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Radisson hotel points – new insights into how to get 50% more value than you think

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When Radisson Rewards undertook its points massacre in October 2022, slashing the value of unused points by 2/3rds with no notice, we said that the average value was now 0.2p.

Over time, this actually got worse. On all of my recent redemptions I have been getting 0.15p per point.

I’ve now been able to get a bit more insight into how it works, and I have worked out a way of getting 0.22p per point – a 50% improvement.

What are Radisson Rewards points worth?

Radisson Rewards no longer has ‘reward nights’. Your points can only be used to get a discount on your next cash booking.

What I had been doing is what most people now do. I would earn a small number of Radisson points on one stay and instantly spend them for £1-£2 off my next stay, always at around 0.15p per point. My balance never got higher than a couple of thousand points.

However …. when we covered the Radisson Rewards VIP status match I put my refer a friend link in the article so that new joiners could get 5,000 bonus points. This meant I also got some points and, for the first time, I could experiment with valuations. What I found was interesting.

Radisson Rewards does NOT offer a fixed value per point

It turns out that Radisson Rewards is not working in the same way as Accor Live Limitless. The value you get per point is not fixed.

Here are the key things to take from this article:

  • the value per point is based on the percentage of the room bill you pay with points
  • the higher the percentage of the room bill you pay with points, the higher the ‘pence per point’ rate you get
  • the number of points used does not matter – what matters is the % of the bill you pay. 100,000 points used to settle 1/3rd of a £500 booking are worth less than 100,000 points used to pay for a room in full.

Here are some examples. With my modest points balance from reader referrals, I found a £38.26 night at a budget Park Inn hotel that I could afford to book entirely with points.

When you pay 100% of the room rate with points:

What are Radisson Rewards points worth?

Using 16,980 points for a totally free room costing £38.26, I got 0.22p per point. This is 50% higher than our standard valuation of 0.15p.

When you use 70% of the points needed for a free night:

What are Radisson Rewards points worth?

Using 12,059 points (71% of the points cost of a free night) I could reduce the cost by £23.50 (61% of the total cost). I got 0.19p per point.

When you use 50% of the points needed for a free night:

What are Radisson Rewards points worth?

Using 8,495 points (50% of the points cost of a free night) I could reduce the cost by £15.08 (39% of the total cost). I got 0.17p per point.

When you use 25% of the points needed for a free night:

What are Radisson Rewards points worth?

Using 4,253 points (25% of the points cost of a free night) I could reduce the cost by £6.83 (17% of the total cost). I got 0.16p per point.

What does this mean?

As you can see, you get a better ‘pence per point’ rate when you pay a higher percentage of the room rate with points.

To prove that the key issue is the % of room rate paid and NOT the number of points that impacts ‘pence per point’, I looked at a more expensive hotel.

In my original example above, I used 16,980 points to get a £38.26 room for free. By paying 100% of the cost in points, I got 0.22p per point.

Now look at this:

What are Radisson Rewards points worth?

This is a more expensive hotel. Using 17,046 points – the nearest I could get to 16,980 from the previous example – I only have enough to get a 20% discount (£27.67) on my room rate. This is 0.16p per point.

(Ignore the 28,403 points number shown above. This was my points balance at the time I did the test. It isn’t the amount needed for a free night at this hotel.)

With my 17,000 points, I got 0.22p per point when using them to pay for 100% of a cheap hotel room but only 0.16p per point when I used them to get 20% off a more expensive room.

How should you best use your Radisson Rewards points?

This leads us to an interesting conclusion:

  • you do NOT maximise the value of your Radisson Rewards points by using them immediately for a £1-£2 discount on your next stay – this will only get you 0.15p per point
  • you do NOT maximise the value of your Radisson Rewards points by saving them up for a partial discount on an expensive stay – this could still get you as little as 0.15p per point and probably only 0.16p to 0.17p
  • instead, you maximise the value by building them up until you have enough to redeem for a completely free night, irrespective of how cheap or expensive the hotel is – this can get you around 0.22p based on our examples, so a 50% uplift on the worse case scenario

The snag here, of course, is that most HfP readers would rather use 25,000 Radisson Rewards points for £37.50 off a decent £200 hotel room (0.15p per point) rather than get a dodgier £55 hotel room for free (0.22p per point).

However, at least you now understand where the valuations come from.

PS. Since the Radisson Rewards devaluation, transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to Radisson has been a bad deal, even at the 1:3 transfer rate. However, now that we know how the sliding scale of valuations works, you may want to look at doing a top-up.

Go back to my examples above:

  • 16,980 Radisson points got me a £38.26 hotel room for free
  • 12,059 Radisson points got me £23.50 off the same hotel room, with £14.76 to pay in cash

If I had 12,059 Radisson Rewards points in my account I could transfer 1,640 American Express Membership Rewards points to Radisson, taking my balance to 16,980 points. I would get £14.76 of extra value for my 1,640 American Express points because the room would now be totally free. This is 0.9p per Membership Rewards point, which isn’t bad.


