Club Carlson is now named Radison Rewards. They have also made a number of minor changes to the loyalty program, for example the membership tiers have new names (Platinum instead of Concierge).
Contents
Fewer Nights/Stays Needed For Elite Status
Earning elite status now requires fewer nights or stays. The changes are as follows:
- Club: Base level, no stay requirements
- Silver: 9 nights or 6 stays (previously 15 nights or 10 stays)
- Gold: 30 nights or 20 stays (previously 35 nights or 20 stays)
- Platinum: 60 nights or 30 stays (previously 75 nights or 30 stays)
Silver status is now significantly easier to earn. Gold and Platinum status is easier if you’re qualifying via nights rather than stays, but not significantly so.
Rollover Nights & All Nights Count
Any nights you complete that are in addition to earning a loyalty tier will carry over to the next year. For example if you stayed 35 nights that would be enough for gold (30 nights) and then 5 nights would carry over to the next year. In addition all stays now count towards elite status (e.g cash, points, free nights and cash & points stays).
Points Earning Decrease
Silver & Gold members will earn less points per $1 spent, other tiers stay the same.
- Club: 20 points per $1 spent (no change)
- Silver: 22 points per $1 spent (previously 23 points per $1 spent)
- Gold: 25 points per $1 spent (previously 27 points per $1 spent)
- Platinum: 35 points per $1 spent (no change)
Free Nights For Credit Card Spend
Co-branded credit cards from U.S. Bank now earn a free night for every $10,000 in spend, up to a maximum of three free nights for $30,000+ in spend.
New Elite Benefits
You now get the following elite benefits:
- Two bottles of water for all members
- Platinum members will receive full complimentary breakfast except in North America
- 24/7 service line for Platinum members
Our Verdict
The properties in North America are usually quite terrible, but they are significantly better in Europe and realistically they are some of your only options in the Nordic countries. I assume that the free night certificates are still limited in that they can only be used in the United States, if that’s the case I find that benefit to be mostly useless. If it isn’t the case, I can definitely see some people spending $30,000 annually to trigger those three free nights. Overall I’d say that these are positive changes, but nothing to get too excited about. For most people this program died a horrible death when they removed the last night free benefit.
