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The latest promotion from Club Carlson (Radisson Blu, Park Plaza, Park Inn, etc, is an absolute cracker! ‘Club Carlson Free Friday’ does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: Stay twice, get a free Friday night at any Club Carlson hotel.
If you have no use for a free Friday night, you can choose to earn 10,000 Points instead but that’s a much worse deal.
All you need to do is register and stay between July 1, 2017 and September 30, 2017. For every two stays you complete, you’ll earn a reward — up to three free Friday nights or up to 30,000 Bonus Gold Points, depending on your choice at registration.
As you can see, the rewards are capped at a maximum 3 free nights, or 30,000 Points (after 6 stays).
If you opt for a free Friday night, it will be awarded in the form of an E-Certificate that you can redeem directly from your Club Carlson account. The Friday E-Certificates will expire on January 26, 2018.
It’s also important to point out that, according to the terms, “the E-Certs will be awarded three times throughout the Promotion, 1) by Aug. 15 for E-Certs earned in July, 2) by Sep. 15 for E-Certs earned in August and 3) by Oct 15 for E-Certs earned in September”.
A further restriction is that you can only use your E-Certs to book Fridays from 6th October 2017 to 26th January 2018.
Why this is a GREAT deal…
It’s simple really.
Club Carlson offers some very cheap hotels and some expensive ones – pay cash for the cheap ones and redeem your free night/s at the expensive ones.
Let’s look at an extreme example:
There are some great value rates for Sunday nights at Club Carlson hotels in the midlands:
If you can manage a couple of stays (and note it does have to be separate stays, not consecutive nights!) at the Park Inn Birmingham West, you can get a free Friday night somewhere really nice, for ~£66.
You will earn Points as usual for any paid stays too, and don’t forget to get cashback on top – so your ‘real’ cost could be even lower.
You can then redeem your free Friday night at hotels like the 5* May Fair in London
or the art’otel in Amsterdam,
which routinely charge £250+.
If you have a cheap Park Inn nearby, this promotion is definitely worth a mattress run, and I’m personally looking at switching all the planned stays I can to Club Carlson.
Bottom line
This is the best hotel promotion we’ve seen from any of the big hotel groups in quite a while. I’ll be doing my best to take full advantage!
What’s the cheapest Club Carlson hotel you’ve managed to find?
Terms
By participating in the “Stay 2, Earn a Free Friday Night or 10K Points” offer, you may only select one of the following offers (either the “Free Friday Night” promotion or the “10K Points” promotion) during the Promotion Period in accordance with these terms and conditions.
You must be a Club CarlsonSM member to participate in the “Free Fridays” Promotion (“Promotion”). Promotion is valid for Eligible Stays only. An “Eligible Stay(s)” is one or more consecutive nights reserved at an Eligible Rate booked through an eligible booking source, as defined in the Club Carlson Terms and Conditions, and consumed between July 1, 2017 and September 30, 2017 (“Promotion Period”). Both the check-in and checkout dates of the Eligible Stay must take place within the Promotion Period. To be eligible to earn the Free Friday Night E-Cert (“Friday E-Cert”) for every two Eligible Stays, you must: (i) register online for the Promotion and make your reward selection at clubcarlson.com/freefridays; and (ii) then provide your Club Carlson member number at the time of reservation or at check-in. Members are not able to switch their reward choice after registration and the selection is for the entirety of the Promotion. Once registered, you will earn a Friday E-Cert with two Eligible Stays at Quorvus Collection, Radisson Blu®, Radisson RED, Radisson®, Park Plaza®, Park Inn® by Radisson and Country Inns & Suites By CarlsonSM hotels worldwide during the Promotion Period.
Friday E-Cert earnings for the entire Promotion (Free Fridays) will be capped at three awards per member – three Friday E-Certs. Stays or nights paid for by using Points or Points + Cash are not eligible for this Promotion. You only need to register once, but you must register before checkout of your first Eligible Stay for that stay to count for this promotion. Requests for free nights or bonus points for stays prior to Promotion registration will not be honored.
