Tag Archives: radisson blu

The spectacular rise of Club Carlson

Posted on July 22, 2012 | 16 Comments


Pic: Deluxe room at Park Plaza Soi 18 Sukhumvit Bangkok (July 2012)

Pic: Rooftop Pool Sunset at Park Plaza Soi 18 Sukhumvit Bangkok (July 2012)
Back in March 2011, the Carlson Hotel Group (Radisson, Radisson Blu, Park Inn, Park Plaza and Country Inn & Suites) rebranded it’s loyalty program GoldPoints Plus to Club Carlson. In the past year, John Kennedy (Club Carlson Vice President) and his team did a tremendous job attracting new customers. First of all, there was the Club Carlson status match opportunity (still valid), then back in November they launched the Radisson Big Night Giveaway promo, which was unfortunately only valid for properties in the US, Canada and Caribbean. You basically had to stay one night at a Radisson or Radisson Blu hotel to receive a bonus of 50,000 Gold Points. Enough for a free night at the most expensive Carlson hotels (Category 6) or multiple free nights at cheaper Carlson properties. (free nights start at 9000 points, Category 1) The Radisson Big Night Giveaway promotion results must have been positive as the management of the Brussels based Rezidor Hotel Group Headquaters decided to launch a Worldwide campaign for their Radisson, Park Inn and Country Inn & Suites brands in May 2012. The Park Plaza brand was added to the campaign in June. If you didn’t sign-up for these promo’s, I need to disappoint you, as all of them have now expired. (Except the Park Plaza promo, but bonus is now limited to 15K instead of 50K points) If you don’t want to miss future promo’s like this, I recommend to keep an eye on my twitter feed.

Pic: Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit Rooftop Pool (June 2012)
I didn’t participate in the Nov 2011 Big Night Giveaway promo, as I had no travel to the US, Canadian or the Caribbean during the promotion period. For my first batch of 50,000 Club Carlson bonus points, I stayed at Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit on May 26. Room rate THB2329 (€60), upgraded to One Bedroom Suite as Club Carlson Silver member. On June 30, I stayed at Park Plaza Soi 18 Bangkok earning me another 50,000 Club Carlson Bonus points. Room rate THB2165 (€56), upgraded to Deluxe room. For my last set of 44,000 bonus points, I stayed at Park Inn Leuven (Belgium) on July 21. Room rate €75, upgraded to Business Friendly room (including complimentary wifi and breakfast). That makes €191 earning 144,000 bonus points. That total doesn’t even include all the other ‘regular’ bonuses like 2000 bonus points for booking via ClubCarlson.com websites, 25% silver status bonus points, 20 points per USD spent, etc…!

Pic: Complimentary Tuk Tuk Service at Radisson Suites Bangkok Sukhumvit
So how am I going to maximize the value of my 144K bonus points? Here’s a first example: I burned 50K points for a free night at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel (ranked #48 out of 1,080 hotels in London) for July 29, 2012. Yes, that’s the Opening Weekend of the London 2012 Olympic Games! The cheapest rate for a standard room was £425 excl. tax (£510 incl. tax, €655) To makes things even better, Club Carlson now launched a number of new promotions, including one allowing you to redeem points at 50% the regular rate at selected hotels in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. And there’s more: Stay two nights or more at Club Carlson properties in Asia and get 10,000 bonus points, pay with American Express at EAME Radisson and Radisson Blu properties and get 3 nights for the price of 2 + 2000 bonus points. And as always, a complete overview of all promotions can be found at frequentflyerbonuses.com

Pic: Business Friendly Room at Park Inn Leuven, Belgium (July 2012)
Conclusion: The majority of frequent traveler bloggers have highlighted the Club Carlson promotions as the best hotel offers we’ve seen in the past year. My personal experiences at Club Carlson properties in the past 3 months have been very positive (both hard and soft product) and I hope the Rezidor Hotel Group will continue their efforts and investments to become leaders in the hospitality industry. I was flattered to learn more than 10 readers of my blog have been staying at Park Inn Leuven to score their 44K bonus points. Always a pleasure to assist others to travel in luxury on a budget! Thank you.

