137 hotels going up in reward category.

• category 1 to 2 Americas = 8 hotels.
• category 1 to 2 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 3 hotels.
• category 1 to 3 Americas = 2 hotels.
• category 1 to 2 Asia Pacific = 1 hotel.
• category 1 to 3 Asia Pacific = 1 hotel at Park Plaza Beijing West.
• category 2 to 3 Americas = 44 hotels.
• category 2 to 4 Americas = 1 hotel at Radisson Hotel Antofagasta, Chile.
• category 2 to 3 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 8 hotels.
• category 2 to 3 Asia Pacific = 3 hotels.
• category 2 to 5 Asia Pacific = 1 hotel at Park Plaza Beijing Wangfujing.
• category 3 to 4 Americas = 17 hotels.
• category 3 to 4 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 15 hotels.
• category 3 to 4 Asia Pacific = 1 hotel.
• category 3 to 5 Asia Pacific = 1 hotel  at Radisson Blu Hotel Greater Noida, India.
• category 4 to 5 Americas = 5 hotels.
• category 4 to 5 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 12 hotels.
• category 4 to 5 Asia Pacific = 5 hotels.
• category 5 to 6 Americas = 0 hotels.
• category 5 to 6 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 8 hotels.
• category 5 to 6 Asia Pacific  = 1 hotel at Radisson Hotel and Suites Sydney.

Categories 2 and 3 hotels in the USA going up to category 3 and 4 hotel rewards account for nearly half of all the global increases. The hotels rising to the category 5 and 6 levels are primarily in Europe (20 hotels) and Asia Pacific (6 hotels).

127 hotels going down in Club Carlson Reward category.

• category 2 to 1 Americas = 11 hotels.
• category 2 to 1 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 0 hotels.
• category 2 to 1 Asia Pacific = 0 hotels.
• category 3 to 1 Americas =  3 hotels.
• category 3 to 1 Asia Pacific = 1 hotel.
• category 3 to 2 Americas = 44 hotels.
• category 3 to 2 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 4 hotels.
• category 3 to 2 Asia Pacific = 2 hotels.
• category 4 to 1 Americas = 1 hotel at Country Inn. Coon Rapids, MN.
• category 4 to 2 Americas = 1 hotel at Radisson Hotel Ontario Airport, California.
• category 4 to 2 Asia Pacific =  1 hotel at Park Plaza New Delhi Hari Nagar, India.
• category 4 to 2 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 1 hotel at Park Inn by Radisson, Vilnius North, Lithuania.
• category 4 to 3 Americas = 29 hotels.
• category 4 to 3 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 5 hotels.
• category 4 to 3 Asia Pacific = 2 hotels.
• category 5 to 4 Americas = 5 hotels.
• category 5 to 4 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 9 hotels.
• category 5 to 4 Asia Pacific = 3 hotels.
• category 6 to 4 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 2 hotels at Kuwait and Libya.
• category 6 to 5 Americas = 0 hotels.
• category 6 to 5 Europe, Middle East, Africa = 2 hotels in Dubai, UAE and Dusseldorf, Germany.
• category 6 to 5 Asia Pacific = 1 hotel at Radisson Blu Hotel New Delhi Paschim Vihar, India.

Hotels in the Americas dropping from category 3 and 4 to category 2 and 3 account for more than half of the global changes in hotels dropping in reward cost.

Kudos to Club Carlson for posting a complete list of changes at 264 hotels with a two-week opportunity for members to book hotels at the old reward rates before they go up. This is a consumer friendly action by Club Carlson.

Priority Club did not publish its hotels going up prior to the changes taking effect earlier this year in what was one of the most significant rises in hotel category assignment in several/ years.

Club Carlson Recent History

Club Carlson launched March 31, 2011 with one of the most radical hotel loyalty program adjustments in years. They actually lowered the cost of hotel reward nights in a revised hotel category reward system while increasing the rate points are earned for hotel stays to 20 points per $1 around the world.

Loyalty Traveler published a series of posts in April 2011 analyzing the Club Carlson changes for March 31, 2011 hotel reward assignments.

The changes made Club Carlson the hotel loyalty program with the fastest earning free nights based on the rate points are earned compared to the cost to redeem a free night.

A person without any status can earn 9,000 points with $450 in hotel spend or 50,000 points with $2,000 in hotel spend. The hotel spend is lowered more by 1,000 points online booking bonus per reservation. Elite status and hotel loyalty promotions reduce this spend rate even more.

