1st Ever Mattress Run Complete – Club Carlson Big Night Giveaway
This weekend, I officially completed my 1st ever Mattress Run as part of Club Carlson’s Big Night Giveaway.
I will say mattress running is probably not as exciting as mileage running (where you fly around on a plane just to earn miles) however it also doesn’t take up as much time or effort.
We got to the Country Inn & Suites around 10pm and check in was smooth.
When we were checking in, the receptionist asked us if we wanted 1 or 2 keys. I was tempted just to tell her what we were actually doing, however in all honesty she probably wasn’t even aware of the 44,000 point promotion we were taking part in.
To act less shady, we actually went up and took a look at the room. It was alright, nothing special.
The one thing I will point out is that Country Inn & Suites, like almost all other hotels in that price point (Holiday Inn, etc.) do offer free wi-fi and breakfast.
The one thing I cannot stand when staying at higher end brands like Hyatt & Westin, etc, is that given the amount of money you are paying per a night, why can’t they at least include internet for free?
If Holiday Inn can do it while charging $100 a night, I can’t imagine why a Hyatt at $250 a night can’t include it. If it really is such a big expense for the hotel, then a better idea would be to just to build the $10 internet fee into the price of the room and charge everyone for it.
To me, a hotel is primarily for sleeping, so if I saw a Westin and Country Inn at the same price but the Country Inn included internet, I would strongly lean towards the Country Inn especially if it was just for 1 night.
Anyways back to the point of this post, if you haven’t already signed up for the Club Carlson Big Night Giveaway, registration is still open and I highly suggest doing it.
It is an extremely cheap and cost effective way to rack up 50,000 or so points for around $110 depending on where you decide to stay.
If you are super adventurous you can do 3 seperate stays at a Radisson, Country Inn, and Park Inn, and get almost 50,000 Club Carlson points per each stay for a total of 150,000 points.
Also from what I have read, Club Carlson is now allowing reservations that were made before the official start of the Big Night Giveaway to be counted in this promotion, which is good news.
For more information about how to maximize this promotion, please check out the prior post below.
How To Take Advantage Of The Big Night Giveaway
How many of you have taken part in this promotion?
-Parag
So did you actually stay one night or just checked in and out within 10 mins?
I have no upcoming vacations until November and not staying at any hotel, should i just find a lowest priced RADISON, COUNTRY INN in IL and pay for a night just to get the 44k to 50k points ? I know many places in RADISON but COUNTRY INN is in very few states and very few outside US. How many night i can get with 50k CC points? transferable to airline ?
thanks
@Jim – We stayed at Emily's parents house just down the street. So we ended up coming back in the morning and checking out. Typically Radisson's are more expensive than Country Inn, so I'd suggest doing Country Inn. The points can be redeemed at any Radisson, Country In, Radisson Blu, etc. In the above post, check out the link at the bottom of the page on how to maximize this promotion. All the info about how to do this promotion and how many nights the 44k points will get you are in there. Thanks! -Parag
Parag, I hear you on the infuriatingness of the many fees added on at higher-end hotels. But they're not charging these because they have to cover costs, but rather because they can continue to get away with it.
In many companies, employees have a certain cap on airfare and hotel amounts. These, interestingly enough, rarely if ever include incidentals (luggage fees, internet access fees, etc.), so it's very much in the hotels' interest to have lower prices show up on Kayak and such. Employees think, oh, for just $40 more a night, I can stay in a Hilton vs. a cheapo inn… and it's under the cap!
So why don't the inns / not-so-high-end hotels also start making their breakfasts and internet access a la carte? Because their clientele tends to much more often be families or couples, who tend to be more sensitive to and aware of total prices. They can't just whip out the company credit card and have someone else worry about the charges 😉
Of course, this hasn't stopped me from ranting about the same issue (and other issues) re: hotels in the past 😉