How can you maximise Club Carlson’s ‘free Fridays’ promo?

Club Carlson, the Radisson / Park Inn / Park Plaza / Quorvus chain, has launched a very interesting new promotion.

This could be very lucrative if you are prepared to ‘play the game’, although it will require some flexibility in both earning and redeeming.

Details of the offer, including the registration page, are here.

In simple terms, this is how it works:

For every two stays you make before 1st July and 30th September, you will receive a free Friday night at ANY Club Carlson hotel worldwide.

Alternatively, you can have 10,000 bonus points, but I only value those at £35 and the free night could be worth a lot more.

The small print is quite small:

Your free Friday night stays must be taken between 6th October 2017 and 26 January 2018

You can earn up to three free Friday night vouchers or three x 10,000 bonus points

You must decide at the point of registration whether you want the free Friday vouchers or the 10,000 bonus points and this cannot be changed

Only cash stays – not points stays or ‘points and cash’ stays – count towards the free night

It is not clear what the availability rules are for booking your ‘free Friday’.  Does it require just basic cash rooms to be available, or must there be a reward night?

How to maximise this opportunity

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that there are ways of maximising this promotion to your advantage.

Club Carlson has some very cheap hotels, primarily Park Inn hotels in the UK regions.  I found Park Inn Nottingham at £43 for Friday and Sunday nights in August, for example.

For every two cheap stays you do, you would be earning a ‘free Friday’ voucher which you could use for an expensive Friday night stay at a high end Park Plaza, Radisson or Quorvus Collection hotel.   Many of the better London properties are over £200 on a Friday night.

Think it through though ….

You need to be practical about this offer, however.

Do you have a use for a free Friday night hotel stay, however luxurious the hotel?   After all, if you are going away for the weekend, you would still need to stay somewhere on the Saturday – either paying the same Club Carlson hotel or moving to a different property.

Whether the answer is ‘yes’ depends on your own personal travel plans between October and next January.

Club Carlson is also a lot stronger in some countries than others.  With only a few exceptions, Radisson in North America is not a premium brand.  In Europe, and especially Scandinavia, they have some excellent properties.  Similarly, whilst October to January is not the peak travel period in Europe, it would be useful in, say, the Middle East where Radisson is well represented.

If you can move some stays to Club Carlson anyway as business trips, then this is certainly one to consider closely.  As a ‘mattress run’ (booking nights, checking in and leaving immediately) it is not so clear cut, but it may well work out well for some.

You can learn more about the offer, and register, here.

---

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 60,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 120,000 Radisson Rewards points

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Premium status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)