There were few hotel reward category changes in the past year until the announcement last week. The changes have a minor effect in shifting hotels upward in reward category.

Loyalty Traveler Analysis

These numbers create a classic bell curve weighted a little more to the lower half of the categories in the Club Carlson reward category distribution of 1,110 hotels.

This is a consumer friendly adjustment for Club Carlson hotels. What remains to be seen is 2013, by which time the Club Carlson credit card should have been out a few months. Hyatt Gold Passport made a significant adjustment upward to its hotel category reward assignment for hotels the year following the Hyatt credit card release. I am interested to see how a credit card impacts the distribution of hotels in reward categories for Club Carlson in 2013 and 2014.

But at least for 2012 the Club Carlson category changes are in line with what appears to me to be a very reasonable category adjustment with hotels being redistributed across the categories relative to each other.

The problem with only going up

For several years I have complained about the type of hotel category reassignment I think is the more typical adjustment for hotel loyalty programs to move hotels upward based on their annual revenue performance increases. That kind of adjustment tends to clear hotels from the bottom half of hotel categories within any single hotel loyalty program to the upper tiers of that loyalty program. Currency exchange fluctuations also play heavily into that kind of annual hotel reward category adjustment.

Starwood Preferred Guest and Hilton HHonors are examples of that kind of category redistribution where the trend has been to deplete the bottom half of the hotel reward categories with annual shifts towards the upper half of the hotel reward categories as far fewer hotels move down than up in category year after year. That type of hotel reward category reassignment creates a quicker devaluation of your hotel loyalty points.

Bottom line: These Club Carlson changes appear to be the most reasonable category reassignment among the hotel loyalty programs in 2012.

The hotel list below is organized by hotel category effective on May 31, 2012 after reassignment. The geographical list of changes is available on the Club Carlson website here.

There was little downward movement for hotels in the other HHonors reward categories. The big news is there are actually hotels being added back to category 1. That has been a pretty lonely HHonors category the past few years with fewer than 50 hotels, I think.  Hilton’s website does not make it easy to see how many category 1 hotels there are since it requires searching country by country.

Nearly 3 times the number of hotels increase category April 30 as decrease.

Hilton Hotel Names

The main issue I had with the hotel list provided by Hilton HHonors for the April 30 category reassignment was poorly constructed.  I changed the names of dozens of hotels to match the hotel name you see on the hotel’s website page.

Some hotels were difficult to determine exactly which hotel is being reassigned in category. The HHonors list shows a name that did not match the exact hotel name of any specific hotel. I think the most radical change of a name was Hampton Lakewood Lodging on the Hilton list. As far as I can tell this property is actually the Hampton Inn Denver West Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado.

Hilton’s standard hotel name nomenclature tends to be the metropolitan area followed by a more specific location. For example, Hampton Inn Long Island/Islandia New York is in the town of Islandia on Long Island. Hampton Inn Philadelphia/King of Prussia (Valley Forge) is a hotel in King of Prussia near Valley Forge in the vicinity of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Related Loyalty Traveler posts:

Loyalty Traveler geographical tables of HHonors Reward Hotel Category Changes April 30, 2012

HHonors hotel rewards up  Category 6 and 7  (April 10)

HHonors hotel rewards up Category 5 (April 10)

HHonors hotel rewards up Category 4 (April 10)

HHonors hotel rewards up Category 3  (April 11)

Comparison of HHonors and Marriott Rewards hotel distribution in reward categories (to come) 

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.

This is the last of my HHonors 2012 tables for hotels rising in reward category. Fortunately, no category 1 hotels are moving up to category 2 with the 2012 changes. The category 1 hotels were nearing depletion and the April 30 changes will actually see 9 hotels move down from category 2 to category 1 hotels. I will likely follow up with another post and table of hotels going down and an actual analysis of the overall changes and distribution of hotels in HHonors reflecting on hotel reward category changes over the past few years.

Related Loyalty Traveler posts:

Loyalty Traveler geographical tables of HHonors Reward Hotel Category Changes April 30, 2012

HHonors hotel rewards Category 6 and 7

HHonors hotel rewards Category 5

HHonors hotel rewards Category 4

Getting down to Hilton HHonors hotels that are rising from Category 3 to Category 4 shows that Hilton HHonors sees an economic recovery in parts of America’s heartland. Or maybe they just want to raise points since they know more people don’t have the money to pay rising room rates?

