Citi wants its cardmembers to book hotels through its travel portal. This desire is clearly indicated by the compelling Citi Travel earning rates and perks the issuer is offering on several of its cards. But the question you should be asking yourself is: Should I book hotels through Citi Travel?
I’m usually hesitant to book through credit card travel portals, even when added perks, discounts or elevated earning rates encourage me to. But, especially given the recent Citi ThankYou Rewards credit card portfolio changes, let’s take a fresh look at what you should know about booking hotels through Citi Travel. Considering the aspects discussed in this article should help you decide whether to book hotels through Citi Travel.
Earning points on hotels with Citi Travel
Citi recently refreshed its ThankYou Rewards card portfolio by launching a new premium ThankYou Rewards card and updating its no-annual-fee card. Given these changes, here’s how you’ll earn points when booking through Citi Travel:
- Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (see rates and fees): Earn 12 points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel.
- Citi Strata Premier® Card (see rates and fees): Earn 10 points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel.
- Citi Strata℠ Card (see rates and fees): Earn 5 points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel.
- Citi Double Cash® Card (see rates and fees): Earn 2% cash back on purchases -1% cash back as you buy, and 1% cash back as you pay for those purchases. Plus, earn an additional 3% cash back on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel.
- Citi Custom Cash® Card: Earn 5% cash back on eligible spend category each billing cycle up to $500 spent.
- Citi Prestige® Card (no longer accepting applications): Earn 5 points per dollar spent with Citi Travel. Plus, earn an additional 5 bonus points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel that post to your account by Dec. 31.
The information for the Citi Custom Cash Card and Citi Prestige Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
You won’t earn nearly as many Citi points on your hotel purchases if you don’t book through Citi Travel. After all, you’ll only earn 3 points per dollar spent on other hotel purchases with the Citi Strata Premier and 3 points per dollar spent on other hotel purchases with the Citi Prestige. Hotels you don’t book through Citi Travel earn at the nonbonus category rate for the other four cards (unless “select travel” is your highest spending category per billing cycle on your Citi Custom Cash Card).
Citi Travel is powered by Rocket Travel by Agoda. Although the Rocket Travel by Agoda terms and conditions don’t prohibit you from earning hotel points, most hotel loyalty programs won’t award points, qualifying nights or elite status perks on stays you don’t book directly or via a qualifying method.
Related: The complete guide to Citi ThankYou Rewards: How to earn, redeem and transfer points
Redeeming points for hotels with Citi Travel
You can redeem points for hotels booked through Citi Travel at a rate of 1 cent per point.
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One cent each is much lower than TPG’s August 2025 valuation of Citi ThankYou points at 1.9 cents each. That’s primarily due to the value you can get when utilizing Citi transfer partners, such as American Airlines AAdvantage, Air France-KLM Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. As such, you’ll generally get better value by saving your Citi ThankYou points for redemptions that give you more than 1 cent per point in value.
Related: Best ways to redeem Citi ThankYou points
Credits when booking hotels through Citi Travel with select cards
The credit available on some Citi cards may incentivize you to book at least some hotel stays through Citi Travel.
For example, the Citi Stata Elite gives cardmembers an up-to-$300 annual hotel benefit. This benefit lets cardmembers enjoy up to $300 off a hotel stay of two nights or more booked through Citi Travel once per calendar year. To enjoy this benefit, you must prepay your stay with your Citi Strata Elite card, ThankYou points or a combination of both. The primary cardmember must make the reservation, but it can be made in either the primary cardmember’s or an authorized user’s name. Unfortunately, you can’t combine this benefit with other promotions or discounts.
Meanwhile, the Citi Stata Premier offers cardmembers $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees, once per calendar year when booked with Citi Travel, and the Citi Prestige offers cardmembers up to two complimentary-fourth-night hotel benefits each calendar year. However, if you have access to multiple of these benefits, you can’t combine the $300 annual hotel benefit, the complimentary-fourth-night hotel benefit and the $100 hotel benefit on a stay of $500 or more on the same transaction.
Related: Best Citi credit cards
Extra perks with The Reserve and Hotel Collection
Select Citi cardmembers can book stays with extra benefits at certain properties through Citi Travel via The Reserve or Hotel Collection. Most Citi ThankYou cards offer access to the Hotel Collection, but only cardmembers of the Citi Strata Elite, Citi Strata Premier and Citi Prestige can book properties via The Reserve.
