these two brands were at 10K or 15K. This data was corrected from 90% to 70% based on the Priority Club Reward tier categories compiled by ChongCao on this website.]
I expect 80% or more of the 2,000 hotels changing reward tier up or down will be in these two brands. Four reward tiers will allow easier shifts for Priority Club hotel rewards for Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels based on revenue and reward demand.
InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo will likely see a shift upwards in most high occupancy metropolitan areas. Perhaps 25% or more of hotels will increase by 10,000 points per night and that is about 150 hotels in these three brands.
Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites will likely change upward for high revenue locations and affects about 120 hotels of 500 or so if reward nights increase by 25% more points.
Any techie care to produce a list of current Priority Club Reward levels before January 18?
Update Jan 3 2012 - ChongcCao has a UK website updated in August and November 2011 showing Priority Club reward tiers in 2011 for Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and InterContinental hotels and tier changes from 2010 levels.
Frustrating to me is Priority Club Rewards does not have lists of hotels at the different reward tiers on the Priority Club website. I asked Don Berg, VP IHG Priority Club loyalty program, why Priority Club has no list of reward tiers for its hotels? Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and Starwood publish the reward cost of all their hotels in easy to search lists. He said Priority Club research indicates the general Priority Club member does not have a need for a master list showing the reward cost of hotels.
Priority Club requires the member to look up a destination like Paris, France or Lubbock, Texas and see hotels and their reward cost.
Priority Club nicely displays Reward Night Rates in hotel searches.
My January 18th question is “Did the hotel reward tier go up or down?”
The need for a master list to me is to make use of the 60-day window for booking rewards at the lower level. There are no master lists of Priority Club reward tiers to know if a hotel went up or down when the new tiers are added January 18. We can tell which hotels increased to 35,000 or 50,000 points with several of the brands. The changes will be easily detected with Crowne Plaza, InterContinental and Hotel Indigo.
What about the midscale traveler’s needs?
Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels is where I think more than 80% of the 2,000 hotels shifting tiers will occur. On January 18 how will you know if that 20,000 point hotel reward was 10,000 or 15,000 or 25,000 points before?
You will only know the January 18 reward rates and not the previous reward rates when you look up Lubbock, Texas or Key West, Florida. How will you even know to call and book the lower rate during the 60-day grace period after the tier changes at those 800+ Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels that go up in reward cost on January 18?
The following data is an addition to the original post based on data from ChongCao’s census of IHG hotels at different Priority Club reward tiers.
2011 reward tier data for Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express hotels prior to January 18, 2012 changes.
InterContinental Hotels (ChongCao hotel tier list for 169 properties)
USA – Holiday Inn (671 hotels) (ChongCao reward tier hotel list.)
USA – Holiday Inn Express (1,731 hotels) ChongCao 25K reward tier hotel list
International – Holiday Inn (549 hotels) (ChongCao reward tier hotel list.)
International - Holiday Inn Express (367 hotels)
Related link FlyerTalk ChongCao – Master List of 10K and 25K Holiday Inn /Holiday Inn Express List
2011/2012 (Nov 9, 2011)
Club Carlson replaced goldpoints plus on March 31, 2011 as the hotel loyalty program for Carlson Hotels which consists of Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites hotel brands.
There was a significant shift in the hotel reward category assignments for U.S. properties. Most U.S. hotels were reassigned to a higher category and increased in points cost for a free night reward despite a reduction in the points required for a free night in each of the six categories of hotel rewards. 395 of 587 hotels in U.S. cost more for a reward night while 134 hotels decreased in reward night cost.
In Europe and internationally the changes are substantially more favorable with a number of hotels decreasing in category and points cost per night in the new Club Carlson hotel reward category assignments. Europe, Middle East and Africa saw 271 hotels of 349 hotels dropping in cost and only 54 hotels rising in reward night cost.
Asia and Pacific hotels overall saw a decrease in hotel reward night cost.