77 hotels are rising from HHonors category 3 to category 4 on April 30, 2012. That is a rise from 25,000 to 30,000 points per standard reward night. Only four of these hotels are outside the USA.

Hilton HHonors Points & Money Reward factor.

Hilton added Points & Money rewards in 2011 which improve the Hilton reward value where the standard reward price is cut by 50%.

The hotel reward category changes also increase the cost for HHonors Points & Money rewards for a category 3 hotel night from 12,500 points +$40  up to 15,000 points & $50. The same hotel will cost 20% more points and 25% more cash for a reward night in May 2012. You are paying an extra 2,500 points and $10 per reward night in May 2012 for hotels rising from category 3 to category 4.

I am learning about new places studying the Hilton category change list. I never would have guessed a place called Horseheads, New York has at least two Hilton properties. Sounds like a Godfather retirement community. No disrespect. Probably a lovely place I have not yet visited.

Loyalty Traveler geographical tables of HHonors Reward Hotel Category Changes April 30, 2012

• Hilton HHonors Category 6 and 7
• Hilton HHonors Category 5
• Hilton HHonors Category 3

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.

The 123 hotels rising to the cream of the HHonors reward chart include 95 hotels moving up to category 6 at 40,000 points per night and 28 hotels rising to category 7 reward status at 50,000 points.

Sucks to Travel the USA with Hilton

These changes wouldn’t be so shocking if it were not for the large proportion of hotels in the USA increasing relative to international hotels.

Category 6 additions include 11 international hotels like Hilton Sao Paulo, Brazil and Doubletree Gold Resort in Acaya, Italy and Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa in the beach resort getaway of China.

Contrast these world-class cities and resort destinations with the typical change for the USA where there will be 84 new hotels in Category 6 from the USA, including these California Hampton Inns.

• Hampton San Francisco Airport, South San Francisco -Daly City = Category 6 = 40,000 points.
• Hampton Inn & Suites Goleta = Category 6 = 40,000 points.
• Hampton Inn Santa Cruz = Category 6 = 40,000 points.

[Update 4-10-12 11:30am PT: The Hilton HHonors list simply stated Hampton San Francisco and there is no Hampton Inn in the city of San Francisco. I thought it meant Hampton Inn Daly City, the town next to San Francisco. Then I found Hampton Daly City on the Category 5 list. I now assume Hampton San Francisco means Hampton San Francisco Airport in South San Francisco is rising from category 5 to category 6.

This is the problem with a poorly constructed list of hotel names from Hilton HHonors. Several hotels left off complete identifying names to accurately determine the specific hotel changing category.

Also, Hampton Inn Fredericksburg, Texas was misidentified as being Virginia in an earlier version of the category 6 list.]

Category 7 changes include six London hotels and four other hotels in the UK. I wonder if the hotels outside of London may drop down again after this Olympics year.

Hilton Buenos Aires and Hilton Perth are locations where a category 7 hotel is to be expected.

But, Embassy Suites San Luis Obispo, in a shopping center, beside Highway 101, in the lovely central coast, but not on the coast college town of San Luis Obispo, California now joins the ranks of the vaulted HHonors Category 7 elite properties around the world!

I’ll take London with my points please!

Hilton HHonors Does Not Care Much about Geography (or Members?)

One of the most annoying aspects of the Hilton HHonors list of hotels changing reward category April 30, 2012 is the absence of hotel order by Country, State, or Hotel Reward Category. The list is organized by brand.

Here is my contribution to the effort to make the Hilton HHonors list of hotels more consumer-friendly since Hilton HHonors apparently does not care how difficult the list is to read for people interested in the hotel category changes.

This graphic only shows the 123 hotels moving up to Category 6 and 7 for Hilton HHonors Rewards on April 30, 2012.

International Hotels rising to Hilton HHonors Category 7 Rewards

 USA Hotels rising to Hilton HHonors Category 7 Rewards

International Hotels rising to Hilton HHonors Category 6 Rewards

USA Hotels rising to Hilton HHonors Category 6 Rewards

Loyalty Traveler post:

Hilton HHonors Category 5 Hotel Changes listed by location (April 10, 2012).

Loyalty Traveler Category 4 hotels by location (April 10, 2012)

Loyalty Traveler Category 3 hotels by location (April 11, 2012)

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.