If you use an eligible card to book a hotel room rate offered by The Reserve through Citi Travel, you’ll get the following perks:
- $100 experience credit (may be in the form of a credit or gift card provided by the hotel; back-to-back stays at the same hotel within 24 hours are considered one stay and will only get one $100 experience credit)
- Daily breakfast for two (provided directly by the hotel or in the form of a gift card or credit; no additional benefit or compensation if breakfast is included as a standard hotel amenity)
- Complimentary Wi-Fi (no additional benefit or compensation if Wi-Fi is provided as a standard amenity; not included if Wi-Fi is included as part of a mandatory daily resort fee or not available)
- Room upgrade, based on availability (only some room categories may be available for upgrade)
- Early check-in, upon availability at the time of check-in
- Late checkout, upon availability at the time of check-in
Meanwhile, if you use an eligible card to book a hotel room rate offered by the Hotel Collection through Citi Travel, you’ll get the following perks:
- Daily breakfast for two (provided directly by the hotel or in the form of a gift card or credit; no additional benefit or compensation if breakfast is included as a standard hotel amenity)
- Complimentary Wi-Fi (no additional benefit or compensation if Wi-Fi is provided as a standard amenity; not included if Wi-Fi is included as part of a mandatory daily resort fee or not available)
- Early check-in, upon availability at the time of check-in
- Late checkout, upon availability at the time of check-in
However, be careful when booking. Even if a property is tagged as part of The Reserve or Hotel Collection on the results page, not all rates bookable through Citi Travel at that property may be offered by The Reserve or Hotel Collection. So, be sure to book a rate offered by The Reserve or Hotel Collection if you want the extra perks.
It’s also worth considering which benefits are only provided when available and which you can rely on. Breakfast for two and the $100 experience credit (on The Reserve rates) are perks you can rely on, so they’re the only ones to which I assign significant value. I don’t assign much value to the complimentary Wi-Fi benefit, since most properties offer at least standard Wi-Fi to all guests or include it in a resort fee.
Related: A comparison of luxury hotel programs from credit card issuers: Amex, Capital One, Chase and Citi
Do hotels cost more through Citi Travel?
I haven’t gathered enough data to say conclusively whether hotels cost more through Citi Travel. But, I recommend comparing rates across various booking methods instead of simply assuming Citi Travel will provide the best value.
For example, if I wanted to stay at the InterContinental New York Barclay from Oct. 10 to 12, I could book a two-night stay through Citi Travel at a The Reserve rate of $1,290.
Alternatively, I could book a two-night stay on the same dates directly with IHG for $1,110 or 166,000 IHG points. If I booked directly with IHG, I’d get breakfast for two as a Diamond Elite member. But, even if I didn’t have breakfast as a perk of my status, I could book a rate that includes breakfast for $1,255.
Booking my stay at a The Reserve rate through Citi Travel would give me daily breakfast for two guests and a $100 experience credit. So, if I want to eat breakfast daily, don’t have IHG Diamond Elite status, would use the $100 experience credit and don’t want to redeem IHG points for my stay, it could make sense to book a The Reserve rate through Citi Travel.
Of course, the math would be different if I were booking a property or rate that didn’t include The Reserve benefits. Likewise, the math would change if I could use the Citi Stata Elite’s $300 annual hotel benefit, the Citi Prestige’s complimentary-fourth-night hotel benefit or the Citi Stata Premier’s $100 hotel benefit on a stay of $500 or more when booking my stay.
It’s also worth considering the difference in the rewards you’ll earn. For example, I could earn 10 points per dollar spent on hotels booked through Citi Travel with my Citi Strata Premier on the above stay, whereas I’d earn 10 IHG points per dollar spent with my IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (see rates and fees) if I used it to pay for for a stay booked directly with IHG. I’d also earn 20 points per dollar spent as a Diamond Elite member when booking directly with IHG.
So, if I booked directly with IHG, I could earn 30 IHG points per dollar spent. Meanwhile, if I booked through Citi Travel, I’d earn 10 Citi points per dollar spent. TPG’s August 2025 valuations peg the value of Citi points at 1.9 cents each and IHG points at 0.5 cents each. So, even with Diamond Elite status, the rewards I’d earn when booking through Citi Travel would hold more value than the rewards I’d earn when booking directly with IHG — and the difference would be even greater if I held a lower tier of IHG elite status.
Bottom line
I rarely book hotel stays through credit card travel portals, primarily because I value hotel elite status and want to earn and enjoy elite status benefits on my stays. However, suppose you aren’t interested in hotel elite status. In that case, booking through the Citi Travel portal may be worthwhile if you have a card that provides bonus earnings on these purchases and don’t find a significantly cheaper rate elsewhere.
Even if you value hotel elite status and usually book directly, it’s likely worth considering whether the Citi Stata Elite’s $300 annual hotel benefit, the Citi Prestige’s complimentary-fourth-night hotel benefit or the Citi Stata Premier’s $100 hotel benefit on a stay of $500 or more are worth using. I’ve left my Citi Prestige fourth-night-free benefits unused for the last few years, as another option has always made more sense for me. But, if I had the Citi Strata Elite, I’d book a stay each calendar year to use the $300 annual hotel benefit similarly to how I book a stay each account anniversary year to use the $50 annual Chase Travel hotel credit on my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees).
