Your complete guide to the Radisson Rewards hotel loyalty scheme (Part 2)
In my previous article, I reviewed ‘the facts’ of the Radisson Rewards loyalty scheme. This article is my personal opinion, highlighting areas where I think you might want to focus.
The 10-second summary:
Strong points:
Very few stays needed to get Premium status, free Premium status via The Platinum Card from American Express, free VIP status via the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card, good spread of properties in Europe and Middle East, ‘Discount Booster’ offers genuine savings, ludicrously generous free VIP status deals occasionally appear
Weak points:
Move to revenue based redemptions has removed all upside from the programme, 2022 devaluation destroyed member trust, no properties in the Americas, Radisson Edwardian hotels in London left the chain, lack of ‘wow’ luxury properties
The longer version:
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room first. In October 2022, Radisson Rewards devalued its points with no advance warning. You lost at least 40% of their value and – for those who were smart and only redeemed when they were getting outsized value – the loss would easily have been 50%.
If you had 100,000 Radisson Rewards points, which on a good day could have got you £500 of free rooms (our standard valuation was £333), you now had points worth £150 to £220 off your next booking.
Even worse, Radisson Rewards failed to properly explain what it was doing. For 2-3 years we got queries in our comments, forums or by email from members asking why they couldn’t find reward nights on the Radisson site any longer.
This wasn’t even the first time that Radisson Rewards had screwed its members with overnight changes although this was by far the worst.
In 2013 it devalued the ‘points to miles’ conversion rate overnight, with no notice. This was especially unfair because the rate improved as you collected more points, meaning that collectors were encouraged to hold off redeeming points for miles until they reached a high balance – only to have the rug pulled out.
In June 2015, changes were announced online in advance but members were NOT emailed about them. The removal of the attractive 2-4-1 deal for Gold members in early 2017 also happened with no notice.
If you lost hundreds of pounds of value from the 2022 devaluation, I can understand why you would never want to go near a Radisson hotel again.
However, for those who come to the programme fresh or, like me, had a zero points balance because they knew how Radisson behaves, we need to take an unbiased look at what is on offer.
Radisson wants you back – and will reward you handsomely
Radisson Rewards is desperate to get high value frequent travellers back in its hotels. In the last two years it has been giving away TOP TIER VIP status to, amongst other people:
- top tier members of the Club Avolta duty free programme
- top tier SAS EuroBonus members
- top tier Avanti West Coast members (odd!)
- anyone who has the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card for small businesses
Radisson’s VIP top tier has three GUARANTEED benefits:
- the best room in the hotel when you check in (suites are meant to be excluded but some hotels are including them)
- free breakfast and, if available, lounge access
- a serious rate discount if you turn on ‘Discount Booster’ in return for earning fewer points
This HfP article shows the sort of upgrades that readers have been getting recently.
It really wants you back. (This isn’t just talk – a new loyalty team has been hired in Madrid with some experienced people, and they want to improve things.)
Is there still value in Radisson Rewards?
You need to separate out the loyalty programme from the hotels. There are, certainly, many hotels in the Radisson Rewards portfolio where I would happily stay.
Whilst weak in many markets, it has a broad high end portfolio in London, mainly via Park Plaza. There are parts of Europe, especially in Scandinavia, where a Radisson is the only decent branded option.
Is there still value in Radisson Rewards though? Yes, of course.
If you are staying in a Radisson Rewards property for work then you should take the points. It’s a no-brainer.
After just three stays or five nights in a year you will move up to Premium. No other scheme makes mid-tier status so easy to earn. This gives you a 3x increase in points earned (Premium gives 5.4p of points per $1 (79p) spent) and potential upgrades.
Alternatively, Premium members can earn a lower points level and turn on ‘Discount Booster’. This gives an extra, roughly, 10% off the lowest existing rate. You can’t argue with this – you get value in your pocket for your loyalty when you book, not months or years later when you spend the points.
If you are spending your own money, there is little value in the points
If you have Premium status, turn on ‘Discount Booster’ and take the extra saving. You’ll get a puny handful of points on top which you can redeem immediately on your next stay.
Don’t take full points instead of activating ‘Discount Booster’ if spending your own money. Whilst 27 points per $1 may sound a lot, it isn’t when they are worth 0.15p to 0.22p each. Take the cash saving on your room.
Is it worth pushing for the VIP top tier? Potentially, yes. Even if you can’t find someone quietly offering it for free, you still only need 20 stays or 30 nights. You’d get free breakfast on all stays AND the best room in the house, sometimes including suites. You don’t get the bells and whistles of other schemes though.
Arguably, for someone who is doing one hotel night every fortnight, it’s a good deal. Put your stay to Radisson, earn VIP status after a year and get free breakfast, upgrades and ‘Discount Booster’ access. Note, though, that from January 2026 Hilton has made Diamond easier to earn with just 25 stays – a similar target.
What about revenue based redemptions?
Radisson Rewards has effectively, if not literally, joined ALL Accor in giving its points a fixed value (c 0.15p to 0.22p for Radisson, exactly 2 Eurocents for Accor).