• Le Meridien Bora Bora remains category 7. This hotel was listed as dropping to Category 6.
• Westin Key West Resort went up from a category 5 to category 6. This hotel was not on Starwood’s original list.
• Le Meridien Istanbul Etiler went up from category 4 to category 5. This hotel was not on Starwood’s original list.
• Le Meridien Chiang Mai remains at category 2 and did not drop to category 1. This hotel is still listed on the current SPG list as dropping to category 1.
• Four Points Long Island – remains at category 3 and did not drop to category 2.
• Sheraton Bradley Airport Hartford, CT remains category 3 and did not drop to category 2.
• Sheraton Denver West – remains category 3 and did not drop to category 2.
• Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort – remains category 4 and did not drop to category 3.
• Westin St. Louis – remains category 4 and did not drop to category 3.
• Le Centre Sheraton Montreal listed as dropping from category 4 to 3 in the current SPG changes pdf online is actually now SPG category 5  according to its hotel website.
• Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers remains Category 5 and did not rise to Category 6. This is good news for New York guests and the one positive change from the original list.

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.

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.

• 100 hotels are decreasing by one category (3% of Marriott brand hotels globally).
• 526 hotels are increasing by one category (15% of Marriott brand hotels globally).

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 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)

• 30,000 points = 99 hotels
• 40,000 points = 70 hotels

USA – Holiday Inn  (671 hotels) (ChongCao reward tier hotel list.)

• 10,000 points = 27   (4.0%)
• 15,000 points = 372  (55.4%)
• 25,000 points = 272  (40.5%)

USA – Holiday Inn  Express (1,731 hotels)   ChongCao 25K reward tier hotel list

• 10,000 points = 212   (12.2%)  ChongCao 10K and 15K reward tier hotel list
• 15,000 points = 1,107 (64.0%)
• 25,000 points = 412  (23.8%)

International – Holiday Inn  (549 hotels) (ChongCao reward tier hotel list.)

• 10,000 points = 35  (6.4%)
• 15,000 points = 309  (56.3%)
• 25,000 points = 205  (37.3%)

International - Holiday Inn  Express (367 hotels)

• 10,000 points = 57   (15.5%)
• 15,000 points = 216 (58.9%)
• 25,000 points = 94  (25.6%)

Related link FlyerTalk ChongCao – Master List of 10K and 25K Holiday Inn /Holiday Inn Express List
2011/2012  (Nov 9, 2011)

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.

• USA = 24 hotels
• Canada = 0 hotels
• Mexico = 3 hotels
• Europe = 14 hotels
• Egypt = 3 hotels
• China = 1 hotel
• India = 6 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

• 24 hotels in USA are Club Carlson category 1 hotels.
• Only 19 hotels of 107 hotels in the U.S. in category 1 last week remain in category 1.
• Only 3 hotels in the USA dropped from goldpoints plus category-2 to Club Carlson category-1.
• Over 50 hotels formerly category-1 increased to Club Carlson Category 2 and are still 15,000 points for a reward night in Club Carlson for no change in points required for a free night.
• About 20 hotels that were goldpoints plus category 1 increased to category 3 and currently cost 28,000 points compared to 15,000 points last week; an 87% increase in reward night cost.

Europe, Africa and Middle East (EMEA) Category 1 Hotels

• There are 17 hotels in Club Carlson hotel reward category-1. Europe sees a rise from 3 hotels formerly in category-1 to 14 hotels. Europe only had three category-1 hotels before Club Carlson and all were in Sweden. 
• Two of the Sweden hotels are now category-5 hotels and increased from 15,000 points to 44,000 points per night (193% increase) and one hotel is category-4 at 38,000 points (153% increase).
• The other three former category-1 hotels were in Egypt and two of these hotels remain at category-1 and Radisson Blu Resort Sharm el Sheikh was reassigned to category 3 and increased from 15,000 to 28,000 points per night.
• 14 hotels in Europe and one in Egypt were reassigned to category 1 in Club Carlson from the former Goldpoints Plus category-2 (7), Category-3 (6), and Category-4 (2). This is a dramatic reduction in the cost for a hotel reward night at these hotels.
• Park Inn Pribaltiyskaya St. Petersburg and Radisson Blu Alexandria Egypt dropped from category-4 at 40,000 points per night to category-1 at 9,000 points per night for a 72% reduction in cost. Four nights at these hotels are less than the cost of one night last week.
• 6 hotels in Europe dropped from category-3 (30,000 points per night in goldpoints plus) to Club Carlson category-1 at 9,000 points for a 70% decrease in reward night cost.

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)