New 'Club Carlson' frequent guest scheme unveiled
Carlson has announced the launch of a new hotel loyalty programme called 'Club Carlson', officially beginning on 31st March 2011 and replacing the previous 'Goldpoints Plus' programme.
Members of Club Carlson stand to benefit from a range of reward redemption opportunities including Carlson's global resorts, as well as new vacation options with CWT Vacations and Club Med.
Members have the ability to earn points for every eligible stay at more than 1,000 Carlson hotels worldwide, including Radisson, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Park Inn and Park Plaza.
"A key pillar of our 'Ambition 2015' growth strategy is to help our hotels grow their revenues," said Hubert Joly, president and chief executive officer for Carlson. "In 2010, we announced a plan to double the size of our loyalty programme to 10 million members by 2013, and the membership grew by 24% to 6.3 million members during the year. Now we have designed Club Carlson's value proposition to help drive further growth."
The programme's key new features include:
- Redemption Members can redeem points across Carlson's 1,071 hotels worldwide, including the company's 42 resorts in the Caribbean, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the Mediterranean Sea.
The new CWT Vacation partnership offers US members a choice of hundreds of independent hotels in vacation destinations such as Hawaii, Las Vegas, ski resort areas and cruises.
A new partnership with Club Med provides members in Canada and the US with access to 80 up-scale resorts around the world, including Sandpiper Bay in Port Saint Lucie.
Carlson has also added 20 new retail and restaurant partners to provide lower point redemption options, including Amazon.com, Best Buy, iTunes and T.G.I. Friday's restaurants.
- Customer privileges and benefits The new Concierge elite tier provides members with free room upgrades and continental breakfast, early check-in and late check-out, a 75% point bonus on all stays and (starting by mid-2011) access to a special Concierge Service line for theatre and sports tickets, as well as reservations at top-rated restaurants anywhere in the world.
The programme has no blackout dates, and free internet service is provided at Radisson hotels worldwide as well as all Carlson brands in North America.
Rollover nights allow elite members to roll over extra nights to qualify toward their next year's elite status.
- Earning Club Carlson has been designed to provide a faster way to earn a free night's stay. For example, a member who stays five nights at the Radisson Hotel Los Angeles Westside could earn a free night at the Park Inn Prague.
- Club Carlson App To expand and optimise its reach to the mobile audience, Carlson is launching Club Carlson as a new iPhone and Android mobile application on 31st March 2011, featuring express booking for all Carlson hotels, personalisation options, GPS mapping and the ability to redeem points. The app also links to 'Explore Destinations' a feature which stores more than 4.4 million points of interest from local restaurants to tourist attractions.
- Benefits for small to medium-sized businesses A new extension of the loyalty programme is specifically designed with small business owners in mind that allows both the individual traveller and business to earn points for stays. Business owners can use their points to reduce future travel expenses or offer them as employee rewards.
- Benefits for hotels While Club Carlson adds value for consumers, the new programme was also designed to improve the economic value proposition for participating hotels on an overall cost/benefit basis.
The Club Carlson launch will be promoted using a US$10 million launch budget, with its ClubCarlson.com web site also being launched on 31st March 2011.
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