Last edit by: swag
Reimbursement times vary but seem to have improved in 2017, now about 2 weeks is most common. See this thread for details.
Starting for reservations made on or after July 23, 2017, this benefit will give you the average nightly rate on stays of 4+ nights, and will NOT include taxes.
FAQ
Will I be able to earn points on rooms booked via the Concierge?
Yes
What rates can the Concierge book?
Any rate you can book online at the hotel website should be bookable by the Concierge.
Are taxes included in the 4th night refund?
Currently yes. For reservations made on or after July 23, 2017, this will change and taxes will not be included.
How to book.
By phone: 1-561-922-0158 (concierge direct), or call the toll free number on the back of your card.
By email: Send to [email protected].
Include:
Terms & Conditions: https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/additional-info/citi.action?ID=AdditionalInfo-CitiPrestige
Starting for reservations made on or after July 23, 2017, this benefit will give you the average nightly rate on stays of 4+ nights, and will NOT include taxes.
FAQ
Will I be able to earn points on rooms booked via the Concierge?
Yes
What rates can the Concierge book?
Any rate you can book online at the hotel website should be bookable by the Concierge.
Are taxes included in the 4th night refund?
Currently yes. For reservations made on or after July 23, 2017, this will change and taxes will not be included.
How to book.
By phone: 1-561-922-0158 (concierge direct), or call the toll free number on the back of your card.
By email: Send to [email protected].
Include:
- Your name & email
- Last 4 digits of your card number
- Hotel name (plus address or link if it may be confused with a similar named property)
- Stay dates
- Number of guests in the room
- Any rate type requests (AAA, AARP, etc)
- Your hotel chain loyalty number, if applicable
Terms & Conditions: https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/additional-info/citi.action?ID=AdditionalInfo-CitiPrestige
Anybody used the Citi Prestige 4th night free hotel benefit? (Dec 2014 - Jul 22,2017)
#241
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 4,431
Has anybody successfully booked 4 nights at Hyatt Daily rate, then used points to upgrade to suite or Club room? Did the 4th night that got reimbursed match what the website daily rate was when you checked for just that 1 night? Also, does the reimbursement include taxes/fees?
#242
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 2,068
To answer the last question, the refund I got was inclusive of taxes and any other charges.
#243
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Western US
Programs: Costco Executive Member, Amazon Optimus Prime
Posts: 1,251
We've used the benefit twice, and although the bookings were not smooth/painless, they eventually happened the way we needed them to.
However, getting the credit back on our statement has been hard. So far no credits have arrived. It's been 3 billings cycles, and each time the reps just say "wait til next time". The terms and conditions as I recall were 30-60 days for the credit after statements close when the charge was recorded.
Is anyone else having a problem getting the statement credit to actually show up?
However, getting the credit back on our statement has been hard. So far no credits have arrived. It's been 3 billings cycles, and each time the reps just say "wait til next time". The terms and conditions as I recall were 30-60 days for the credit after statements close when the charge was recorded.
Is anyone else having a problem getting the statement credit to actually show up?
#244
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Plat, UA Gold
Posts: 609
We've used the benefit twice, and although the bookings were not smooth/painless, they eventually happened the way we needed them to.
However, getting the credit back on our statement has been hard. So far no credits have arrived. It's been 3 billings cycles, and each time the reps just say "wait til next time". The terms and conditions as I recall were 30-60 days for the credit after statements close when the charge was recorded.
Is anyone else having a problem getting the statement credit to actually show up?
However, getting the credit back on our statement has been hard. So far no credits have arrived. It's been 3 billings cycles, and each time the reps just say "wait til next time". The terms and conditions as I recall were 30-60 days for the credit after statements close when the charge was recorded.
Is anyone else having a problem getting the statement credit to actually show up?
#245
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Western US
Programs: Costco Executive Member, Amazon Optimus Prime
Posts: 1,251
Thanks. I'll give them a call and see if they can get some manual intervention. I've never had a good feeling about how the back end of this process would work since it all seemed very 'manual' to me, and Citi in general is not good with those kinds of exception processing.
#246
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: SEA
Programs: AS
Posts: 19
Trying to book a Starwood property. CWTVacations has a better rate (listed as a Carlson Wagonlit rate) than the one on the Starwood site, so I'm hoping to get that one.
Called on Thursday, gave them the hotel, dates, room type (suite); they said they'd email in 48 hours. Just about 48 hours later got a quote for exactly the rate I wanted. I called within a few hours, and the CWT agent couldn't find the rate anywhere. Called back today, still no luck. All they can say is "it's not in our system", "we can't use rates other than our system or the hotel website", and "we don't guarantee rates until they're booked." Clearly they got it from their system when they quoted it, the rates haven't changed a cent, and it's still on CWTVacations.
Very frustrated that they won't abide by their quote when rates haven't changed at all . Considering booking elsewhere out of spite, though I should probably just get the AAA rate or the non-refundable rate.
Called on Thursday, gave them the hotel, dates, room type (suite); they said they'd email in 48 hours. Just about 48 hours later got a quote for exactly the rate I wanted. I called within a few hours, and the CWT agent couldn't find the rate anywhere. Called back today, still no luck. All they can say is "it's not in our system", "we can't use rates other than our system or the hotel website", and "we don't guarantee rates until they're booked." Clearly they got it from their system when they quoted it, the rates haven't changed a cent, and it's still on CWTVacations.
