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Radisson Rewards (the worldwide version) has made a major revamp with no advance warning – and you know that’s going to be bad news…

Earning Points

I have never seen a hotel loyalty programme be so blunt in its disdain for infrequent guests who make the mistake of booking direct instead of via an Online Travel Agency.

“Club” members will earn 8 points per US dollar spent. “Premium” members will earn 27 points per US dollar – that’s a 237.5% bonus!

“VIP” members will earn 36 points per US dollar spent – that’s a 350% bonus over what a Club member will earn.

Spending Points

Radisson Rewards has adopted Accor’s strategy, with points offering a fixed discount on your room rate.  As a result, award charts have disappeared overnight; instead you receive a discount on your room rate by redeeming points.

According to YHBU, 15,000 Radisson points = a 30 euro discount.  (or 0.2 euro cents per point)

I don’t have enough Radisson points in my account to make my own dummy bookings, but I imagine that you receive a discount in local currency – i.e. if you book a UK hotel you would receive a discount of £15-18 by redeeming 10,000 points.

Let us know in the comments section if you have found something different…

Elite Benefits

One potentially redeeming factor is the elite benefits that a “VIP” member can receive. These include:

• Upgrade to the “best available room”
• Early check-in and late check-out (although not guaranteed it seems)
• Free breakfast for 2
• “VIP Access” (which may or may not mean executive lounge access)

You will able to become a “VIP” rather easily. 20 1-night stays at a Radisson hotel would do it…

Bottom Line

I lost interest in Radisson Rewards when it hived off its North American hotels into Radisson Rewards Americas, only to subsequently sell them to Choice hotels.

But I really would have assumed that a smaller loyalty programme would be as generous as possible, instead of gutting itself.  Or perhaps Radisson is setting itself up for a sale to Accor.  LOL

What do you think of these changes? Let us know in the comments section