Choice Hotels Purchased Radisson Americas
Well, this wasn’t news I was expecting to wake up to this morning. The news that Choice Hotels purchased Radisson Americas (press release). Although, it kind of makes sense the more I think about it. I do want to highlight once again that this is just the Radisson Americas portion of the Radisson brand and not the entire company. The much more valuable Radisson Rewards stays with the Radisson brand. This includes travelers beloved Radisson Blu and Red properties in Europe.
What Is Choice Hotels Getting With The Radisson Americas Purchase?
With the deal Choice Hotels is adding 9 hotel brands, 624 hotels with over 68,000 rooms in the Americas. All of that comes with the price tag of around $675 million. The “Americas” includes hotels in the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. The breakdown by brand is as follows:
- 10 Radisson Blu hotels
- 130 Radisson hotels
- 9 Radisson Individuals
- 1 Park Plaza hotel
- 4 Radisson RED hotels
- 453 Country Inn & Suites by Radisson
- 17 Park Inn by Radisson hotels
- As well as the Radisson Inn & Suites and Radisson Collection brands
Did Radisson’s Split Lead To This?
I feel like we should have seen this sale coming. Not that Choice Hotels would buy them but that Radisson would be looking to sell off the Americas portion of their business. If you remember last year the company was forced to split into two different programs. That is because a Chinese company purchased the parent company to Radisson.
Per U.S. privacy regulations, the company was required to break Radisson into two companies in order to protect consumer information. This included separate websites, apps, loyalty programs and social media channels.
It looks like that was a hassle the parent company didn’t want to deal with long term. Because of that in steps Choice Hotels to scoop it up.
What Does This Mean For Points & Miles Hobbyists?
We don’t know what the merging of loyalty programs will look like or what the points ratio will be. Benjy, our resident Choice lover, is hoping for a 2 Radisson Rewards to 1 Choice Hotel point transfer rate but is prepared for a 3 to 1 ratio.
The deal should be finalized in the second half of 2022. Not sure what that means since we are already pretty much there already but I am guessing late fall / winter time.
Choice Hotels Purchased Radisson Americas: Final Thoughts
I think this is a good thing for anyone sitting on a pile of somewhat worthless Radisson Americas points. This will open you up to a ton more possibilities for you to redeem those points. As long as the transfer ratio isn’t killer at least. Radisson Americas doesn’t have a ton of aspirational properties but the few they do should be more easily accessed now with the Choice Privileges 2 to 1 Citi ThankYou points transfer ratio.
What do you think of the sale? Does it move the needle at all for you?
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I am a member of choice privilege rewards and Radisson america can I transfer my points to choice and if so how and when
Would it make sense to transfer the Radisson America points to Radisson Rewards?
I would probably wait to see if we hear what the transfer over to Choice ratio would be. Unless you have no need for Choice then yeah I would.
If you go to the Radisson website and plug in Las Vegas, Treasure Island Casino comes up. Hopefully this property would be available to Choice customers to book with points in the future. I’m sitting on quite a few Choice points and would love to be able to redeem them on a nicer strip property like TI.
It will be interesting to see what they do with the valuation of the points programs – I’ve got the Radisson Rewards Visa card (which is also undergoing some changes now and going away). I’m also currently sitting on about 275k Radisson Americas points, and sitting on about 80k Choice points. Wondering if a better value for the Radisson Americas points can be achieved by transferring them to Radisson International, before the acquisition closes. I’ve found both the Radisson and Choice points more valuable when traveling in Europe.
Yeah hopefully we know the rates before they remove the chance to move them over if you want.
It’s not a surprise, but I am surprised that Choice is picking up the Americas and not the entire Brand. That will make for an interesting marketing strategy. I’m also not a fan of Choice Privileges, so would have much preferred another hotelier aquire Radisson.
I doubt the company wanted to sell the entire portfolio. Likely just wanted to dump this because of US requirements etc. I would like Choice a lot more if they let you book award nights during the entire calendar like everyone else.