In November 2017, Carlson Rezidor hotels announced their timeline to rebrand. Ever since it has been in the process of rebranding and aligning its hotel portfolios. Today, the Carlson Rezidor Group has formally changed its name to the Radisson Hotel Group. One of the key additions to the portfolio alongside seems to be the Radisson Collection hotels brand, which aims at the luxury segment.

Alongside, Radisson Rewards has been launched today, replacing Club Carlson. We first wrote about this last month. The program is changing to a small extent.

Reduced qualification requirements: Radisson Rewards has aligned its elite tier qualification with other global hotel programs and reduced the requirements. Similar to World of Hyatt Globalist and Hilton Honors Diamond, to qualify for the top-tier status members will now require 60 nights or 30 stays. While Club Carlson members earlier required 30 stays the night requirement was 25% higher with 75 nights.

Similar is the case with Gold status where instead of the earlier requirement of 35 nights now members only need to complete 30 nights.  The stay requirement remains the same at 20 stays. Red members can qualify for the Silver tier by completing 9 nights or 6 stays against the earlier 15 nights or 10 stays requirement.

The highest tier will now be called Platinum: Club Carlson had four tiers of membership level starting with Red, Silver, Gold, and Concierge being the highest. While the new program will continue to have four membership tiers, the topmost tier will now be called Platinum.

Elite member will now earn slightly lesser bonus points: In general Radisson Rewards members earn 20 points for every eligible US Dollar spent and then depending upon the elite status there is a bonus earned on base points. While Platinum members will continue to earn 75% bonus on base points, Gold and Silver members will earn a 10% and 25% bonus, slightly less than the former 15% and 35% bonus offered.

Rollover nights will count towards status qualification: Eligible nights completed more than those required to qualify will automatically be carried forward to the next calendar year. Only excess nights and not stays will be carried forward and rollover nights can only be carried forward for one year.

All eligible nights will count towards elite status: Cash, Points+cash and award nights will all count towards tier qualification

Other Elite Benefits will now include the following:

• Every Radisson Rewards member will receive two bottles of water complimentarily
• Platinum members will now be eligible for full buffet breakfast; except in North America
• An exclusive dedicated 24/7 service line for Platinum Member

Bottomline

There are no changes to redemptions and award nights will continue at 9,000 points per night for category one hotels. The changes although minor are positive. A bunch of benefits has been added to the Platinum status, and I am happy to see that Radisson has also reduced the night requirements overall.

Though, there are a few places where the Radisson Rewards program could have performed better. For instance, all loyalty programs offer complimentary breakfast for two whereas Radisson Rewards will have breakfast complimentary only for the Platinum member.

Additionally, Radisson Rewards Gold remains unappealing when compared to Marriott Rewards Gold and World of Hyatt Explorist where the status gives members complimentary access to breakfast and the club lounge at least four times a year.

What do you think of the new Radisson Rewards program?