How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (February 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:

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. You can apply here.

Got a small business?

You can get free top-tier Radisson Rewards VIP status with the new Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card for small business. Clck here to apply.

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

Comments (19)

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

  • Occasional Ranter says:

    Just got great value from VIP status at Radisson in Sydney CBD. Booked basic room for tonight for £130, upgraded to suite, 4pm checkout, some nice cake and fruit in room, free breakfast for VIP and then… It turns out this one has a “business class lounge” which VIPs get access to. Canapés and cocktails starts in about an hour.

    The yha down the road is the same price for 2 spaces in a shared dormitory…

    • Swiss Jim says:

      Now, that’s what I call a result..! Enjoy. Some of course will argue they’ll never set foot in a Radisson again. Tbh they need to get over that (in my humble opinion – I’m sure I’m about to get some grief…).

    • Lumma says:

      Currently in the Radisson Blu Milan, upgraded from base room to a huge suite for only €90.

      Found it very strange that they close the bar at 23.30 on a Saturday night, especially when it was match day at the San Siro and coning straight back to the hotel after the game was just passed this point. Sold me one beer but then must’ve turned away about a dozen people

      • Swiss Jim says:

        Left Milan yesterday, now in Venice. Stayed at Hilton Milan, given I’ve enough points to last me many a year. I knew it was a mistake – not great. And I was tempted to given Radisson a go, especially given VIP. Other than early bar, would you recommend?

        • Lumma says:

          Yeah, for the price I’d recommend. It’s a little but away from the centre but there are plenty of teams and a suburban railway station nearby

      • Pangolin says:

        I was there at the weekend. I paid slightly more but still only €100, which is still a good rate for Milan and was likely slightly higher because AC were playing at the San Siro that night.

        I also got a suite upgrade, which makes me 2/2, but come to think of it they seem to have forgotten to bring any welcome gift this time.

        All in all it turned into a much better deal than any of the usual chain hotel options offed though.

        I’ll add the stay description to the recent Radisson thread in the forums.

    • Lee says:

      I have booked Radisson Blu in Hangzhou for a week in May. Emailed them to check what can I get with VIP status.

      In results, they have already upgraded us to a deluxe suite for whole week 3 months in advance. Waived 3rd person/rollaway bed fee, offered free breakfast for all 3 of us. very impressive.

  • PeterK says:

    Even if you only have a small balance, it is still useful to use as a small part payment as it avoids the need to provide any credit card to guarantee the room.

  • Geoff says:

    Isn’t this the same in principle elsewhere – the value per point with Hilton also increases the more you use?

  • Earthman says:

    I got upgraded to a huge suite from a basic room twice on 2 seperate stays at the Radisson Blu Chisinau last week,free breakfast and late check outs using vip status and they had a large welcome food platter for me with a bottle of champagne on ice
    An absolute peach of a hotel

  • Bath Rd boycotter says:

    Stayed at the Radisson (non-Red/Blu) Bath Rd as a VIP in late November. Got a voucher for a free beer/house wine at the bar as well as free breakfast, but my (polite, non-demanding) request for late check-out beyond the standard 11 a.m. was met with much fluster bordering hostility by the receptionist the next morning. Even a half hour extension was not possible, as this benefit was based on availability, and they were fully booked – or so he lectured me. Of course that same room category (base, mind – no upgrade notwithstanding higher category availability at check-in) was still very much bookable on the Radisson app/website at that point. Wrangled some 15 minutes out of him in the end and was left in peace by housekeeping until I vacated my room at half eleven. Won’t be rushing to stay there again anytime soon, no matter the points valuation.

    • executiveclubber says:

      hahah love your username. sadly most of the heathrow hotels can rest on their laurels and have truly woeful customer service.

  • Bath Rd boycotter says:

    Haha for now only in reference to the Radisson, and the turreted DoubleTree whose receptionist I once awoke from his slumber as a post-midnight walk-in and who couldn’t be bothered to process me without prior reservation – but my list is certainly open for expansion. Always been a happy camper at the Hyatt though – ymmv 🤷‍♂️

  • J A Hayward says:

    Having seen on HfP the deal with ClubAvolta I applied and I then status matched to my BA Executive Club (Silver membership) within 24 hours my ClubAvolta was increased to Platinum, I then status matched this to my Radisson membership and again within 24 hours my entry level for Radisson was increased to VIP Membership – the benefits – I have just booked Radisson Hotels in Dubai and have reserved with their discount booster which is a saving of nearly £300 for accommodation, an email after reservation of standard room now received confirming complimentary room upgrade with executive lounge access (ie drinks and snacks) and with the upgraded membership free breakfasts for 2 daily – as I will eventually lose BA Silver Membership my next step is to status match with Flying Blue – already a member but at entry level and with the BA membership changes, I will certainly be reconsidering my future flights

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