Radisson/Club Carlson

Spending Thanksgiving in Williamsburg, VA

1 Comment

For once in my life, I am extremely late in fulfilling a promise, or rather a Christmas gift from 2011. I purchased my wife tickets to visit Colonial Williamsburg thanks to a fantastic Cyber Monday sale last year. So to say I am cutting it a little close is an understatement.

Hey, lay off, I took her to Hawaii, Disneyland, and even Sauder Village for Mother’s Day. I think I am still on her InACent side.

So all year we have been picking our brains on the perfect time to go to the Virginia area, and finally we settled in on Thanksgiving. Both of us will be off of work, and the extended weekend is a perfect time to get away. After all, one of our favorite vacations was when we snuck away to Disney World a couple years ago. If history repeats itself, the crowds will be down and we will get to celebrate Thanksgiving with our colonial brethren.

The most difficult part of the planning has been there is very little information published by either Williamsburg or Busch Gardens with the schedule of activities. However, after a couple of phone calls, we made the decision Williamsburg will be perfect Thanksgiving day, followed by Busch Gardens the day after Thanksgiving for the start of Christmas Town.

Besides those activities, we will look for recommendations from the travel community for other things we should try not to miss in the area. I would love to spend Saturday heading down towards Virginia Beach, if not just to see the coastal towns and the Atlantic Ocean.

Planning for a Thanksgiving Hotel

Here is one thing I have learned about planning travel over the Thanksgiving holiday. Maybe I should not share such a secret as it will possibly flood the market with new reservations, but heck, I write this blog to help the readers, so here we go.

Nearly everyone travels to see family over the Thanksgiving holiday. It is true the airports can be nuts. However, the secret, at least in our experience, is less people actually do touristy things during that time.

Disney World was a perfect example of how the crowds were down, the weather was perfect, and we enjoyed a great day giving thanks to the Mickey shaped turkey. So our recommendation is to absolutely see if you can convince your family to celebrate somewhere that great memories can be made, and it does not have to be Disney.

With that planning, I have realized hotel rooms tend to be really reasonable over the Thanksgiving holiday. When we visited Disney, we paid less than $100/night at the Holiday Inn on Disney property. Sure enough, as I began searching for hotels over the holiday this year near Williamsburg, the rates are fantastic, and I do not need to consider dipping into our mile and point savings.

So I want to quickly document the type of incredible offers we have been finding.

Club Carlson

The Club Carlson group of properties was not really much on my horizon until we were really impressed with the several hotels from this summers great free night giveaway promotion. So I had no problem looking at what they had to offer over the Thanksgiving holiday around Williamsburg.

What surprised me was it was all Country Inn and Suite properties, which we were rather fond of from previous experience, and the rates were all under $70/night except one. The only problem was the reviews were not that great for all but the expensive property (still only $130/night).

Point redemption was ridiculous and not even worth considering. Either they wanted 28,000 points per night (they should be around 9,000 points to align with the price) or 5,000 points plus ~$50.

In my opinion, a $70/night hotel room was not worth redeeming points. Lets see what else is available.

What really bothered me this time is I called up the more expensive property to see if they were willing to negotiate their price down to close to where their adjacent properties were, and I was declined. Even with Gold status with Club Carlson, I got no where when calling the property directly. I read so many stories of people getting great rates when calling a hotel directly, yet I have never been able to replicate, outside of when we had to move our reservation over from one property to another in Indianapolis.

Priority Club

My old buddy Priority Club has always been reliable, and after quite an enjoyable free stay in Hawaii, I am always willing to give them some more business.

Once again I was fortunate to find several under $100 options in the area, and the reviews were decent. We carry Platinum status with Priority Club, so any upgrades would be great, although not very grand at low tier properties. I kept looking after nothing popped out at me.

Hilton HHonors

My long time standing with Hilton always leave them as an option when traveling, despite typically being a little more money. I also carry silver status with HHonors due to the American Express Hilton card, and have more points than ever due to the card. Although I have a problem getting a good night rest on their beds, the consistency of their properties always strikes a good balance with our family.

I was delighted to not only see a great selection of properties available, all under $100/night, but there is also a promotion going on, where I was able to stay 3 nights and get the fourth free.

So in the end, we pulled the plug and reserved with the Hampton Inn & Suites Williamsburg Historic District due to excellent rate/sale on a suite, free breakfast, great reviews, and close proximity to everything.

The moral of the story is not only will Thanksgiving travel be affordable again this year, but by shopping around our loyalty and finding the right sale, we were able to locate the best property for our family.

Save Money, Travel More!

The Small Points Matter

2 Comments

If you are like me, no amount of miles and points is to little. Although lots of people will try to compare the value of their time versus effort into the promotion, I enjoy the benefits of traveling for cheap or free too much to warrant passing up an opportunity. There are often lots of little promotions for miles and points going around, and rather than rehash what is already out there, here is the information to add to your stockpiles.

– Earn 500 US Airways Dividend Miles for installing and using the StoreFront Assistant toolbar courtesy of View From the Wing.

