New Club Carlson ‘Work Hard Play Hard’ promo – up to 39% rebate on your spend

UPDATE – APRIL 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly summary of the top hotel bonus point offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ menu above.

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Club Carlson, the Radisson / Park Inn / Park Plaza group, has launched its August, September and October promotion.

It is a simple structure.  You will earn double points for every stay between now and the end of October.  If you check in on a Friday or Saturday you will earn triple points on the entire stay. 

In the Middle East, a check-in on Thursday or Friday allows you to earn triple points for the whole stay.

You must register to take part – the registration page is here.

Unlike most chains, ALL Club Carlson properties participate in its promotions so there is no ‘opt out’ list to worry about.

Double or triple points is a very generous offer.  The standard earning rate with Club Carlson is 20 points per $1 spent which will go up to 40 or 60 points per $1 under this promotion.

I tend to value Club Carlson points at £4 – £5 per 1,000.  This is based on using 9,000 points for a cheap Park Inn in the regions or 70,000 points for a luxury five-star in London.

Let’s take £4.50 per 1,000 points as our base value and $1.30 per £1 exchange rate.  This means that you will receive:

Double points:  40 points per $1 = 52 points per £1 = 23.4p back per £1 spent

Triple points:  60 points per $1 = 78 points per £1 = 35.1p back per £1 spent

The situation is even better if you have Club Carlson status.  A Club Carlson Gold member – which is the status you get for free with an American Express Platinum card – receives a 35% bonus on their base points.

This would means you could receive, under triple points:

20 base points + 7 bonus points + 40 promo points = 67 points per $1

67 points per $1 = 87 points per £1

87 points per £1 = 39.1p back per £1 spent!

Yes, you could be getting points back equivalent to 39% of the money you spend on your stay.

There is yet another perk.  All stays booked via the Club Carlson mobile app will earn an additional 1,000 Carlson points.  Assuming an average stay of £100, this would be an extra £4.50 (4.5%) of value you get back.

Conclusion

If you have a high value hotel stay coming up – especially one that could start on a Friday or Saturday – if would be worth trying to steer it towards a Radisson Blu, Radisson Edwardian or Park Plaza.  Or, if your company is a cheapskate, a Park Inn.

In London, I rate the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge (reviewed here) and the other Park Plaza hotels in London are generally seen as sound.

Full details of the promotion, and the link to register, can be found here.

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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.)