jahason

I recently stayed at a Radisson Blu in Sweden. I have not been awarded any points. When I called Club Carlson yesterday I was told points are not awarded unless rooms are booked directly with the hotel or via Club Carlson's website, as they have to pay a commission to the travel agent.

Is this true? We have to make all our business travel arrangements through our corporate travel agent, American Express. If the rule is true I will try to avoid all CC property. I have not had any problems accumulating points on Marriott Rewards, Hilton Honors or IHG Rewards Club.

ROKNA

I've had no issue with bookings through TA

However if your company has a special corporate rate deal this may exclude the earning of points, check the T&C's

fassy

In general the rule is you have to book with Club Carlson or at the hotel directly to get points, credit the nights as elite level nights and any benfits for your status.

Anyway some corporate TAs have contracts with the hotels to credit points even though they are booking the stays while others don't. Seems American Express charges Club Carlson for the bookings (or get commission) so of course they don't give you points on top. My corporate TA charges my account with the handling fee and I do get points.

Other chains have other rules and probably Hilton or Marriott have different deals with American Express setup.

Most certainly you will never get points at any chain if you book via some cheap OTA like booking.com, hotels.com or Expedia

whimsey21

For what it's worth, HHonors recently updated their T&Cs to say that they won't provide points for bookings through most non-Hilton booking channels. As the previous two posters mentioned, your Amex TA might have an arrangement by which you get the points anyhow, but you may want to check with them before your next booking to make sure.

paulieccc

Always assumed this was the case.
Otherwise you could just book Carlson hotels through Hotels.com and get Rewards Nights + Carlson points.

vishalgupta22

Wow! I had no clue I could get points + welcome rewards.

Thank you.

paulieccc

No, you can’t. I meant I assumed it was known that in order to get Carson points, you can’t use a third party.
I worked this out a while back when I booked a Carlson property through Hotels.com and subsequently got 0 Carlson points.

fassy

Best way to ensure getting points while getting the low prices from the OTA is trying to file Best Rate Guarantee claims.

jahason

mmm.....

Amex charges us a fee as well. So they are getting it both ways.

Thanks for all the replies and also the notice about HHonors changing their T&C.

strayersong

OP is talking about his company's travel agent, and I believe many business travellers have to book hotels via them. Hotels.com is a totally different story.

fassy

True enough, but there are corporate TAs where you earn points for hotels, flights or rental cars, and the are those where you don't. It is not that clear as compared to booking through OTAs which makes it so much more difficult.

In my last company all corporate travel didn't earn any points or miles since a) they got a cashback from the hotels and airlines for saving in on the points/miles for each individual traveler and b) they didn't need to be worried about reporting taxable benefits. Seeing how people rack up millions of miles on corporate travel and redeem it for private travel, this is a valid tax concern in some countries.

silonic

I'm surprised with this as we also use AMEX for all our corporate travel and I've always got points and days stayed recognized. And like you, AMEX charge us a few as well. Admittedly most of bookings are Park Plaza, rather than RB and location is London instead of Sweden so not sure if that can make a difference

jahason

It seems my colleagues have also received points using the very same Amex agent as myself. So the CC agent on the phone must have made it up. I guess I should email in next.

niksal

My experience is that if you only book via a OTA but pay the hotel directly you get points. If you pay the OTA you don't get points. This is at least how it works with Radisson Blu and Via Egencia.

fassy

It very much depends on the agreement the hotel has with the (O)TA. For sure you will get no points booked through booking.com or hotels.com, doesn't matter if prepaid online or paid at the property