– (http://www.frequentflyeruniversity.com/blog/2012/8/14/100-to-4000-free-club-carlson-gold-points.html) Frequent Flyer University points out a terrific little gem of a promotion with Club Carlson. Earn 100 free points each day you (www.clubcarlsonglobalgiveaway.com) view pictures of Club Carlson properties. The great thing is the promotion runs until 9/24/12, allowing you to earn thousands of free points in you partake everyday.

Update 9/9/12- The first of these points has finally started to show up in our accounts. I can not say for sure which days credited, as both my wife and my accounts had 9 Club Carlson Global Giveaway Point Bonus 100 points show up, but they are all labeled 8/17/12.

Club Carlson Vacation Book Promo

– As always, the Audience Rewards program will allow you to earn free miles and points with Delta, US Airways, SPG, and Best Buy approximately every other week. We give you the questions (and the answers) to quickly go in and earn miles/points with only a couple minutes of your time.

Save Money, Travel More!

Club Carlson Point Summary + Park Inn More of a Good Thing Promotion

3 Comments

So how did everyone fare from the Radisson Big Night Getaway? I think our family did very well, spreading out three reservations between the Radisson Hotel Cleveland-Gateway, Country Inn Indianapolis Airport South, and the Park Inn Hotel in Toledo, Ohio.

July 2012 Club Carlson Point Status

Overall, I walked away with 154,780 Club Carlson points, and my wife scored an additional 18,782 points. If we are able to locate properties at the low end of 9,000 points per night, we stand to earn over 19 free nights. In addition, if we want to spread our points out further, we can do cash and points options, making our stockpile practically last indefinitely.

What is even more important for Club Carlson is that they exposed our family to their brand of hotels that we probably would not have paid attention to before. I think that is an excellent return on their investment. That is why I kind of am excited about Club Carlson’s current promotion.

More of a Good Thing Promotion

The Park Inn properties is offering up a new promotion called More of A Good Thing. Book and stay at a Park Inn property using the More of a Good Thing rates by September 30, 2012 and receive a free room upgrade, 3,000 bonus points, plus a free breakfast, appetizer, or dessert.

Here are the quite elaborate terms and conditions:

• The More of a Good Thing offer (“Promotion”) is available for new reservations (single or double occupancy) at Park Inn® and Park Inn by Radisson Hotels in the United States and Canada (excluding the Park Inn Sault Sainte Marie, MI) (“Participating Hotels”) for Eligible Stays beginning on or after August 1, 2012 and completed on or before September 30, 2012 (“Promotion Period”).
• An Eligible Stay is defined as a completed stay of one or more consecutive nights at the same Participating Hotel, regardless of the number of check-in or checkouts during the Promotion Period, for which the guest specifically booked the More of a Good Thing Promotion rate and pays for.
• For each Eligible Stay, the guest will receive a room upgrade (if available); 3,000 bonus Gold Points (“Bonus Points”); and a choice of one voucher per person, up to two people, for one of the following perks: late checkout (if available), breakfast, dessert, or appetizer (“Promotion Voucher”).
• The room upgrade is determined by the Participating Hotel at time of check-in, may not be available, and may be limited to room type (e.g. size, view, recently renovated).
• Late checkout permits a guest to checkout as late as 2:00 p.m. and is based on availability at time of check-in.
• If selected perk is for breakfast, dessert or appetizer, it shall not exceed $10 local currency (inclusive of tax and gratuity), guest will be charged for amounts in excess of $10 per Promotion Voucher, and no amounts will be refunded.
• Each Promotion Voucher must be presented at time of order, is valid for the current stay only, cannot be brokered, bartered, sold or replaced, copied, reproduced or altered in any way and has no cash value.
• Room upgrades and perks may vary by Participating Hotel and are subject to availability.
• Guest must be a member of Club Carlson to receive the Bonus Points.
• To enroll as a Club Carlson member, please visit www.clubcarlson.com.
• Bonus Points are in addition to the standard Gold Points earned for the Eligible Stay.
• Only one Club Carlson account per Eligible Stay will be credited with Gold Points.
• Allow 6-8 weeks for Bonus Points to appear on account.
• Promotion Bonus Points are not eligible for elite member bonus point earnings.
• Membership in Club Carlson and Gold Points are subject to all Club Carlson program rules and conditions.
• Rates for each night of an Eligible stay may vary.
• Extra person charges may apply if exceeding double occupancy. Promotion is not valid on existing reservations and is subject to availability.
• The Promotion may not be used in conjunction with any other package, promotion, group or convention rate, or any discounted rate.
• Promotion void where prohibited by law.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, Park Inn reserves the right to add, modify, or discontinue these terms and conditions or the Promotion at any time without notice.
• By participating in this Promotion, you agree and consent to these terms and conditions.

Let me first say my wife was really impressed with the Park Inn property in Toledo. While I am still waiting on her to write the review, I do know the room was apparently beautiful and on the corner with windows looking out onto the City. My wife and her best friend enjoyed their girls night alone while the men took care of the kids. I think our Club Carlson Gold status may have had something to do with their great room too. 🙂

So with all that being said, I am excited to possibly stay at a Park Inn because of this promotion. Will you take advantage of this offer?

Save Money, Travel More!