Very frustrated that they won't abide by their quote when rates haven't changed at all . Considering booking elsewhere out of spite, though I should probably just get the AAA rate or the non-refundable rate.
#247
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 177
I just booked my first non-refundable 4-night stay with the Citi Prestige concierge, does anyone know how long it takes for the charge to appear? I made the reservation over the phone on Sunday, received a confirmation email a few minutes later, but still nothing on my statement. I'm hoping it will post before my statement ends on June 2 as I'm about to book a pretty expensive AA flight so I sure can use some TY points right now.
Last edited by mk712; May 27, 2015 at 10:32 am
#248
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 177
Oh, and since I'm posting here, maybe I should also talk about my experience.
I called a week ago to get a quote for a hotel, they replied 2 days later with a quote that was far higher than I wanted. They were matching the publicly available rate on the hotel website, however there was a TripAdvisor coupon for 10% off the nightly rate. So their quote with a free night was still cheaper than booking elsewhere but not by much.
I emailed them back asking for a quote for another hotel, it took them 3 days to tell me they can't book it: "I was informed that they are only able to see government rates on their reservation system. They also checked the hotel's website and there is not a travel agent portal to give them the ability to book the room under their agency."
I replied with another request for quotes, this time from two hotels, and I finally hit the jackpot. Again I received the quotes after a couple of days, but this time the prices matched the cheapest I could find online, and the 4th night was actually much more expensive than the other 3. The final price for the 4-night stay ended up being about ~33% cheaper than the cheapest I could find online (a $250 savings).
I called a week ago to get a quote for a hotel, they replied 2 days later with a quote that was far higher than I wanted. They were matching the publicly available rate on the hotel website, however there was a TripAdvisor coupon for 10% off the nightly rate. So their quote with a free night was still cheaper than booking elsewhere but not by much.
I emailed them back asking for a quote for another hotel, it took them 3 days to tell me they can't book it: "I was informed that they are only able to see government rates on their reservation system. They also checked the hotel's website and there is not a travel agent portal to give them the ability to book the room under their agency."
I replied with another request for quotes, this time from two hotels, and I finally hit the jackpot. Again I received the quotes after a couple of days, but this time the prices matched the cheapest I could find online, and the 4th night was actually much more expensive than the other 3. The final price for the 4-night stay ended up being about ~33% cheaper than the cheapest I could find online (a $250 savings).
Last edited by mk712; May 27, 2015 at 10:33 am
#249
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Upper Sternistan
Posts: 9,982
I just booked my first non-refundable 4-night stay with the Citi Prestige concierge. Does anyone know how long it takes for the charge to appear? I made the reservation over the phone on Sunday, received a confirmation email a few minutes later, but still nothing on my statement. I'm hoping it will post before my statement ends on June 2 as I'm about to book a pretty expensive AA flight so I sure can use some TY points right now.
Maybe it's book 4 nights, get all nights free?
#250
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: BOS
Posts: 814
What has been the experience of anyone that calls for a reservation and specifies the exact hotel they want? I travel often for work and occasionally will stay in one place 4 night.
I always choose hyatt if possible and if not Marriott.
If i were to specify a specific hotel is the response time still 24-48 hours?
Seems to me it should make it quite simple.
I always choose hyatt if possible and if not Marriott.
If i were to specify a specific hotel is the response time still 24-48 hours?
Seems to me it should make it quite simple.
#252
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: BOS
Posts: 814
Has anyone stayed in a Starwood Hotel using this benefit and gotten Starpoints on the stay? Do the Carlson Wagonlit bookings earn Starpoints?
#253
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 122
One tip - make sure the travel agent on the phone puts in your SPG number as they book, so tell them up front you want to attach the number. I've had one forget to attach it, so the booking never showed up in my SPG online account. They tried to add it after the fact, but it seemed to never "stick" in the SPG/CWT booking system. In that case, I was able to get the hotel on-site to add my number at check in and all the benefits worked out in the end. If the agent adds the number up front, you should see the stay in your SPG account as if you booked it yourself.
#254
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 281
Considering getting this card primarily for use with 4th night free benefits with the aim of using it to pay for some hotels in Bali. The issue I'm wondering about is the extent of hotel properties outside of the larger chains. As an example, we really like a property that seems to have 10 villas total and I'm suspicious that this property won't be listed on CWT. Anyone know much about this or if there is a way to look at a directory of hotels (not necessarily with rates) just to get a feel for if this may be useful for us or not? Is http://www.cwtvacations.com/ representative?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Last edited by nittany987; May 31, 2015 at 7:53 pm
#255
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 2,921
Considering getting this card primarily for use with 4th night free benefits with the aim of using it to pay for some hotels in Bali. The issue I'm wondering about is the extent of hotel properties outside of the larger chains. As an example, we really like a property that seems to have 10 villas total and I'm suspicious that this property won't be listed on CWT. Anyone know much about this or if there is a way to look at a directory of hotels (not necessarily with rates) just to get a feel for if this may be useful for us or not? Is http://www.cwtvacations.com/ representative?
Thanks!
Thanks!
After the $250 airline credit, the annual fee is only $200, so not much risk in obtaining the card for a year. Plus, the bonus TY points makes this card a no brainer.