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Club Carlson announces 120 hotel category changes – book now to lock in cheap deals

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It is ‘hotel category changes’ week.  Marriott and Starwood announced their 2018 changes yesterday, but first I want to look at Club Carlson.

Club Carlson, the Radisson / Park Inn / Park Plaza scheme, has announced that 120 hotels will be changing their reward cost on 1st March.

Even if you never earn points from these chains, it is worth remembering that Club Carlson is arguably the most generous American Express Membership Rewards redemption as I wrote here.  1 Amex point is worth 3 Club Carlson points which should get you 1p of value.

Park Inn Southend

The list of category changes is here.

It is a genuine mixed bag and you can’t say that it is an overall devaluation because I don’t think it is.  I will not be changing my value of a Club Carlson point – around 0.33p – as a result of this.

What you CAN say is that some illogically cheap hotels are moving up.  The Park Inn Walsall and Park Inn Harlow, for example, were very cheap for 9000 points per night.  These will now be 15,000 points.

The sign-up bonus on the free Amex Gold card – 20000 Amex points, so 60000 Club Carlson points – currently gets you a free week at the Park Inn Harlow.  I had a quick look for the first week of March and a seven night stay is £392.

Here are a few other observations:

The Park Inn Palace, Southend on Sea (picture above) which I reviewed here drops to 28,000 points per night.  You are paying £141 per night over a weekend in August, which means 0.5p per Club Carlson point (1.5p per American Express point if you convert them).  That is good value.  The hotel home page is here.

Turkey sees some large falls, presumably linked to large falls in cash rates. 

There are some interesting cuts in rates in Dubai and Oman ….

…. but in Abu Dhabi points rates are going up. 

Similarly, Dublin sees one Radisson drop a category whilst the other goes up a category

The Radisson Edwardian Grafton goes up to 70,000 points but that only aligns it with other top London properties.  70,000 for the Radisson Edwardian in Manchester does seem toppy – it is an impressive hotel, I was there recently myself, but Manchester is not that expensive.

You have until 1st March to lock in redemptions at the old rates.  This gives you plenty of time to transfer American Express Membership Rewards points if necessary.  The list of changes is here.

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How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

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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.

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Comments (32)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Robert Sharp says:
    9 Feb9 February 04:12

    Having stayed at Walsall for a number of years they have upgraded the bar and restaurant there.

    Still not worth 15000 points though, unless you’re there for a soccer game.

  • Tariq says:
    9 Feb9 February 06:21

    Likewise Park Inn Harlow is a ####hole. I would struggle to justify it being worth 9k Points.

    • luke says:
      9 Feb9 February 09:57

      You are absolutely right, it is probably the worst CC property. I booked a room there for my friends (I live only 10 minutes walk from this hotel) and when I saw the state of the room, I offered them to move elsewhere.

    • Canuck says:
      9 Feb9 February 17:31

      Correct. Visited friends nearby once for a quick stop while transiting from Canada. 9k pts… surely couldn’t be that bad? Wow, how wrong was I. A total hole.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    9 Feb9 February 06:56

    Unless things have changed in the last five years, the Grafton isn’t anywhere near the top London properties. Reasonable enough 4* hotel in a decent location and always got good upgrades as an elite, but that’s about it. Entry level room is a single, but I assume they’re not selling those for 70k surely.

    • JD says:
      9 Feb9 February 11:09

      Totally agree there Andrew. The Grafton is ok but not worth 70000. I used to stay there because it was the few central London properties that were not 70000 a night.

  • The_real_a says:
    9 Feb9 February 07:29

    This is bad news. I stayed at the Harlow park inn quite a lot last year. The staff told me it would be leaving the franchise quite soon as the owners were unwilling to invest in a refurb. It is very tired but perfectly good to lay your head.

  • The_real_a says:
    9 Feb9 February 07:35

    Is anyone else seeing ads on here for embrarer aircraft? I suppose someone might be in the market for one or two!!

    • Kris says:
      9 Feb9 February 08:03

      Not on here but I saw one on YouTube yesterday while watch flight reviews (there’s a rabbit hole to go down if one has a few days to kill).

    • Pangolin says:
      9 Feb9 February 08:34

      Genghis finally made it to the big time? 😉

    • BillyK says:
      9 Feb9 February 21:33

      Yeah I keep having them come up so I thought I might try to buy one but only to get the spending to trigger the sign up bonuses

  • TripRep says:
    9 Feb9 February 07:52

    Bit O/T

    Any recommendations for a kickback on booking with Hilton, 6 Avios per point is the best I can find?

    • TripRep says:
      9 Feb9 February 11:15

      Thanks, went with 6x Avios and set myself a reminder to chase it up, heard they aren’t exactly forthcoming either..

      Still £55 for a DoubleTree inc breakfast ain’t bad, should get 4k in HH pts + Iberia Avios whilst P&M still exists..

    • TripRep says:
      9 Feb9 February 12:16

      Shift it to Hilton? Or elsewhere?

  • Pangolin says:
    9 Feb9 February 08:33

    Rob needs to get the poison pen out when he writes up the Marriott Category changes – that’s one big horror show!

    • Dimitri says:
      9 Feb9 February 09:43

      True! I did not see a single one going down!

      • Rob says:
        9 Feb9 February 09:55

        A lot are going down – scroll to the bottom of the list. They are generally in countries which have also gone down, however!

    • Scallder says:
      9 Feb9 February 15:26

      One big advantage of SPG over Marriott in this instance is the booking window is longer for SPG (18 months) whereas with Marriott it looks like 355 days. So you could book through most of summer 2019 before these changes apply for SPG.

      Rather annoying personally as looking at Washington DC using a Marriott travel package for next Easter and the hotel was looking at is going up so won’t be able to lock in before the changes…

  • Crafty says:
    9 Feb9 February 09:20

    Great news for me. Have an April booking at the Cassa in New York that I will now cancel and rebook saving me 40,000 points!

    I assume there’s nothing to stop me doing this?

    • Rob says:
      9 Feb9 February 10:02

      You need to wait until the changes kick in before you can rebook – don’t cancel now in case reward nights aren’t available once the prices change.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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