Friday E-Certs are valid for reservations on a single Friday night at any Quorvus Collection, Radisson Blu®, Radisson RED, Radisson®, Park Plaza®, Park Inn® by Radisson and Country Inns & Suites By CarlsonSM hotels worldwide for stays between October 6, 2017 and January 26, 2018. Each Friday E-Cert is valid for a new reservation booked on a Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group website using the unique Friday E-Cert code provided. Separate reservations may be made for additional nights before and/or after the Friday night reservation. The Friday E-Certs will expire on January 26, 2018 and cannot be extended. Friday E-Certs used on a reservation that is cancelled within the hotel’s cancellation policy and before the expiration date may be re-used. All incidental charges, such as gratuities, parking, resort fees, room service and room entertainment are excluded. Friday E-Certs are not valid for existing reservations and may not be used in conjunction with packages, promotions, group, convention or discounted rates, or used in combination with other gift certificates, e-certificates or vouchers. Friday E-Certs must be reserved by the earning member, may only be used once, and may not be assigned, transferred, brokered, bartered, sold, posted online or altered in any way. Friday E-Certs have no cash value. Void where prohibited by law.
Friday E-Certs will be awarded three times throughout the Promotion, 1) by Aug. 15 for E-Certs earned in July, 2) by Sep. 15 for E-Certs earned in August and 3) by Oct 15 for E-Certs earned in September. You will be notified you have a Friday E-Cert via email and awarded Friday E-Certs will be visible under ‘My Account’ when you are logged in on clubcarlson.com.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “amazing”. Where this promo loses my interest is the “Friday-only”. If it were Fridays and Saturdays, then you could combine two certificates into a weekend getaway.
Getting into London for a one-night theatre trip is going to be much harder for a Friday night than a Saturday. A weekend getaway will either involve changing hotels or paying full price for the Saturday night.
But that’s obviously CC’s point by only offering free nights for a Friday…
I’m actually going to firmly defend the use of “amazing” on this one! (I fully admit I can a little carried away sometimes, but think I’m on solid ground here…)
Are there restrictions? Of course.
Could it be even better? Naturally.
The fact remains though, that it’s possible to get a £300+ night discounted by ~80% through mattress running – at the extreme end.
Taking a more typical situation – there are plenty of perfectly decent CC hotels in the £60pn range. 2 stays would therefore cost £120 (not factoring Points and cashback earned)
Even if you don’t love CC’s expensive hotels and think they are overpriced (fair in my opinion), it’s hard to value a London 5* at much under £200 in ‘real’ money.
I’d say a decent rebate on the 2 £60 stays these days , would be about 50% – via IHG Accelerate or whatever.
The rebate with the CC promo is (conservatively) ~ 166%!
I can’t think of the last time we had a promo this good from any of the major hotel groups. The IHG 2 stays 1 Free Night, I suppose, but that was the best part of 2 years ago.
So, yes – it would be nice if it applied to Saturdays too. But when the equivalent on the earning side from the other hotel groups would be (at best) maybe ~20,000 IHG Point, 8,000 Marriott Points, etc… I’d rather have the option of a free Friday night somewhere good (and, yes, have to use Points or cash or switch hotels for the Sat), than not have enough bonus Points/free night for anything decent on either the Friday or Saturday!
It’s also worth highlighting that the free Fridays are only valid between October 6, 2017 and January 26, 2018.
Well spotted! – I completely missed that (got distracted by when the E-Certs are supposed to hit your account) – now amended.
Does points redemption count as a qualifying stay?
Thanks
No, “eligible rate” is paid rates only. Without getting too complicated, if you book a paid rate available via a Club Carlson website (don’t forget cashback websites), it will be eligible for earning points and therefore qualify for this promo.
They should just reinstate the 2-4-1 and 4-4-2 weekend deals that used to be available to Gold/Concierge. That was far more useful than this.
It was a great perk (particularly for racking up lots of bonus Points!) – this is still an extremely generous promo though in my opinion, depending on your stay pattern.
I guess it should be within same country as well. Meaning you can’t stay close to home an then use the free night in a more exotic country. The description in Carlsons offer doesn’t tell
Nope, no restrictions like that.
ok, then I don´t know why they ask one to choose country in a list when enrolling, as logged in.
Indeed – I suppose I should have said ‘no restrictions like that in the terms as far as I can see’, but it was late. 🙂
Got my first E-Certs now in ‘My Account’…. but all hotels I’m searching for (in Oct, Nov, Dec, etc) give me the below message. If that stays like that this promotion sucks because the certs will expire in Jan
E-CERT RATE:
Currently Unavailable
Dates flexible? View calendar. Open promotional rate calendar
Hi Remi – seems to just be a classic Club Carlson IT glitch. Workaround explained here: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2017/08/16/carlson-free-friday-ecert/
or here… although I just took the process from OMAAT.
https://insideflyer.co.uk/2017/08/use-club-carlson-free-fridays-certificate/