Loyalty Traveler presents a detailed analysis of the hotel reward category changes in Club Carlson from the former goldpoints plus program and the impact on the cost in points for a free night in different regions of the world.
These reward category hotel assignment changes will be covered in a series of posts due to the length of this analysis.
Club Carlson unifies the Earn Rate Differentials
Goldpoints plus was often called the Radisson Hotel program (FlyerTalk) when in fact midscale hotel brand Country Inns & Suites is the largest brand by number of hotels in the Carlson Hotels family. Country Inns & Suites are predominantly in the U.S. and Canada (475 hotels) along with about 120 upscale Radisson Hotels. USA hotels comprise about 55% of the global properties of 1,070 Carlson Hotels in 77 countries. Carlson Hotels plans to grow to 1,500 hotels by 2015.
Club Carlson has a globally uniform earn rate at 20 points per U.S. dollar for all hotel brands in the 1,070 properties of Carlson Hotels. This program change eliminates the split personality aspect of the former goldpoints plus loyalty program where hotel stays had different earn rates depending on the location and brand of the Carlson hotel.
In the former goldpoints plus loyalty program, hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East earned 20 points per Euro for Radisson and Park Plaza hotels stays and 15 points per Euro at Park Inn and Country Inns & Suites . Hotel stays in the Americas and Asia-Pacific earned 20 points per U.S. dollar for Radisson and Park Plaza and 15 points per dollar for Country Inns & Suites and Park Inn.
The change in earn rate to 20 points/US$1 for all hotel stays globally benefits members in all areas.
Currently over 95% of the 500+ Country Inns & Suites are located in North America. Club Carlson members now earn 33% more points per US dollar in hotel spend at Country Inn and Park Inn brands. A Club Carlson member who earned 1,500 points for a $100 Country Inn stay last week earns 2,000 points for the same spend this week.
The majority of Park Inn locations are in Europe and the change to 20 points per dollar is a 33% increase along with a present-day currency factor of 1.40 US dollars per Euro. A member staying at a 100€ per night Park Inn last week earned 1,500 goldpoints in the former program and now with Club Carlson the same 100€ stay earns about 2,800 points, dependent on currency conversion rates. That is an 87% increase, so international members should keep this in mind if feeling slighted about the Club Carlson CWT Vacation rewards and Club Med options being restricted to U.S. and Canada residents at the present time.
Hotels in some countries, specifically the USA, see rises in the number of points required for a free night and hotels in other countries, particularly places in Europe see the cost of a free night fall to new lows.
Category 1 Hotels
There were 131 hotels assigned to Category-1 in goldpoints plus. Club Carlson reduced the cost of a reward night in Category-1 from 15,000 points per night down to 9,000 points per night, a 40% reduction in reward cost, yet also reduced the number of hotels assigned to category-1 from 131 to 51 hotels.
Category-1 hotel global distribution of 51 hotels.
Earning 9,000 points for a category-1 hotel reward night takes only $450 in hotel spend for a general member, making Club Carlson the lowest spend to standard reward cost ratio among hotel loyalty programs. Club Carlson Concierge level members earn a 75% elite bonus and the cost of a free night requires only $257 in spend. Concierge elite requires 75 nights or 30 stays in a calendar year.
For comparison, HHonors Points & Points is the next lowest program with an earn rate at 15 points/$1 requiring $500 in spend to earn a 7,500 points category 1 reward night. Marriott Rewards requires $750 in spend for a category 1 reward night at 7,500 points. Keep in mind that the cost of a reward does not have a correlation to the number of hotels assigned to that reward category. For example, Hilton has about 40 hotels or only around 1% of its 3,600 hotels in category 1, whereas Club Carlson has 51 hotels in category 1 for nearly 5% of its global hotels. Marriott Rewards has about 250 hotels in category 1 or about 7% of its global hotels.
USA Hotels overwhelmingly reassigned to higher reward category in Club Carlson.
