Club Carlson posted short notice 2013 changes to hotel reward categories with 97 hotels going up, 151 hotels going down and 2 uncertain changes to take effect May 1, 2013. This leaves about 48 hours to book reward nights at hotels increasing in reward category.

Club Carlson has 6 hotel reward categories starting at 9,000 points and rising up to 50,000 points for a reward night using Club Carlson points.

Club Carlson Reward Category Levels.

The greatest change comes between Category 2 and 3 reward nights where the price for a reward night increases from 15,000 to 28,000 points with an 87% jump in points.

These are hotels where booking reward nights before the May 1 change can have significant savings.

3 hotels see the harshest change rising from category 1 to 3. This is more than a 200% rise from 9,000 points to 28,000 points per night.

• Radisson Hotel Orlando – International Drive, Florida
• Radisson Hotel Cleveland Airport West, Ohio
• Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Council Bluffs, Iowa

Radisson Hotel Orlando – International Drive is a great loss for Disneyworld fans.

30 hotels rising from category 2 to 3 will have an increase in reward rate from 15,000 points per night to 28,000 points.

Club Carlson Hotel Reward Category Changes for 2013 – effective May 1, 2013.

Read More…

The new Hilton HHonors is confusing. HHonors redesigned their hotel rewards in a radical way that no other hotel loyalty program has gone, except for Choice Privileges. HHonors in its restructured form is more member-friendly than Choice Privileges, yet it has removed one of the basic tenets of reward stays for consumers: the ability to know what a hotel reward will cost based on its hotel reward category within the program.

Book a Marriott category 6 hotel and the price is 30,000 points whether it is for a stay tonight or six months from now.  Book a Hyatt category 6 hotel and it is 22,000 points. Book SPG category 5 standard reward and the rate is 12,000 or 16,000 for peak season. In all the major hotel loyalty programs the hotel reward category does not change until the annual reassignment of hotels. Choice Privileges was the exception with seasonal rates changing the cost of rewards at some hotels every few months with a swing like 8,000 points per night to 20,000 points per night from season to season.

HHonors joins Choice Privileges in letting hotel reward category drift, yet HHonors is not displaying their HHonors Hotel Category and Standard Reward chart in that way. Read More…

New York City saw a blistering rise in the points price for HHonors Standard Rewards with the March 28, 2013 changes. Many hotels that were 50,000 points per night are now 80,000 to 95,000 per night.

New York City was the first U.S. city to make a striking comeback in room rates following the 2008-2010 hotel recession. At one point nearly all the hospitality industry gains in the U.S. were coming from New York and a couple other cities. New York room rates are back up in the $400 range for an upper upscale hotel and even Hampton Inn is fetching that rate after taxes in Manhattan.

DoubleTree Suites New York Times Square is a hotel rising from 50,000 to 95,000 points per night as a new HHonors category 10 hotel reward. Hilton Times Square goes from 50,000 points as a Category 7 to 80,000 points peak season in may as a category 9 hotel in the new rewards system.

The Waldorf-Astoria is 80,000 points per reward night for the historic flagship property of Hilton’s luxury brand while the hotel charges a $459 room rate.

And the Hampton Inn Times Square North is also 80,000 points per Standard Reward night at Hilton’s upper midscale brand with a $359 rate.

New York lights up the topsy-turvy world of the new Hilton HHonors rewards.

New York is the fifth city in my five U.S. cities survey of Hilton HHonors rewards following the March 28, 2013 changes to the loyalty program. Read More…

I disagree with Gary Leff at View from the Wing calling the Wyndham Rewards category changes a ‘bloodbath’ devaluation of points on March 14.  For most  Wyndham Rewards members used to redeeming points for hotels in the U.S., the changes will mostly be no big deal.

The changes are more severe for Canada and international hotels where hundreds of hotels will rise by 50% or more in points cost, but the vast majority of Wyndham Rewards 7,000+ hotels are located in the USA and these Ramada, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Super 8, Microtel, Travelodge and other brand hotels in the states do not look like that many will increase in points cost for award nights.

Wyndham Rewards posted in the comments section on View from the Wing and Loyalty Traveler to share their posting of pdf files showing the hotels increasing and decreasing in award tier on March 14.

Wyndham Rewards pdf for hotels increasing award tier.

Wyndham Rewards pdf for hotels decreasing award tier.

Their word choice could have been better.

View a list of properties with increasing point levels or decreasing point levels right here!

Looking over the pdf files reveals that most hotel awards for U.S. properties are only increasing or decreasing in award tier with the shift from seven categories introduced in mid-2012 to eight categories in effect march 14, 2013. The amount of points for most hotels is actually not increasing or decreasing.

Wyndham Rewards is not doing itself a favor by saying thousands of hotels are increasing points level when the points required for an award night are not changing with the new tier system March 14.

