mia

Remember, this is not Citi's program. It is a MasterCard benefit which Citi has bundled into Prestige.

Expedia is a consolidator, they buy room nights in bulk and can price them however they choose when selling through their various brands (Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Venere, etc).

Carlson is a competitor of Expedia. Commission alone wouldn't seem to be enough to fund this type of program. I assume they must also do some bulk buying, and to the extent that participants book those properties the transactions would still be profitable.

linglingfool

I, too, would love to see a portal. I wonder if they want to keep it opaque, though, to minimize the number of people who actually use the service, and to hide what the actual cost of the booking is to them. If they can mark it up and recoup more cost (or even make a profit), I'm sure they'd want to continue doing so.

And yes, Hotels.com is a preferred option of mine as well, especially with a BRG that can often match rates that are lower than anything CWT will provide.

ETA: mia beat me to it.

lovefreebreakfasts

Just wanted to add another data point about my experience about booking through cwt for two upcoming trips.

For trip 1, I asked information about 6-8 hotels. The representative emailed me within 24 hours with info about only 3 of the hotels I had requested, and only with 1 room type in each hotel. No special rates were mentioned.

I had found a rate for one hotel through cwt's booking site that was 15% off the rate the representative had sent (this rate wasn't even available on the hotel website). They happily matched that rate. This was a very expensive hotel where the rate was ~$500 for nights 1 and 2, and ~$1000 for nights 3 and 4. They didn't seem to have any issues saying that I will get a statement credit for night 4 (they also gave it in writing), so it seems like a good deal. With the 15% off and 4th night free, I'm getting almost 50% off the best publicly available rate on the hotel website.

For trip 2, I had only asked about 1 hotel. When I asked, they specifically asked me if I should be considered for non-refundable rates as well. However, when the concierge contacted me within 24 hours, the only rate mentioned was the (higher) refundable rate. I had to point out the non-refundable rate available on the website to get the lower rate.

It seems like the concierge definitely is a bit clumsy in getting your requests through, and they won't be doing much work on their own. However, it can really be a great deal if you're willing to do the leg work and follow up with your concierge, and especially if cwt has special rates available (although their booking system admittedly sucks).

It seems like cwt might participate in some of the luxury benefits with certain hotels that give benefits and other amenities (like free breakfast, room credit, etc.). Does anybody know exactly which special rates cwt has access to (and for which chains)? It can be a nightmare navigating their website, especially because inventory seems fickle and the rate descriptions usually are very short.

Fuerza

Anyone ever use this feature to stay at Disney Grand California?

the_fox

Just curious, anyone know if there are any other Mastercard "World Elite" cards that offer this benefit? From another bank maybe? I never heard of it before Prestige.

randomtask123

Just booked 4 nights at an omni hotel, which so happened to be part of the 2015 mastercard preferred portfolio that comes with early checkin/late checkout, comp bf for 2, room upgrade at checkin if avail.

the rate i found directly on omni's website wasn't shown from the rep's system. so the lady looked it up, put me on hold, and got the approval to book directly on omni's website. she then forwarded the rez to citi prestige concierge so I'd be eligible for the 4th night free offer.

one thing to note is that because they booked using the rate on omni's website, they weren't able to use the rate code associated with mastercard elite / prestige. as such, the benefits of the property being part of the 'preferred portf' is nullified.

my advice is, if you want to expedite the process, make sure you ask to be transferred to the travel agent (whether it be cwt or mastercard travel) and know exactly what you want to book based on prior research. from end to end, the rez took < 20 minutes to book. not TOO bad.

linglingfool

Maybe I missed it, but which site is that?

maxswanson

No, you are total wrong. You cannot get 4th night free through hotels.com.

linglingfool

He knows that; he's just saying he would like that to happen at some point in the future. Which it won't.

VegasGambler

They could also set the card apart if they just sent all their cardmembers checks for $10k every month but that probably isn't going to happen either.

VegasGambler

You can't really do the math like this. You are mixing your denominators.

At hotel.com, if you stay 11 nights you pay for 10 of them. Your rebate is (1 + 10*(10%) = 2/11 = 18.18%

With the Citi benefit if you stay 4 nights you pay for 3 of them so your rebate is (1 + 3*3%) / 4 = 1.09 / 4 = 27.25%.

Obviously the number for Citi is much higher, but the downside is that it's a max -- you only get that amount if you stay exactly 4 nights. If you stay 5 nights it's 1.12 / 5 = 22.4%. If you stay 6 nights it's 1.15 / 6 = 19.16%. If you stay 7 nights it's 1.18 / 7 = 16.8%.

So the best stategy seems to be to use the benefit on nights of 4-6 nights only, and use hotel.com through a portal for any other length stay.

This also all assumes that TYP are worth 1c each, which seems low. If you have a different valuation in mind you can redo the math (it probably won't change much)

linglingfool

In general, but not always. You may find that Hotels.com offers rates that CWT does not, and Hotels.com has a BRG should you find something better in the future.

maxswanson

You will get the points and stay credit for all four days if you are the member of hotel group. Even you are not the member, you can get later checkout, breakfast, possible upgrade. For hotels.com, you got nothing.

VegasGambler

This is true. Also some people have reported getting the 4th night free through CWT when it's the most expensive night, which raises the rebate (you can't do this for hotel.com any more; your free night is limited to the average cost of your 10 paid nights; if it's more you have to pay the difference)

So obviously, if there are extenuating circumstances for your stay things might be different, but, in general, this is how you calculate the rebate amount, and, if all the nights are the same price (and the same through either booking method) 4-6 nights is the sweet spot.

TMM1982

Not to mention it's fairly easy to find a 5-10% room discount promo that can also be used on top of collecting rewards nights which then would it make the best option unless you're staying exactly 4 nights.