While the Citi Prestige card recently announced a devaluation for 2017, there are still a few strong qualities about the card that competitively set it apart from the rest (aside from the airline credit and lounge access perks): the generous trip-delay insurance (see 5 Ways to Get Flight Compensation) and the 4th night free hotel benefit.
The Citi Prestige 4th night free benefit is one of the most lucrative credit card perks out there, allowing you to essentially stay for 4 nights (or 5) at a hotel of your choosing (and still get the stay credit/status benefits), while only paying for 3.
Even if you’re staying at a hotel for 3 days, it may be worth adding an extra day for free. Not only will you get the bonus night and points added to your loyalty account, but if you’re arriving late in the evening or departing later in the day past checkout time, you might as well take advantage of this perk.
Putting it to the Test
I recently utilized this benefit for an upcoming stay at the Hyatt Regency in Aruba. My first instinct was to book the hotel on points (category 6 property, 25,000 points per night), but since the room rates were reasonable ($261 AAA rate), it would be silly for me to redeem Hyatt points at a little over 1 cent per point value, when I’ve been able to receive a value of over 2 cents per point in the past.
Plus, with a generous Hyatt promotion happening now and the ability to use a Diamond Suite Upgrade certificate to upgrade us into a suite, paying for the room with my Citi Prestige made perfect sense.
At the time of my booking, there was also a 5th-night free rate offer. While I already knew that 5 nights in Aruba wasn’t feasible with my travel plans, I could have essentially stacked that promo with the 4th night free benefit and paid for 3 nights on a 5 night stay!
How to Take Advantage of the Citi Prestige 4th Night Free Benefit
If you’re a Citi Prestige card member, you can simply call the Citi Prestige Concierge line and tell the agent that you’d like to book a hotel stay to take advantage of the 4th night free benefit. Before calling, I usually like to shop around for rates rather than having to rely on the agent to find me the best deal.
If you have AAA, AARP, and/or government rates or membership, the concierge should be able to book with the same discount. Unfortunately, corporate codes are not eligible. Also keep in mind that Citi will extend the 4th night free benefit to rates offered directly by the hotel, but not for 3rd-party travel agencies like Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity.
The best news is that you will earn hotel loyalty points and elite status benefits when booking through Citi (including the cost of the free 4th night). Be sure to give the concierge your loyalty number, or you can also add it later by contacting the hotel or adding the confirmation number to your online account.
It’s also imperative that you pay for the entire stay with the Citi Prestige card in order to be reimbursed for the cost of the 4th night. 1-2 billing statements after your stay, Citi will reimburse you the cost of your fourth night + taxes in the form of a statement credit.
Finding Rates That Qualify for the 4th Night Free Benefit
There is no official way to be sure of which hotels and rates qualify for the 4th night free rebate other than confirming directly with Citi Concierge; however, Carlson Wagonlit’s travel website seems to be the best bet in finding the hotels that qualify for the 4th night free. Just go to cwtvacations.com, click on the “Hotels†tab, and input your travel information to see if it qualifies.
Let’s Get Creative
The best part about the 4th night free benefit is that you can stack this with other free nights that specific hotels offer during a promotion. In order to stack it, the 3rd of 5th night need to be free, so make sure to remember that while looking. Since so many different hotels run free night promotions all the time, it may seem like it’s too time-consuming to find offers where you can stack in another free night.
I find the best place to start searching is by going to Priceline’s hotel freebie website, which shares lots of deals specific hotels are offering. This is an especially useful tool when you just want to go on a long weekend vacation, but don’t know where yet. You can shop around for hotels in places that interest you more or stay with a brand you are loyal to.
Hyatt 3rd Night Free Stackable Example
Here we have the Hyatt Escala Lodge in Park City, Utah. They are having a stay 2, get the 3rd night free deal:
Simply click on that deal and a calendar will pop up with the available dates. The dates with a gold star are the lowest-priced dates available. Not every single date has 4 nights available that qualify it for Citi’s 4th night, so you will have to play around with it.
Once I found available dates I just went to Hyatt Escala’s website and put them in, and sure enough – the promotion showed up.
Once you select whatever room you’d like that qualifies for the free night, it will take you to the checkout page. Once there, click on “Price Details†and it should break down the cost of each night. If your 3rd night is free, then the Citi Concierge should have no problem stacking this benefit with Citi Prestige 4th night free benefit.
Since the 3rd and 4th night will be free (accounting for ~$227.04 reimbursement from Citi), you’re looking at an out-of-pocket cost of $113.52 per night including taxes and resort fees!
Four Seasons Free Nights Example
Another hotel chain that offers free nights is the Four Seasons. This is much simpler to book because their global footprint is not too large, and they have a specific webpage for these offers.
To take advantage of this, just click “Book Now†with whatever city you would like to visit. Plug in your travel information to make sure your dates qualify, and you should see the 3rd or 5th night free depending on the hotel’s promotion.
After calculating the 4th night free rebate from the Citi Prestige, an example 4-night stay at the Four Seasons Chicago would only cost ~$857 instead of $1,285.56, or just $214 a night, which is an amazing deal for a mid-week luxury stay in the windy city!
Bottom Line
The Citi Prestige’s 4th night free benefit is an extremely valuable perk for travelers. I especially love that it is stackable with 3rd and 5th night free offers to stretch the savings.
Have you made any bookings using the 4th night free benefit before? If so, please share your deals!
I’ve only seen free night deals for award bookings up to now but you have narrowed the search. Great post.
Of note Citi prestige transitioned from CWT vacations last year I think. They now use Aspire. They really can book any hotel. I’ve had them call hotels that weren’t accepting bookings via web engines. The combining free nights is great; I got 4th and 5th night free at Amanyara last year….
it seems that Aspire has a “policy” that they’re not supposed to book the 4th night free benefit on top of, say, a 3rd, 5th, etc. night free rate. i’ve had a couple phone agents flatly refuse to attempt to book such a setup for me, saying that it’s against the rules. has anyone else run into this? i just call back a bit later, and then the next agent will do it. but i’m curious if anyone can confirm that this is an actual policy.
I’ve been able to successfully use corporate booking codes with the 4th night free perk. I just let them know the rate code when I make the reservation and they handle the rest. It’s worked with Starwood and Hyatt properties, so far, for me.
I utilized this same strategy for the Hyatt in Cabo. At the beginning of the year Hyatt was running a 50% off plus 5th night free. I used my two free night certs from the Hyatt card. So, for a 7 night stay I used two Hyatt free nights, utilized the 50% off plus 5th night free with the Citi Prestige 4th night free. I only ended up paying for three nights of our stay!