I really don't like Radisson goldpoints. I can never find a hotel where I can cash out and their rewards rooms are very high. That being said, I've had the MBNA credit card for a while now so I've accumulated over 80,000 points. I'm going to cash out to stay in NYC later this month. I signed up for the room through Radisson.com and said I was going to use points. How confident can I feel that this will all work smooth and I won't show up and they charge me the full rate?

I didn't think you could make a reservation using points via the website. I thought you had to call. That said, I just cashed in 60,000 points for a two night stay in Florida this past weekend. Called on Wednesday and got exactly what I wanted...a two night stay checking in on Friday.

I got my confirmation email stating that I had a reservation and that I was paying with points...and printed it out...just in case. Arrived at the hotel, they didn't need to see anything but some ID. Checked out on Sunday with no problems. (The guy behind the desk said I had a zero balance, but I should have pressed him for a copy of the bill...just in case.)

All-in-all, this was the easiest award I've cashed in...for anything...ever.

Yes, making a reservation using GoldPoints is easily done over the web, I've done it many times (use REDEEMGP promo code). Just present the card at check-in, it used to be swiped but the last couple of times they just made me sign a form. Once I had to make one over the phone because the web site was erroneously adding an additional charge for a reservation over 2 people.

The only part of making a reservation that makes me uncomfortable is that the points are not deducted when the reservation is made, rather they are deducted upon check-in. I have often wondered that, if the hotel had a point redemption change, would the original point amount/award be automatically honored...?

This is a program where the earlier you can make the award, the better it can be point-wise because there are usually two levels of awards, one being less points than the other. Since they don't take points immediately upon making the reservation, I believe you can also make a future award reservation without even having enough points at the time.

I am still concerned, however, about how any of the new rules/regs affect the GoldPoints program (I did a separate thread earlier about this and no one has responded with their opinion yet...)

Debiting the points is pretty hit and miss. I've redeemed twice. Once nothing happened for two months and then twice the proper number of points vanished. The other time, nothing happened. So it cancels out.

Well our reward stay went OK. Points deducted the next morning from my goldpoints account. But if I were you, don't stay at the Radisson Martinique in NYC. We needed a place to crash after a concert at Radio City Music Hall. This hotel (was a Holiday Inn) is awful. Rooms looked like a hostel and a lot of things in the room was broken (tv, safe, mini bar, blow dryer). We didn't complain cause we slept and left. That's it.

The two Ra hotel chains, Radisson and Ramada both scare me.

I am actually going to answer the question that I posted some time ago. I think their GP program really sucks. None of the benefits are ever recognized at any hotels anywhere.. always need to enquire about it.. very frustrating. Getting those free nights for Gold are nearly impossible. I did quite like this benefit, but after so many incidents, I have decided to just forget the program and stick to the other more famous ones. Though one thing I will miss is the free broadband that most Radisson hotels offer, very convenient.