The bad news keeps coming from Club Carlson, they are changing the categories on a number of their properties effective June 1st. In total they are making changes to 329 properties, 212 properties are going up in price and 117 are going down in price. Some interesting little factoids:
- There are now 78 category 7 properties (before this change there were only 11)
- All USA Blu properties are now category 7
- Properties that have jumped by two categories:
- Radisson Blu Minneapolis
- Radisson Blu Mall of America
- Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Bozeman
- Radisson Blu 1919 Hotel, Reykjavik
- Properties that have jumped by three categories:
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Kuwait
- Properties that have gone down by two categories:
- Park Inn by Radisson Hotel and Residence Duqm
- Park Inn By Radisson Yaroslavl
- Radisson Blu Hotel Chongqing Sha Ping Ba
- Country Inn & Suites By Carlson Mysore
- Radisson Blu Hotel Chennai City Centre
My Thoughts
It looks like properties in Europe mostly went up in price and properties in Asia mostly went down. There are now a whole bunch of new category 1 and 2 properties in Asia and some Blu properties that are only category three now. That being said, Club Carlson’s best properties are all in Europe so the fact that that region is going up in price will be the final nail in the coffin for a lot of U.S Bank Club Carlson credit card holders – especially since they recently lost their last free night benefit (this also goes into effect on June 1st).
I kind of wish these property changes were happening before June 1st, because that way if a hotel was going down in price it’d be possible to book and still get the last free night benefit. I don’t think the timing is a coincidence at all. If you haven’t already burned all of your Club Carlson points, now might be the time to do so.
Hat tip to dagaetch on reddit.com/r/churning