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Business Class Deluxe room at Radisson Blu Cebu

Posted on November 18, 2011 | 2 Comments


Pic: Guarded entrance gate Radisson Blu Cebu, Philippines (Nov 2011)

Pic: Hotel sign at entrance Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)
For my first night in the Philippines, I booked a room at the number 1 rated hotel for Cebu City on Tripadvisor, Radisson Blu Cebu.  I paid 3829 PHP (EUR 65) for a single Deluxe Room + 695 PHP (EUR 12) for the hotel’s airport transfer service to avoid the hassle with local taxi drivers.  At check-in I requested if they had any upgrades available for Club Carlson Gold members (obtained via status match).  I was told no rooms were available yet (1PM) but if I waited for one hour or so I could get a Business Class Deluxe room.  I agreed and went for a shopping spree at next door’s SM City Mall.  When I returned at 2.30PM, my Business Class Deluxe room (628) was ready.  When collecting my room key, the front desk lady noticed the stack of hotel loyalty cards in my wallet and promptly offered me complimentary Club Lounge access on top of my room upgrade. “You must travel a lot Sir” :)

Pic: Business Class Deluxe room at Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)

Pic: King Size Bed Business Class Deluxe room at Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)

Pic: Business Class Deluxe room at Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)

Pic: Club Lounge at Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)

Pic: Club Lounge Breakfast Spread at Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)

Pic: Pool at Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)

Pic: Poolside food (Caesar Salad) at Radisson Blu Cebu (Nov 2011)

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Radisson Blu Bucharest

Posted on March 28, 2011 | 1 Comment

Enjoyed a one night stay at Radisson Blu Bucharest last weekend.  Had checked the hotel’s public areas on a previous trip and was overwhelmed by the impressive Bla lobby bar.  I stayed on a Family and Friends rate (see Bucharest planning for details) which was 80 euro per night including breakfast for two and a 25% discount at the all-day-restaurant Caffe Citta.

Picture: My (small) King Size room at Radisson Blu Bucharest.

Overall, I was very impressed by this hotel, both infrastructure and service wise.  Modern high quality interior design and well trained friendly staff.  No wonder this hotel is rated #1 for business (and #2 for leisure) on Tripadvisor.

Advise for your airport transportation: book the Radisson shuttle service (43 lei/10 euro).  Every hour a shuttle leaves for the airport.  With a bit of luck you’re the only guest going to the airport which means a hotel’s Mercedes-Benz E-Class will drive you. (normally 160 lei/40 euro)

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Planning: weekend trip to Bucharest

Posted on March 21, 2011 | 1 Comment

Here’s the work flow I used to book my weekend trip to Bucharest, Romania.

Step 1: Flight

As I live near Brussels airport (BRU) I try to avoid booking flights departing from the low-cost Brussels South airport (CRL) which is located near Charleroi, a 45 min drive from Brussels.  Airport parking is expensive at both Brussels and Charleroi airport.  This is one of the reasons I prefer to depart from Brussels Airport so I can leave my car at home.

There are multiple carriers connecting Brussels with Bucharest, but only Blue Air and TAROM Romanian Air Transport have direct flights from Brussels Airport.  Blue Air is a low cost carrier connecting Brussels Airport with Baneasa airport (BBU) which is only 8.5km from downtown Bucharest.  The second airline serving Brussels airport is Tarom, the flag carrier and oldest currently operating airline of Romania. It had the hottest female CEO ever, until Ruxandra Brutaru resigned on March 15, 2011.  Tarom connects Brussels Airport with Romania’s busiest international airport Otopeni (OTP) located 16.5 km of downtown Bucharest.  Note: At Brussels South airport (CRL) WizzAir has a direct connection to Baneasa (BBU).

To determine the cheapest (and most comfortable) fare I used several websites including Kayak.com and Bravofly.com The first one came up with the conventional airline routes, the latter also included most low cost airlines and made a mix of one way tickets to find the cheapest fare.  I noticed two things: Blue Air had the cheapest fare for the roundtrip BRU-BBU and Brussels Airlines was selling the Tarom flights as codeshare partner at a cheaper price.  Some of the disadvantages of Blue Air: Very strict carry-on luggage enforcement (7KG max), 15 euro fee (per leg) for checked luggage, regular flight delays,  operates at the overcrowded Baneasa airport and your flight might arrive late at night at BBU which means you’ll have a hard time finding an honest taxi driver.  Tarom provides better service, free in-flight food and beverages, uses the OTP airport which has a reliable taxi queue and is part of Skyteam. (collect miles and status privileges)

