Last week I posted my review of our stay at the Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek. This was my second straight disappointing stay at Radisson Blu hotels (first one was at the Radisson Blu Rome), and made me wonder what or where I should use my remaining Club Carlson e-certificates (light them on fire?)
Here was the response I received after Club Carlson reached out on Twitter and asked for the details of our stay
I refer to the email you sent to our Customer Service in regards to your stay with us on the 14th March 2016.
I sincerely do apologize for the confusion about the upgrade entitlement for Club Carlson Gold members and I am sad to read about the disappointing stay, however let me clarify the policy.
Gold members are entitled to a room upgrade depending on the availability on the day which may include a room in a preferred location, a room with a preferred view or a recently renovated room within the same room category that was booked.
In your case we were able to allocate a room on a higher floor with a nice creek view even though we were sold out on that day.
I order to restore your faith in our hotel I would like to offer you a guaranteed upgrade to the Royal Club room including access to the lounge and complimentary airport pick up and drop off on your next stay with us.
I have also awarded the Club Carlson points for your last stay even though it was booked with an e-certificate.
Please let me know if I can assist you with anything else and contact me directly so that I can assist you personally with your future booking.
So now what?
I know that I should probably just let this go. Indeed, I feel all but certain that I will have commenters talking about how whiny I am. #firstworldproblems
BUT
I feel like my points are not being understood. Yes, the hotel gave me points to “restore my faith”, but my problem is that I feel like the hotel is making up a room category (Royal Club room without lounge access), and that was not really addressed. It’s not so much about the points as much as figuring out the policy for what future guests (and Club Carlson Golds) can expect
But after thinking through this post a bit, I’ve decided that I will accept things and just move on with my life. Should I ever make it back to Dubai well…. I guess I have a Royal Club room waiting for me 🙂
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What do you say? Should I let it go? What would you do?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
they make it sound like -” you are wrong” – the writer I think was “ice cold” – no warmth — wrote sort of like when I was a child and my mom made me apologize though I did not want to
Thanks for writing the posts and increasing awareness. I will be staying in this hotel earlier next month as a CC Gold, on two for one weekend rate. Would be interesting to see if I get an upgrade with club access, or not.
Definitely let me know one way or the other!
I worked the front desk at a hotel with a lounge… On a sold out night, we would come upgrade our highest loyalty members/highest direct rate paying guests to the club floors, and made sure to make them aware that they had ALL the benefits that come from that room… And going the other way, sometime we had to put club guests into non club rooms, and give them club Lou he access – we don’t like doing this because the revenue calculations get messed up when you have a high paying club guest in a standard room, skewing the rate higher than it really is for the standard rooms.
I think your points are valid, and you should be happy they reached out to offer a resolution. If you’re still stuck on it, tell them!
I now manage the front office of my hotel, and we don’t operate a club lounge – we turned it into banquet space, since we make WAY more money on that! Plus groups love having smaller events on the 43rd floor
Brad – thanks for the insider perspective – I appreciate it! I wonder if it is any of the following
1) Lounge space – we went up there to check things out and I wonder if they had problems with overcrowding if they gave access to upgraders
2) Trying to sell it
3) Not wanting to deal with the complimentary chauffeur service to the airport (which we weren’t that interested in as we did just fine on the metro)
Your point is completely ignored. I suppose it’s nice that the manager made an offer, but it just seems so odd that they would miss your entire premise. Sensibly enough, I suppose, you’re not pressing the issue any farther with the hotel, but still a bit annoying.
Christian, you are being very charitable suggesting that they missed the entire premise. They did what the book says, ignore the substance of the complaint and offer something that is unlikely to cost much if anything, viz “Should I ever make it back to Dubai”, and an offer is much better than being ignored. I stayed in a European Hilton at the beginning of March which was exceptionally shabbily managed, dented furniture, missing light bulbs, little choice of fruit in the Executive lounge etc. Aside of the customary “we are looking into the matter of compensation and have already discussed your issues with the team etc. etc. yawn, yawn”, I have heard nothing. In contrast, I stayed last week in the Hilton Prague which is an absolutely superb hotel exceptionally well managed. As I was leaving I spoke with the duty manager and told him how impressed I was with the hotel and as a Hilton Diamond being upgraded to a Junior Suite was the icing on the cake. We engaged in conversation during which I mentioned what a lovely city Prague was and how I must bring my wife over some time. Within a flash a small piece of Bohemia Crystal was tendered as a gift for her. We are going there in September. That is how to treat elite members and run a decent operation!
Sorry, but I think you are wrong on this one. This type of upgrade is clearly listed in the terms of their Elite Status and is common with many hotel brands.
“Room upgrades vary by property and by room category, and may include a room in a preferred location, a room with a preferred view, or a recently renovated room.”
So the “upgrade” is a slightly better room not just by the categories they sell the rooms.
See #3
https://www.clubcarlson.com/fgp/memberbenefits/home.do?int_cid=footer:memberbenefits
I think it was generous of them to offer you your points back and a free club room with lounge next visit. My Hyatt room once had blood in the room and after 10 minutes in the lobby I got a new clean room but nothing else besides a “Sorry our housekeeping missed this.”
If you are looking to use your Club Carlson points I suggest Scandanavia. I have had great nights in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Iceland. I have friends that raved about Oslo and Bergen. I have also had pretty good stays in Lima, Peru and Belize although those were normal Radisson’s and not Blu’s. My wife and I have upcoming trips into Portugal and Spain where we are using up some of our remaining points.
Dude…for the LOVE OF GOD….STOP.
You booked a hotel with points having status that you gained from a credit card that you most likely have cancelled by now.
Want lounge access? Pay for it.
Too cheap to visit a city and pay for food? Don’t visit that city.
LOL I know….
I was going to comment critically on your original review post but thought better of it, but now you have gotten stuff that you were not entitled to and are still complaining.
I think you need to stop. You got everything a gold is supposed to get and more. Club Carlson golds are not entitled to lounge access. They gave you the high floor view room which is all you are entitled to. I think that if you had gone into this expecting only the room you booked and received this upgrade, you would be happy, but it seems like you expected way more than what you were entitled to. They were consistent in telling you that you were not getting club access unless you paid for it. Just because they would not sell your room for money without club access does not mean that they ripped you off, it means that they upgraded you according to the terms of Club Carlson gold status. They had the option of simply giving you a high floor room and no Royal club room, that would have satisfied what is required, but they gave you an inch, so you want to take a mile. This no club access (or no breakfast) for upgrades is pretty common at Club Carlson properties. Their mistake was telling you that you received a Royal Club Room. They should have just told you that you were getting a high floor view room and you would have had nothing to complain about. You asked for something that you were not entitled to and did not get it. For them to offer you anything additional was extremely generous.
A room that is not a specified category on the website is not unusual. I have had them at Hiltons and Hyatts as well.
Let it go. Just more Carlson weirdness.
I complained about a problem once at a Westin, and I got a phone call from the GM and an invitation to come back for free.
I complained about a pretty major and gross maintenance problem at a Radisson Blu once, and they half-heartedly apologized and assured me (in different words) that there was no way that what I was telling them could have actually occurred…