In room welcome gift
 

What is the in room welcome gift like for Gold elite members? (for hotels in the US versus those in Europe/Asia)

thanks

First of all, what makes you think there is a welcome gift? I find this extremely inconsistent across hotels.

About 75% of the time in Copenhagen (Radisson Blu Scandinavia) there is a small bottle of water and some chocolate-covered almonds. Funnily enough, I think this is related to the receptionist, as my success-rate is about 100% with all the others, but 0% with one particular...

I just stayed in a Business Class room (paid) at Radisson Blu Royal in Brussels, and I got two plumbs and a small small small cup of nuts and raisins.

Most of the time, though, there's nothing. Don't count on early check-in, late check-out can be arranged if we talk 2-3 hours, and room upgrades are extremely rare as I already stated in another thread (but again, is very dependant on the property).

US/Asia no experience of Radissons as I have been staying at SPG properties iin those parts due to their consistency in elite recognition.

The benefits do not state any in room / welcome gifts at all.
I guess it depends on the hotels own policy to do those for guests they deem worthy / elite enough to recieve.

At Radisson Blu Lietuva Vilnius I received a plate of fruits, but only after I extended my stay for two days. There was a card with it, where it was written "welcome dear club carlson gold member" but in fact I arrived at the hotel 5 days ago (upon arrival I was proposed the usual bottle of mineral water)

I received bottle of wine, fruit plate and chocolate cake at Radisson Blu Schwarzer Bock Hotel, Wiesbaden.

Cheers

Indeed.

Under the Goldpointsplus programme one of the Gold benefits was to get complimentary bottled water.....which I hardly ever got anyway. That's all changed under the Club Carlson banner....now you get bugger all. Most Far East hotels I've been in give you complimentary bottled water anyway.
As you say, if you do get something it will be a bonus rather than a right.

My experience shows, that it really depends on the hotel - e.g. Radisson Blu in Kiev only gives a bottle of water, Radisson Blu in Berlin offered fruit plate and Radisson Blu in Dresden gave me two free plates of chocolate, bathrobe and slippers, additional cosmetics (salt and hand cream), which are normally for Business Class and Suites. I find the last variant pretty nice in case the hotel is fully booked.

Depends on the hotel, yes. The only times I received a welcome gift (twice) were my travel companion's birthday and a four-day stay after lots of friendly back and forth ahead of arrival. Fruit and mineral water. Nice gesture, which actually does make me consider return visits. A little hospitality goes a long way.

The only time I have ever received a welcome gift was at a country inn in Sparta, WI, it included a coffee travel mug, a bottle of water and a bag of pretzels. It was a nice gesture, but unnecessary.

So far this year (all 10 stays after changes to Club Carlson), I have 100% hit rate on getting welcoming gifts, be it fruit platter or bottle of bubbly. Right now in Radisson in Melbourne, VIC, Australia and got very generous fruit platter after arrival together with complimentary upgrade.

On my last stay in august at the park inn sarvar in hungria(excellent new hotel with direct entry to the famous thermal water pools) as gold i got an upgrade to suite and 1 big and 2 small bottles of water , 1 bootle of red wine and a fruit platte.
I stayed there about 25 nights last year without any upgrade or presents. With the new club carlson this year at least i got always the mentioned welcome presents and all my stays was 2for1

UPDATE: I actually got another platter later on - I was staying 7 nights, 5 on reward and 2 on revenue. Got one platter on day one and another on day 6 when my revenue stay started :p

Property: Radisson Blue Resort St. Julian's
Gift: Red Wine - Palatino Cabernet Sauvignon Malta D.O.K. + chocolate set

Got a personal message from the Hotel GM and a fruit platter from the Radisson Royal in St Petersburg last week.

In Radisson LAX I got a plate of various food like meats, cheeses, crackers and some fruit. I only ate the fruit. Also there was a big bottle of water and they upgraded me to a huge suite on the 12th floor.

I have status match to gold.

That was the second time I stayed at this hotel. They gave me the same plate the last time but not as big of an upgrade. That last one was a free night that I earned in the spring by staying at 2 of their properties.