shonamac

I got a promo message from CC today offering a 75% bonus for buying Gold Points. Digging deeper I found that the maximum points that I can buy (40K) which yields a total of 70K including the bonus, would cost me US$280

Now 70K points would not even get me one night at the Radisson Vanderbilt hotel in London (which demands 75K gold points) - at best a superior category hotel in a non-premium location. Yet, you can book the room (and earn points) for only $180.

At the Radisson New Providence hotel in London's Canary Wharf, your room will cost 70K Gold Points, but again may be booked for $180

So CC wants you to pay $280 to get enough points for rooms that can be paid for at a savings of $100!

What kind of clowns occupy their marketing department?

Doc Savage

The kind of clowns who know some customers can't do simple math and will grab this deal. Profits ensue.

VladQ

Well, isn't it costing just $21 to buy missing 5000 points for an free night instead of $35?

ConradS

Having stayed at a number of the radisson blue Edwardian group hotels in London I think any cost could border on poor value. However 70k points would get you a Friday or Saturday night at lots of good radisson group hotels in the UK and elsewhere that would represent extremely good value for those $

christianj

TinDrum I think you are missing the point of the sale! As someone that focuses on points and promotions you clearly know how to figure out the potential value of the points. You (and most on FT) would never purchase if it was not a good value that could save you money. HOWEVER I think the majority of people that buy points probably don't do the math like most of us do. They buy points to top of accounts to get an award or they buy points to keep accounts active which might otherwise expire. Let's be honest...Club Carlson isn't running these promotions to loose money in the end!

craigthemif

How many hotel chains can keep franchisees happy if they consistently sell points so cheap that people never have to pay the cash rate? Hotels make much less on award stays than paid stays (unless nearly full).

But why are you looking at those specific London options? The May Fair is probably the most expensive Radisson Blu in town, and $280 / £200 (70K x 0.4 cents) can be quite the savings...

On the other side, I know there aren't a whole lot of Category 1s and 2s around, but $36 / $60 per night is pretty good!

techoin

they have been selling 0.4 cpp before devaluation and removal of CC free second night so probably they did not bother to change the promo...soon they will realize there are no takers and adjust the valuation or may be they are still hopeful few will bite

to me there are still some values to have but I won't consider buying them above 0.2 cpm which is close to what they dole out with their credit card annually

Fanjet

Just because it doesn't work for you, doesn't mean it doesn't work for everyone. There are several 15K-point hotels I frequent which charge around $100 per night on weedays. 70K points gets me 4 free nights at those hotels (with 10K points leftover). And for $280? Yeah, I can make that work for me.

And I think the OP is making the wrong argument. It should not be about what these points are costing, but what they a charging for redemption levels at certain properties. @:-)

ORD-TGU

Like any other chain, look for the sweet spot. I have purchased points to redeem when cash rates are well into $600. I go by cpp redemption rates. Hilton is pretty bad too with dynamic premium redemptions, I have seen standard rooms at 40K and premium rooms close to 20 times that. I never buy points just for buying, I only buy when I have a specific redemption in mind.

stargold

You can always find examples of good VFM redemptions and bad VFM redemptions. The examples you gave happen to represent very bad VFM redemptions.

However, merely finding examples of one or the other is, in itself, very far from being able to say one program is better than the other.

For a counterpoint, I was getting a 150EUR discount per night for 20k points (P&C) in France during the summer peak, in a town where there were no other reasonable redemption options in any other chain. I'm sure it's not difficult to find other examples of good VFM redemptions if people looked for them.

mintcilantro

+1.

It is quite rare to get > 0.4 cpp value from carlson points. The sweet spots are mainly in london.

I don't like wasting my vacation in bad properties and there are not many carlson properties for me that I'd like to stay at.. YMMV.

ORD-TGU

Any property that requires 70K is a massive joke. At .4ccp, $280 with all the hoops to jump, I would rather pay cash for Hilton or Hyatt.

craz

Only problem with this is, there are many places where there arent any Hiltons,Hyatts,SPG or even Marriotts but there are Radissons, so Id rather use 70k and pay $0 then cough up the $$ for an expensive non-brand hotel

mintcilantro

The sweet spot seems to be the lower category hotels and times when the rates are high due to an event.

I have started to feel that there is no reason to bother with hotels on vacation. Hotels are great for one night stays but now I prefer to stay put in one location for several days in an apartment

GUWonder

Hotels.com has a rewards program that works out as well or better for those "many places". A c. 10-17% rebate via bookings on hotels.com works for plenty -- without being locked into Club Carlson and its hotels for the "rebate"/"redemption".

At just about everywhere where Carlson has 70k points per night standard rooms, there are other options aplenty.