Last week I challenged readers to beat my best 4th Night finds. The idea was to find hotels and dates in which the 4th night of a stay was astronomically more expensive than the first three nights. Why? Because one of the Citi Prestige card’s benefits is a rebate of the 4th night price for a multi-night hotel booking. Since Citi rebates the actual price of the 4th night rather than simply offering a 25% rebate, I figured that there must be situations where this would lead to extraordinary savings.
Good news for Citi
While there are amazing deals to be had, there is good news for Citibank:
- These deals are hard to find. The opportunities tend to be event specific: nights leading up to a big event are often normally priced, then prices surge upwards as the event nears. But we don’t see that trend at all hotels or for all events. Far from it.
- Many of these “deals” aren’t really deals. If a person wasn’t planning to attend the event in question, then they often wouldn’t really be saving any money over going some other time when the rates were lower across the board. Sure, they may earn more hotel points but usually the value of those points wouldn’t be so high that it would make sense to alter travel plans for them.
- Opportunities are location/date specific, and often quite inconvenient. The chance that a person’s travel plans will directly coincide with these opportunities has got to be very small. For example, if you’re planning to attend the SuperBowl on Feb 7, 2016, would you really want to check into an area hotel on Feb 1 and checkout on Feb 5 (since the prices skyrocket on the 4th)? Where would you stay on the 5th, 6th, and 7th?
Overall, Citibank will have to pay outsized for outsized benefits to the few people who luck into these deals (or expend a huge amount of effort in seeking them out), but I expect that most people will find them too hard to find, not much of a deal compared to alternatives, and too inconvenient as well.
Plus, there’s no guarantee that they’re even bookable. Readers used the cwtvacations website to find hotel rates. Rates found there are likely to be the same that you’ll be quoted when using the 4th Night Free benefit, but you might not be that lucky. One reader wrote:
…Just off the phone w/ concierge. Not all the rates in : cwtvacations : are what will be found in the Citi Prestige. I was specifically told that “special vacation rates” will most likely NOT be in CP..
So, using cwtvacations to see what you *could* save can be an exercise in futility and angst, as when actually booking, you may not get those rates. In short, use it as a GUIDE, not as a rule of what you may receive for pricing.
In my case, as I reported earlier, I was able to verify two great 4th Night deals with the Citi Concierge, but others may not be as lucky.
Reader finds
I previously reported finding a deal for a Hampton Inn in Daytona Beach in which the 4th Night was almost 50% of the 4 night total. And, even better, I found a Candlewood Suites in Louisville where the 4th night made up 60% of the total. Not surprisingly, a number of readers found deals that were just as good or better. Here were the top reader finds:
| Hotel | Event | Total Price | 4th Night Price | % of Total | Avg Per Night Price after rebate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel Valley Park, San Jose | Super Bowl | $1588 | $1200 | 76% | $97 |
| Holiday Inn Augusta-Gordon Highway | Masters | $997 | $700 | 70% | $74 |
| Marianis Santa Clara | Super Bowl | $1507 | $1000 | 66% | $127 |
| Flamingo Las Vegas | CES | $643 | $425 | 66% | $55 |
| Marriott Cincinnati | All-Star Game | $2016 | $1299 | 64% | $179 |
| Planet Hollywood Las Vegas | New Years Eve | $812 | $499 | 61% | $78 |
| JW Marriott Cannes Palais Stephanie | Cannes Film Festival | $1703 | $1039 | 61% | $166 |
| Comfort Inn Suites Green Bay | NFL Game | $690 | $400 | 58% | $72 |
| Tryp by Wyndham NYC | New Years Eve | $3106 | $1699 | 55% | $352 |
| Vdara Deluxe Suite Las Vegas | CES | $1292 | $674 | 52% | $155 |
| Renaissance Aruba Resort and Casino | Xmas Holidays | $1232 | $641 | 52% | $148 |
In the prior post I promised to give $100 e-gift cards to the top 5 entries. However, I decided to award gift cards to all 6 people who found deals where the 4th night was 60% or more of the total. Congratulations go to Steve, Adam, PDXDealsGuy, Matt, Bruce, and Mark!
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[…] to find hotel stays in which the 4th night is drastically more expensive than the first 3 nights (see this post for examples). In those cases, the Prestige card’s 4th Night Free benefit is far more valuable than a 25% […]
Just called for first time to use 4th night free. I was told that due to overwhelming demand now they only patch in a travel agent on the call if your reservation is for a stay in next 3 days. Otherwise they just take all info and say you will get an email proposal within 48 hours. Then you must call back if you want to book it (and hope that the deal they quote is still available when you call back). Me thinks they’ll be making changes to how this works in near future as this is a very awkward process for both card holders and Citi/cwtvacations now.
Yep, that happened to me recently too. I gave the concierge a reason that I had to book that day (something about booking flights, if I recall) and he then put me on hold for the travel agent. You’re right, its possible that exposure will kill or alter this benefit not because of hints on how to get max value, but rather due to the extreme demand. I wish they’d let us use a website to book these.
[…] Miler reports on the best Citi Prestige 4th night free finds. There were some good ones, including for Super Bowl and the Consumer Electronics Show […]
I just got confirmation that the 4th night free benefit works with Beaches resorts. I’m booking a stay at Beaches Negri and saving over $1100 over the best “special” on the Beaches website since CW is a Sandals and Beaches agent.
[…] Miler has fun finding extreme savings using the 4th night free hotel benefit of the Citi Prestige card. When your fourth night […]
HA. Thanks for using the quote/info on cwt. Did that just use up part of my 15 mins of fame?
Yep, but since it only takes most people a few seconds to read your section, I think you have at least 14 minutes of fame left
Ok, I’m impressed. Been churning since frugal travel guy was the only voice shouting about cc opportunities with Citi Aadvantage cards. Then came 100k Cap One Venture and things took off. I’ve had every card out there, and then some. I got this card b/c it was avail and is obviously a good deal, even with $450 fee. Never thought seriously about 4th night free benny (who stays in the same hotel 4 nights?!!) but I’ve been enlightened.