USA Category 1 Hotels
Europe, Africa and Middle East (EMEA) Category 1 Hotels
Club Carlson Category 1 Hotels and Former Category Assignment
Yellow-fill cells with no 2010 category were not listed on the Goldpoints Plus website in February 2011 when data was acquired. (Click on image to open full size in separate window).
Links will be added to this post as more analyses are added to the Club Carlson hotel reward category reassignments.
Related Posts:
Club Carlson Hotel Rewards Category Reassignment Analysis – Overview and Category-1 (April 7)
Club Carlson Category 2 Hotel Rewards Analysis (April 8 )
Club Carlson Category 3 Hotel Rewards Analysis (April 8 )
Club Carlson Category 4 Hotel Rewards Analysis (April 8 )
Club Carlson Category 5 Hotel Rewards Analysis (April 9)
Club Carlson Category 6 Hotel Rewards Analysis (April 9)
Competitive Advantages of Club Carlson Hotel Rewards (April 10)
Marriott Rewards announced it will raise the hotel reward category at 350 hotels and lower the category for 100 hotels on March 8. Members can make reservations at the lower reward level for hotels moving up by ordering certificates before March 8. Members can receive an adjustment in points for existing reservations after March 8 for hotels moving down.
Marriott Rewards has only released the names of 50 hotels changing category in current categories 5 through 8. Of these 50 hotels, 31 are increasing in category and 19 are decreasing in reward category. The other 400 hotels changing category are currently in category 1 through 4.
Marriott Rewards has not posted a complete list at this time of the 450 hotels changing reward category on March 8, 2011. Last year Marriott Rewards never posted the complete hotel list prior to the 2010 category changes taking effect.
Loyalty Traveler excoriated Marriott Rewards for its lack of transparency last March when it chose not to publish the full list of category changes prior to the new reward category levels taking effect. Obviously my rants had no effect as Marriott Rewards has chosen to follow a similar strategy again for 2011.
The hotel reward costs what it costs, so what’s the big deal about an incomplete list of changes?
Marriott Rewards has announced it will change the hotel reward category assignment at 450 hotels. The 350 hotels moving up in category represent 10% of Marriott’s global hotel portfolio which was 3,507 hotels as of December 31, 2010.
The changes released in Marriott’s advance notice to members of Marriott Insiders and FlyerTalk include only 31 hotels of the 350 hotels increasing reward category March 8. That is less than 9% of the hotels revealed that will cost more points as of March 8.
There will be an increase in points needed for a reward night at 319 other Marriott brand hotels on March 8. Making a reservation at the lower reward level is rather difficult when members do not know the names of these 319 hotels.
Marriott Rewards Free Night Certificates Often Restricted to Category 4 and Lower
Currently Marriott Rewards offers MegaBonus 2011 for a free night certificate after two hotel stays. The free night certificates earned from the MegaBonus promotion are only valid at Marriott Rewards category 1 to 4 hotels. New members of Marriott Rewards Visa card also receive a free night certificate restricted for use at Category 1 to 4 hotel rewards.
Marriott Rewards members holding these types of free night certificates do not have a list of the hotels that will be increasing to category 5 on March 8. The reassignment of hotels to category 5 hotel rewards will likely make dozens of Marriott hotels ineligible for free nights as of March 8, even though these hotels are currently eligible with a Category 4 free night certificate earned from credit card membership or MegaBonus.
At least this year I am seeing numerous requests to Marriott Rewards from members seeking the full list of hotel reward category changes before the changes go into effect. More voices calling for transparency create a louder voice.
Will Marriott Rewards listen to their members’ voice before March 8?
Marriott Rewards Hotel Category Changes taking effect March 8, 2011 (the incomplete official list).
Update: February 28, 2010
Here is Marriott’s official response to members’ request for a complete list of hotel reward category changes before the changes go into effect on March 8, 2011.
“The entire list is considered proprietary.”
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15948807-post43.html
Flyertalk.com post on February 28 by Marriott Concierge
Update Wednesday, March 2: Marriott posted today on FlyerTalk the full list of properties changing categories on March 8.