HfP readers tend to hate these structures. Our readers know how to play the system and maximise the value of points when there is a reward chart. There is some upside though:
- you can use Radisson points for any hotel at any time
- you can use points for any room category – many hotel programmes only let you redeem for standard rooms
- you can use as many points as you have and pay cash for the balance – there is no need to save up to get to a certain level
To be honest, these three factors don’t excite me. My biggest problem is that a programme doesn’t build loyalty when you can cash out all of your points on your next stay for a small cash discount. For the brand, revenue based redemptions mean that it can’t maximise the value in unsold rooms at premium hotels.
Let’s do some very rough maths. A £350 five star room in London would cost you roughly 175,000 to 230,000 Radisson Rewards points. This is totally off the scale compared to what other schemes require, albeit earning rates are not identical so it isn’t a direct comparison.
Radisson opened a Maldives resort in 2022, for example, image above. This was great value for points under the old fixed price reward chart. It was the sort of resort that would encourage people to move a lot of business to Radisson in the hope of a Maldives redemption in a year or so. This dream is now dead – you get the same ‘pence per point’ in the Maldives or Manchester, and the points cost of the Maldives stay is now huge.
There is no value in moving American Express Membership Rewards points to Radisson. At 1:3, one Amex point gets you 0.45p to 0.66p off your next Radisson booking. You can do far better than that via other American Express Membership Rewards partners.
The fact that Radisson Rewards is still selling points at £4.40 per 1,000 when they now have a value of £1.50 to £2.20 per 1,000 is beyond belief.
Let’s look at the hotels for a second
I don’t want to make this article entirely about the changes to the Radisson Rewards programme in 2022.
Of course, the split of the company into two – for North America and the Rest of the World – has caused issues. You cannot earn or spend points, or use your status benefits, at Radisson hotels in the Americas.
What about hotels elsewhere?
The Park Plaza properties in London are relatively low profile but surprisingly modern and high quality. The Park Plaza Westminster Bridge in London is very pleasant as I reviewed here, albeit a decade ago. There are now four Park Plaza hotels in the area around Waterloo station.
Weirdly, the Park Plaza brand is not actually owned by Radisson but all of their hotels are part of the programme. The same group owns art’otel which is also expanding across the UK and Europe.
The Radisson Blu Royal Viking in Stockholm where I stayed a few years ago had depressingly small rooms even though I was theoretically in a refurbished Business Room. I ended up cancelling a second stay a week later and moving to a brand new Scandic across the road. I was more impressed by the ‘new’ Radisson Heathrow and Radisson RED Heathrow carved out of the old Park Inn, and the new Radisson Blu in Sheffield.
In August 2025 I spent four nights at the Radisson Blu Royal hotel in Bergen because the location is amazing. The hotel was as bad as I remembered from a stay 20 years previously – ‘Premium’ rooms (two levels above standard) were anything but, there was a chaotic and crowded breakfast buffet and, despite VIP status, no upgrade as the hotel was full.
The brand desperately lacks ‘wow’ properties (or even ‘impressive’ properties) in many places although you will usually find a hotel of some standard if you need one. There are few properties of any sort in Asia.
I had high hopes for Radisson RED to inject a bit of life into the chain. Unfortunately, a dash for growth means that it seems to be making tactical errors. Funky hotels in city centres are good. Rhys enjoyed the new Radisson RED in Liverpool in 2023, image below. But a converted Travelodge on the outskirts of Gatwick airport? Perhaps not.
You get free Radisson Rewards Premium status if you have The Platinum Card from American Express. The benefits of Premium are not huge but it does let you access ‘Discount Booster’ and get a further 10% or so off your stays.
As I said earlier, if you are a Director of a Limited Company then you can get the Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card. You will have top-tier VIP status for as long as you hold the card. You can’t argue with that.
What do I think of Radisson Rewards?
If you can get free top-tier VIP status via one route or another, you would be crazy not to move a few stays to Radisson Rewards. Free breakfast, lounge access and a ‘guaranteed best room we have when you arrive’ upgrade isn’t to be sniffed at.
When your free VIP time runs out, of course, you are back to square one unless you do 20 stays / 30 nights to requalify.
If Radisson Rewards was not an American Express partner (offering me free Radisson Rewards Premium status via The Platinum Card), I would probably ignore it entirely.
As it is, I have always been happy to know that I can get an extra cash saving via ‘Discount Booster’ on any stays I need to make via the Premium status I am comped.
I certainly won’t be building up a points balance or transferring in any American Express Membership Rewards points. Any points I earn are redeemed for a tiny cash discount on a subsequent stay, and the £1-£2 saving I get for those points certainly doesn’t influence moving business to Radisson.
I cannot, under any scenario, recommend that HfP readers keep a Radisson Rewards points balance. Irrespective of whether you ‘trust’ the company or not – and history shows you can’t – the value is unlikely to improve beyond 0.15p to 0.22p however long you wait or however many points you build up. Earn and burn.
Don’t dismiss Radisson Rewards though. It wants you back and it is clearly prepared to throw you a bone to do so.
You can find out more about Radisson Rewards on its website here.