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I’m liking Citi Travel – Citibank’s online booking portal – more and more. I used to avoid it, because as an ‘OTA’ it meant that hotels I’d book wouldn’t receive loyalty points or elite status benefits. But with Citi Strata EliteSM Card (See rates and fees) coming with a $300 hotel credit to be used there, and earning 12x on hotels paid through Citi Travel, I’ve been looking at it more closely and I see a real use.
American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts and Hotel Collection bookings generally earn hotel loyalty points. So do Chase ‘The Edit’ bookings. And many Bilt Rewards travel bookings do, too. (You can even book flights through Bilt travel and earn points – which is amazing – and many of those are flagged as direct bookings so you still get customer service from the airline.)
Citi Travel is more like a traditional OTA, so had been on my avoid list. However,
- Each year, the Citi Strata EliteSM Card offers a $300 hotel credit for stays of two or more nights that are prepaid through Citi Travel. (Prepaid rates can still be cancellable and refundable.)
The credit must be redeemed by the primary cardmember and is by calendar year (based on when you book, not the dates of your stay).
$300 will be applied to your booking when you make the reservation – it’s not a statement credit that posts later. You can also use it across multiple transactions, e.g. if you had a 2-night stay that totaled only $200 you’d still have $100 to use later.
- The card earns 12x on hotels you use it to pay for with Citi Travel. And I thought 8x through Chase Travel with Sapphire Reserve was impressive!
So here’s what I’ve been seeing: I find that hotels are often cheaper booked through Citi Travel. That’s not always going to be true! But they aren’t just beating Expedia. They’re beating book direct ‘member rates’, too. Here’s an example from the Marriott LaGuardia airport.
Comparing like-to-like without taxes, Citi Travel was charging $156 while Marriott.com showed the cheapest room Member Rate at $176:
That’s $20 per night difference. Now, if you’re a Marriott Platinum you have to decide whether you value the benefits. But Citi Travel isn’t just a place you book non-chain hotels to use the $300 credit where you wouldn’t get points and status benefits anyway. It’s a place to compare prices.
I suspect what’s happening here is that Citi Travel gets wholesale rates and isn’t marking them up all the way to retail.
- Normally you expect to see price parity. They use not just commission but the difference in rates to help fund that travel credit and 12x earn.
- You do see sites like HotelSlash getting wholesale rates and passing savings on to the customer. They can do this because they’re a ‘membership site’ rather than making bookings available openly to all. Citi Travel counts as this, too.
- Citi may be underpricing by accident! They may not be getting a good data feed on current, correct pricing. I’m watching to see if they sometimes overprice, too.
Whether by mistake or on purpose I’ve been seeing some hotels priced less expensively at Citi Travel than booking direct, which seems worth knowing.
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