One of the hotel loyalty promotions currently happening is Radisson Rewards Americas 5,000 points per stay from April 12 through June 30, 2022. This offer is good for stays at more than 600 hotels from Canada and USA to Central and South America and Caribbean hotels. A maximum of 100,000 bonus points may be earned with this offer.
Maximizing hotel stays while travelingÂ
This is purely a theoretical exercise to show how alternating one night stays at different hotels while traveling can earn a load of bonus points.
5,000 points has a fair market value of $3.50 per 1,000 points for $17.50.
Radisson Rewards Americas had a buy points sale this past week at $3.50 per 1,000 points price. These sales happen a few times a year.
Good redemptions with Radisson Rewards points are available at dozens of hotels worldwide where you can find room nights with points having a redemption value of $5.00 or more per 1,000 points. I will provide examples of hotels with good redemption value in this post.Â
Better than buying points is the ability to travel and stay in hotels while earning tens of thousands of points.
Baranquilla, Colombia
Hotel rates in the USA are currently outrageously high in most places with an average increase of 25% year-over-year. I started looking in Mexico for Radisson brand hotels with low rates, then Ecuador, before I stumbled into Barranquilla, Colombia with two Radisson hotels, both with similarly low rates. While Barranquilla is not in my travel plans this year, I think Barranquilla provides a good example to outline the strategy of hotel hopping in a city to maximize stays for a hotel loyalty promoption bonus.
While this promotion may not be generous enough to jet off to Colombia, the strategy is useful to keep in mind when there is a high value bonus points offer based on stays. Since my wife and I are leisure travelers, I look for ways to earn and burn hotel points through hotel stays I need when we are traveling. Sometimes this means opting for the inconvenience of hotel hopping from one hotel to another in the same chain to maximize a hotel stay promotions based on stays. While this may not seem worthwhile for 5,000 Radisson points per stay, there have been promotions in the past in several hotel chains for a free night with two or three stays and promotions where bonus points earned is much higher after completing a certain number of stays.
The rates shown in these two images show the highest rate of the week for either hotel at $53.55 per night for Faranda Collection Barranquilla on June 11 and June 17 weekend nights and $49.20 is the lowest rate of the week for either hotel for Friday, June 17 at Radisson Hotel Diamond Barranquilla.
Basically an average of $52 per night for either hotel means 7 nights cost $364.
7 nights for $354 earns 35,000 bonus points from the 5,000 points per stay offer,
+ 20 points/$1 x $354 = 7,080 points,
+ 10 points/$1 x $354 Radisson Rewards Premier Visa credit card = 3,540 points,
+ 5 points/$1 Gold elite bonus (gifted with Radisson Rewards Premier Visa credit card) = 1,770 points.
$354 in hotel spend = 47,390 points earned.
47,390 Radisson Rewards points have a $166 fair market value based on the option to buy points for $3.50 per 1,000 points during periodic sales. This represents a 47% return on investment for $354 hotel spend.
Doubling up stays as a couple
Tip: This hotel hop strategy between two hotels is less of a hassle if you are a couple of travelers and can switch the Radisson Rewards account each night between two people while staying two consecutive nights in the same hotel, and hopefully in the same room, then moving to the other hotel. In my travels when I used this strategy staying with my wife, I let the front desk know we were staying two nights with each night under a different member name. As long as I checked out and she checked in each day there was no issue keeping the same room two days at most hotels.
The option to transfer points freely and instantly between Radisson Rewards Americas and Radisson Rewards for hotels worldwide means there are many countries around the world where you can redeem points.
One hotel I have my eye on is Radisson Blu Park Hotel Athens at 30,000 points. This hotel regularly has rates over $150 per night. Another hotel is Radisson Blu Ljubljana with points rates at 15,000 per night and room rates usually over $125 per night.
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