Global hotel chains usually adjust categories once a year. Categories changes determine how many points are required for reward redemption at a particular hotel property and affect anyone who is planning an award stay.

Earlier in January IHG Rewards Club announced their hotel category changes to ~700 hotels worldwide for 2018. Now, Club Carlson has announced category changes for its hotels that will come into effect from March 1, 2018.

Carlson Rezidor Group operates over 1,000 hotels worldwide under 7 brands and 124 hotels are changing categories in this round. 55 hotels are going up and 69 are coming down, so overall reward nights are becoming cheaper this time. 60% of the hotels changing categories are located in Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The India Impact

Carlson Rezidor has a large footprint of hotels in India. It currently operates ~85 hotels across 60 Indian cities and is perhaps the only global hotel chain you will find in Tier 2 and 3 cities like Indore, Lucknow, Salem and Ranchi. The group has aggressive expansion plans in India and aims to add another 50 hotels over the next 3 years.

This year, 21 hotels across Asia will change categories, and 15 of these are Indian. The good news though is that 11 of these hotels are becoming less expensive as compared to the other 4 which are going to become more expensive.

One of Carlson’s best resorts in India, the Radisson Blu Resort & Spa in Udaipur is going down by 2 categories from 5 to 3 and will require only 28,000 points March 1 onwards instead of its current requirement of 44,000 points. You can view the full list of hotels changing category here.

Bottomline:

Considering, last year all the Indian hotels changing categories became more expensive, this year is a relief.  If you have Club Carlson points and are planning to use them, then you should take a look at the list. If a hotel is going down in points, then it’s best to book it after March 1, and if you are eyeing a property that will become more expensive, then it’s better to lock it down now.

Which Carlson Rezidor hotels do like? Do these category changes affect you?