Despite the Wyndham Rewards pdf showing thousands of hotels increasing in award tier, the impact is nil for many of these hotels.

Tier 2 to Tier 3 = 10,000 points for hotel award night (no points increase).

Tier 3 to Tier 4 = 14,000 points for hotel award night (no points increase).

Tier 4 to Tier 5 = 16,000 points for hotel award night (no points increase).

Read More…

Starwood Preferred Guest 2013 annual hotel award category reassignments are effective March 5, 2013. You can book hotels for 2013 dates using current rates through March 4, 2013.

218 hotels go up and 48 hotels go down. Starwood Hotels pdf link.

The end of this post contains Loyalty Traveler’s complete list of the Starwood Hotels changing award category ordered by hotel award number from category 1 to 7.

It is common for a few hotels to be added and some of the posted hotels to be removed from the changes list in the final changes.

The announcement and pdf link were posted by SPG representatives on FlyerTalk and MilePoint.

In a consumer-friendly pdf, SPG lists the hotels changing category with geographic descriptors so you can identify where the hotel changes are happening. Hilton and Marriott listed their hotel category changes by brand with no geographic information for country or city other than hotel name.

My contribution to the Starwood pdf is a list of the changes organized by category with State and Country list. I was too lazy to add the city. You can check the SPG pdf link for city names. Read More…

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…

Hilton HHonors released a list of hotels increasing reward category on April 30, 2012. The HHonors list only lists hotel name ordered by hotel brand, and some hotels have only a partial name and some an incorrect name on the list.

Hilton HHonors members will likely find a list of hotels ordered by geographical location more useful.

There are 330 hotels rising in category and 117 hotels dropping in category. Read More…

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.

Read More…

The most significant issue affecting Marriott Rewards members when the hotel reward category reassignments happen on March 15, 2012 is the set of hotels moving from Category 4 to Category 5 that will no longer be available for reward nights with the free night certificates earned in the past two Marriott MegaBonus promotions.

The free night certificates received for MegaBonus and the enrollment free night certificate for Marriott Visa cardmembers are limited to category 1-4 hotels. Nearly 100 hotels are rising from category 4 to category 5 and will not be available for reward nights using these certificates after March 15.

Marriott Rewards members sitting on reward night certificates may want to closely examine the list of hotels in this post rising from category 4 to category 5 on March 15, 2012 and decide to redeem certificates for hotel stays prior to March 15. You can book a stay using the certificate for dates past March 15 as long as you make the reservation before the hotel rises to category 5.

Marriott Visa Premier cardmembers receive a certificate good for category 5 hotels with renewal membership. Check out this list of category 5 hotels moving to category 6 to see if there may be a current category 5 property to book your reward night before the hotel rises to category 6 on March 15.

The announcement of new higher reward tiers by IHG Priority Club yesterday got me thinking about an article I wrote 12 months ago for InsideFlyer called “Scaling Peaks of High Category Hotel Rewards“.  Structural changes to the hotel reward night cost are infrequent among hotel loyalty programs. Typically the adjustment is simply to add another high end hotel reward category in the segmentation of hotels within the loyalty program.

The addition of a new higher reward also tends to shift most properties upward in the system.

Hilton HHonors simply shifted all hotels upward in its restructured rewards table when the Category-7 hotels were added two years ago. The net effect was more than 80% of hotels in the Hilton HHonors program increased reward cost for nights using points. Hilton HHonors still has the best extended stay discounts for hotel rewards with up to 25% fewer points needed for stays of six nights or more compared to the standard reward rate. Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards and SPG are the only programs offering extended stay reward discounts on the standard redemption level for reward nights.

Marriott Rewards made its major restructuring in 2009 with significant increases in the cost of extended stays at its hotels when it changed to a simple 5th night free reward chart.

Hyatt Gold Passport added Category-6 to its structure in 2010 and shifted many hotels upward. The category shift  depleted a large proportion of bargain category-1 hotels at 5,000 points.

SPG has made few changes to its reward charts in the past few years. I anticipate we can see a change to the low category points cost of 2,000 to 4,000 for category-1 and category-2 hotels, possibly this year. How much longer can SPG category-1 last with fewer than 25 hotels globally in 2011 and fewer each year? Raising the cost in points for these hotels would allow SPG to redistribute category-2 hotels down to category-1 without lowering the current reward cost for these same hotels.

SPG high category hotels are already out of alignment with the other chains in the cost of hotel rewards.

Frequent Guest or Frequent Spender?

My concern with hotel loyalty program reward night cost as a hotel frequent guest and not a big credit card spender is the continual rise in reward cost for hotels without a change in the earning structure for points. During the the 13 years I have been an SPG member the hotel reward rates increased from 12,000 points to 35,000 points for top category hotels in SPG while the earn rate has remained unchanged at 2 points per dollar and 1 bonus point per dollar for elite members.