In this case I decided to make a combination of one way tickets.  I paid 49.99 euro (incl. all fees i.e. 15 euro checked bag)  for a Blue Air flight from BRU to BBU on Friday night and 116.66 euro for the Brussels Airlines flight (operated by Tarom) from OTP to BRU on Monday afternoon.  Total airfare: 166,65 euro.  Not the cheapest fare for a round trip Brussels – Bucharest, but I only booked three weeks in advance.  I also have checked luggage both ways and can collect miles since the return flight is sold by Brussels Airlines, a Star Alliance member. (see  Brussels Airlines & non Star Alliance partner = 0 miles)

Step 2: Hotel

I’m a fan of the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) for many reasons, of which Priority Club (PC) is number one.  I had countless upgrades and free nights at IHG properties (Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, …) just by using my Priority Club loyalty card.  If you keep an eye on the PC offers, points count up quickly and after your first two or three stays you can already cash in on a free night using the PointBreaks list.  I have saved thousands of euros using this program and received incredible upgrades.  Being loyal in the travel industry can be very rewarding. More about this later.

First I checked if any IHG properties were available in Bucharest. Yes, there’s a Crowne Plaza and an InterContinental hotel.  As we like to travel in luxury and since IC Bucharest is one of the cheaper InterContinental hotels in the IHG portfolio I decided to go for it.  I’m also an InterContinental Ambassador, a paid membership which upgrades your Priority Club level and provides you with privileges like a guaranteed room upgrade, 4pm late check-out, welcome gift, etc…

To check the hotel rate I used HotelsCombined.com , a hotel price comparison engine which collects all the rates from different booking sites like Hotels.com, Booking.com, Travelocity.com, etc…  In most cases the IHG website rate is the lowest, but in this case Skoosh.com was offering the Superior room rate including breakfast for two nights at 155 euro as where the IHG rate was 226 euro.  In this kind of situations, you can rely on the IHG Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee.  If your claim is valid (read the rules very carefully!) IHG not only matches the lower rate, but gives you an additional 10% off!  I must admit it took some effort to get my claim validated this time (email discussion about room type description) but I managed to get the rate from 226 euro to 139,50 euro. (lowest rate found at Skoosh.com 155 euro -10%) On top of that, my stay will qualify for points, which is not the case when you book through a third party website.

For my third night, I wanted to try something new.  The Radisson Blu Bucharest was listed as the number one luxury hotel in Bucharest on Tripadvisor (the single most reliable site for hotel reviews) and was also rewarded the Carlson Global Hotel of the Year award. I checked the regular rates at HotelsCombined.com for the Radisson Blu and got 118 euro as the cheapest room rate without breakfast. Quite expensive for one night in Bucharest, so I started looking for a way to get the rate down.  As I don’t collect loyalty points with the Carlson group, I didn’t care about non-qualifying rates. I learned about the Radisson Family and Friends rate, which offers almost every Radisson Blu property at 80 euro per night including breakfast for two.  The only requirement is to have a friend or family member working at a Carlson property.  One of my friends works at a Park Inn hotel, so I could use her details to secure this great rate.

Step 3: Airport to Hotel transportation

One of the most frustrating annoyances about travel is coping with corrupt taxi drivers. They have them in every city around the world, but Bucharest has a large share of scam artist.  As indicated before, I will arrive late at Baneasa airport. Last year November, I also arrived late at Baneasa airport and had a very hard time finding an honest taxi driver.  In fact, all taxi drivers in the official queue outside the airport collaborated to scam foreign visitors.  Every single one of them asked 100lei (25 euro) for the 8.5km trip to downtown Bucharest which should only be 35 lei (8 euro) max.  As I wanted to avoid the hassle this time, I checked for websites where I could book the airport taxi or limo online.  The cheapest rate I found was 20 euro.  I finally decided to book the InterContinental Bucharest limo service.  A Mercedes Benz E Series with driver will be waiting for me at the airport.  At 23 euro it’s much more expensive than a regular taxi, but since they are so hard to get late at night, I decided to go for the safe and reliable option.

Step 4: What to see, do, eat, drink in Bucharest?

A good start to plan your activities is Wikitravel. An other trustworthy resource is Lonely Planet. More later.

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