I don’t really want to keep writing about Club Carlson for business, but I can’t seem to avoid it. I opened this can of worms in my post “When 138000 points is not enough” where I showed how to maximize the latest Club Carlson promotions through a variety of techniques including setting up a business account. Since then I learned that getting extra points for a business account is not as straightforward as it seems. I had hoped I had written my last post on the subject when I wrote “Club Carlson for Business final word (I hope).” In the comments of that post, though, reader Asen commented “If you are club carlson gold or higher, you will not get the 2000 point online booking bonus using this method.” Uh oh…
I checked with Club Carlson and they confirmed Asen’s assertion. Normally, when you book a Club Carlson stay, you get bonus points for booking online. Regular members earn 1000 points, Silver and Gold members earn 2000 points, and Concierge members earn 3000 points. This is a great perk, especially for one night stays. For example, suppose you book a $100 stay: 1000 bonus points is equivalent to 10 extra points per dollar. Silver and Gold members get the equivalent of 20 extra points per dollar. For cheaper stays, the points per dollar equivalent is even higher.
In the post “Club Carlson for Business final word (I hope)” I showed how to earn extra points for your business account by logging in through your business account to make reservations. When you do this, though, you won’t earn the bonus points for booking online. Unless you book an expensive stay, the extra points earned for your business (10 points per dollar) will not make up for the loss of the bonus points.
To try to simplify things, here are a set of rules that should help:
Initial research
- Always start by going through TopCashBack to Radisson for an additional 10% rebate for your stay.
- Log in with your personal Club Carlson account.
- Check prices with and without your business ID in the “Corporate Account ID” box.
If the corporate rate is the best rate:
- Book the room from your personal account after making sure that your business ID is in the Corporate Account ID box. This will automatically give you 5% off of the standard room rate.
If a promotional rate is the best rate:
If you find a promotional rate (e.g. AAA rate, B&B package, etc.) that is better than the corporate rate, then you need to make a decision based on your elite status level:
- No status: If you have no status with Club Carlson, then book the room from your personal account unless the entire stay will cost more than $100. If the stay will be more than $100, then book the stay with your business account.
- Silver or Gold status: If you have Silver or Gold status with Club Carlson, then book the room from your personal account unless the entire stay will cost more than $200. If the stay will be more than $200, then book the stay with your business account.
- Concierge status: If you have Concierge status with Club Carlson, then book the room from your personal account unless the entire stay will cost more than $300. If the stay will be more than $300, then book the stay with your business account.
In general, if you plan to limit yourself to one night stands stays throughout these promotions, then it is almost always better to book from your personal account even though that may mean losing out on business points.
After booking
Search the web (Kayak, etc.) for better rates for the same hotel and night. If you find a better rate, submit a claim with Club Carlson’s best rate guarantee. If you’re lucky, you’ll get 25% off that better rate! (Hat tip to Mommy Points)
Related Posts and Links
- When 138000 points is not enough
- Club Carlson for Business final word (I hope)
- Sign up for TopCashBack (referral link): www.topcashback.com/ref/frequentmiler
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Will Club Carlson do a status match ?
Kadence: Yes. email them at goldpointsplus@carlson.com
Followup to my post #3 where I stated:
“I booked online through my personal acct (during 25% off sale before promo registration and before I got Gold Status via match). I plan to give my corp ID at check-in. I will report back on if I get 1k or 2k online booking bonus, if I get corp pts and if I get the promo bonus pts.”
Results:
Personal acct- Success. I got 20X pts for base rate plus 50% gold bonus, plus 2k for booking online as a Gold plus the 44k Country Inn promo bonus. All posted 3 days after check out.
Club Carlson for Business- Failure
I saw no way to add the business account number at the time I made the online reservation. After making reserv online I called to add it and was told there was no way to add it online or via phone after the reservation was made, but to simply add it at check in. At check in I was told they could not add it, but to submit it after my stay for credit. Tried that after stay and was told their policy is it either has to be added at the time of booking or added on to a past stay done at a corporate rate, otherwise they are unable to credit it as a business stay. Ugh!
greek2me: Thanks for the update. It sounds like Club Carlson employees have less knowledge of how this should work than we do!
I want to confirm that I just got my bonus points for a BRG stay at a country inn. But as always YMMV Details below:
I stayed in Topeka, ks on May 22nd which I had BRG’ed down from 89.99 + tax to 57.37 + tax (65.94 was total) via a 76.49 rate offered on expedia.
I paid $91.24 all in (65.94 for the stay, $21.00 for gas to drive from Kansas City, and $4.30 (K-Tag discount) in tolls for the turnpike which I could have avoided if I wanted to spend the extra time)
I got 49,722 points out of the deal (44,000 from promo, 1,722 for the spend (30 points per $ on 57.37 as I am gold from status match), 2,000 points for booking online as a gold, and a 2,000 point welcome bonus for my first stay with their program.
Cost per point of 0.1835 cents each.
I am using 30,000 of the points as points + cash redemptions to save me $178.18 on 5 nights in Florida this January pre and post cruise.
Redemption value for points 0.5939 cents each which is a return of 223.7%
Which leaves me 19,722 points to use for cash + points stays in the Branson Radisson and the Tulsa Park Inn to earn me a bunch more points. 🙂
James: thanks for the detailed info!
Hmmm… well I just called club carlson to verify if the BRG stays will qualify for the current 50K/44K promos, and the rep stated that the BRG stays DO qualify. She stated that the BRG stays are points earning stays, thus makes it qualify for the promos.
Guess we will just have to wait and see. I have a BRG stay coming up so I should know one way or another whether the promo points post.
@jedijood, were they able to point you to any T&C’s that state this? Neither the SOGO T&C’s nor the BRG T&C’s state that BRG claims are ineligible.
Keep writing about it – very useful.
@jedijood This leaves me disheartened as I did a BRG on my country inn stay 🙁
I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens when my points post and if I don’t get the bonus points decide if I want to stay again or just take the points I plan to get from the Park Inn and Radisson promos and call it a day.
I called in to verify if “best rate guarantee” rooms are eligible under the promos and they said they do not. Which was hard to believe because you will earn points through them. So, to make sure, I asked to speak to a supervisor just to verify and the supervisor indeed said that “best rate guarantee” rooms will not qualify under the promo. I was going to price match an upcoming stay and save a lot of money, but I am staying clear from using this option and just going to use points+cash or the AAA rate.
My father had a stay booked in Lima which I booked for him before he got his Corp ID from Carlson. The hotel was full, so I was not able to cancel and rebook him to include his corp ID (I don’t know why that would matter, but that’s what Carlson said). I asked him to try to add his corp ID at check-out (that’s the 6 digit one) in order to try to get the 5% off and pick up the extra points, but the desk staff said they could not do it at the hotel and that it had to be done previously online.
I have my a stay tomorrow night. I booked online through my personal acct (during 25% off sale before promo registration and before I got Gold Status via match). I plan to give my corp ID at check-in. I will report back on if I get 1k or 2k online booking bonus, if I get corp pts and if I get the promo bonus pts.
FM: Can’t you just always book with your personal account for best rate and online booking bonus, then add your corp ID number at check-in to capture the corp points?
greek2me: Good idea. Has anyone tried this?