Basically the frequent guest suffers from inflation in the cost of reward nights in the loyalty program generated to a large degree by the mass production of points earned for non-hotel stay activity like credit card spend, online shopping, and social media promotions. These are good revenue generators for the hotel loyalty program, but not necessarily a positive effect for the loyal frequent guest whose reward stays increase in cost.

IHG Priority Club Rewards tier changes

Priority Club is raising the cost of rewards in 25% of its 4,500 hotels on January 18, 2012. The change will raise the cost of many Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo properties by 40% and hundreds of other hotels by 25% or more points for a reward night.

The Priority Club program has a different reward structure than other programs in basing the cost of a hotel reward night by hotel brand. Rather than go to a simple tier structure where a popular Holiday Inn in one location might cost the same as an InterContinental in another location, the program is adding multiple tiers for rewards for each hotel brand.

Scaling High Category Awards

An interesting pattern emerges when base points earned per dollar are correlated to the cost of award nights at various category levels in different hotel programs. The amount of hotel spend needed to earn sufficient points for a free night at the highest award levels is similar across hotel programs–except Starwood Hotels and Club Carlson.

Club Carlson category 6 hotels at 50,000 points require $2,500 in hotel spend to earn base points on spend. Club Carlson members earn 20 points per dollar with no lower earning brands. This change occurred in 2011. Will this earn rate to redemption rate good value last through 2012?

Hilton HHonors category 7 hotels at 50,000 points range from $3,334 in hotel spend for Points & Points earners to $5,000 for Points & Miles earners. Hilton HHonors launched Home2 Suites brand in 2011 and also lowered the earning rate for base points to 5 points per $1. All Hilton brands earned 10 points per $1 until the launch of Home2 Suites. This two-tier earning rate is a pattern seen with lower rate for base points earned in Marriott Rewards and IHG Priority Club for their extended stay brands. That was one of the most unwelcome changes in 2011 with Hilton HHonors.

Marriott Rewards highest category 8 hotel nights are 40,000 points. Earning 40,000 base points requires $4,000 in hotel spend. Most Marriott brands earn 10 points per dollar, except Residence Inn and TownePlace Suites have a lower earning rate of 5 points per $1. The cost for category-8 hotel rewards is as high as $8,000 in spend for Marriott Rewards members living at Residence Inn hotels.

IHG Priority Club will have three tiers of InterContinental Hotels at 30,000 points, 40,000 points and 50,000 points as of January 18, 2012. The top tier will require $5,000 in base spend. The lower earning brands of Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites at 5 points/$1 will take as much as $10,000 in spend to earn points for a top-tier reward night. Priority Club along with Hyatt Gold Passport and Club Carlson does not offer any discount for extended stay rewards.

Priority Club Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo rewards at 35,000 points will require $3,500 to $7,000 in hotel spend at the base earn rate for members.

Hyatt Gold Passport category 6 award at 22,000 points per night equates to $4,400 in spend at the earn rate of 5 points per $1.

Starwood Preferred Guest members earn 2 points per $1. A category-7 hotel is 30,000 points in low season if it is not a specialty “no standard rooms” hotel requiring double points. That is $15,000 in hotel spend or $10,000 as an elite member and far exceeds the hotel spend to reward cost of other hotel programs. Even a low season category 5 Starwood hotel at 12,000 points takes $4,000 to $6,000 in hotel spend or $5,333 to $8,000 in hotel spend in peak season.

Hotel Loyalty Promotions 

The frequent guest relies on hotel loyalty promotions to improve the earning rate for points. 2012 will be an interesting year to watch promotion patterns. The hotel industry gained ground in 2011 as rates climbed and occupancy soared in many locations.

Will free night earning promotions offered in 2011 be seen in 2012? HHonors and SPG currently have resort focused free night offers and SPG’s current promotion is limited to Asia/Pacific.

Will good value promotions see more hotels opt out? This was the case with many Hilton and SPG offers in 2011 where as many as 20% of hotels in the programs did not participate in a loyalty program offer.

Hyatt Gold Passport had many years of Faster Free Nights for a free night at any Hyatt brand hotel globally after two stays, but this promotion was not repeated in 2011.

Marriott runs the same boring promotion over and over, year after year. While two free nights at a low category hotel is a good value promotion, the limitation is the free reward nights are not good for high category hotels.

Club Carlson has had some of the best promotions in the past year and the program is gaining recognition. Can they sustain the momentum?

Priority Club has had some of the best non-stay promotions that generated loads of attention to the program and keeps Priority Club at record numbers of members approaching 60 million globally. These are great if you are into social media games, but where is the love for the frequent guest staying in hotels?

Aside from “Crack the Case” in 2010-11 where I pulled in 100,000 points, the way to get Priority Club points is using social media to find links to promotions that are not generally known outside of FlyerTalk, MilePoint and points blogs. Priority Club is quite generous in giving out points bonuses if you know how to “Crack the Code“.