Prestige 4th Night Free
Among the Citi Prestige card’s perks is one benefit not found on any other credit card to-date: A complimentary 4th night with a minimum 4-consecutive night hotel booking. This benefit can be used twice per year.
The way it works is simple: book a hotel stay of four nights or more and your stay will automatically be discounted by one night’s base rate (not including taxes). The one free night is calculated as the average room rate across your entire stay. In other words, on a four night stay, the discounted price will be 75% of the base rate (25% off) before taxes and fees.
Stacking deals for 40% off
You can stack Premier & Prestige benefits if you have the Citi Premier card pooled with your Prestige card. The Premier card’s 20% point discount on travel stacks with the Prestige card’s 4th night free. These combine to give you up to 1.67 cents per point value, or a 40% point discount if you prefer to think of it that way.
This option is no longer available.
Poor prices
Unfortunately, Citi’s prices through the ThankYou portal are often inflated compared to the competition. As a result, the 4th Night Free discount isn’t as good as it sounds. Here’s a chart I put together when I investigated prices across multiple sites. This shows that Citi’s prices average about 10% above best available prices:
For more details, click here: How bad are Citi ThankYou hotel prices?
Additional 4th Night Free Disadvantages
Here are some downsides to booking hotels through the ThankYou portal:
- You can’t apply additional discounts. You can’t get AAA rates, government or military rates, hotel promotional rates (unless they are available on ThankYou.com), etc.
- You won’t earn hotel loyalty points for your stay.
- Your elite status (if any) most likely won’t be recognized.
- Your receipt will show only the discounted price (this is an issue if you intend to expense the entire 4 nights)
How to Book 4th Night Free Stays
To book your stay, do the following:
- Log in to your Citibank account
- Click to view “My Points Summary“
- Click Hotels under the Travel menu
- Search for your hotel with a date range spanning 4 or more nights
Q & A
- How do I know which hotels are available and at what price? Use the online hotel search function to find hotels and prices.
- Will I earn hotel loyalty points and elite credits for a stay booked this way? You most likely will not earn hotel points, elite credits, or elite recognition.
- Are taxes and fees included in the fourth night discount? No. Therefore, your total savings on a 4 night stay will be less than 25%.
- What discounts can be applied at the time of booking? None
I was planning on having the full amount (4-nights) show in the receipt and it seems like it’s not possible. I was hoping CITI would reimburse me later. There’s no work around for this right?
I’m not aware of a workaround
@Nick Reyes @Greg Any current data points on if the Premier and Prestige benefits still stack under the new fourth night free policy?
What does twice per year mean – two bookings per year, or two stays per year? In other words, if I make a booking in November 2019 for March 2020, does this count towards my 2019 or 2020 allowance?
I don’t know. Citi’s website is unclear about that. My bet is that it is limited to two bookings per year. If I’m right then your example would count towards your 2019 allowance.
All: I finally got around to updating this post to reflect the new 4th Night Free rules that kicked in on Sept 1 2019
can i as the cardholder book a hotel reservation with 4th night free for someone else?
No, they don’t allow that. At least, they don’t allow it when booking through the Concierge. I haven’t tried it when booking online. I’ll go try it now. Hold on…
OK, unfortunately the answer is the same: No, you can’t book for someone else. Online when I tried to force a different traveler in as the guest, I got this message:
Greg,
I accidentally forgot my citi prestige at a hotel I stayed at last week (checked out yesterday) and just used an amex in wallet. Should I call the hotel and ask them if I can send my citi prestige instead?
Will I still get the 4th night free credit?
It’s certainly worth a try. If you’re lucky, Citi may even give you the credit without having used the Prestige card.
I called a hotel once and they changed the cc for me for the charges
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Question: I qualified for the Citi Premier but didn’t qualify for the Prestige due to too many credit inquiries. A family member has offered to apply for the Prestige. Is there a way to combine our points and take advantage of both card’s benefits (1.25X point value on the Premier and 4th night free on the Prestige)? Not sure if being an authorized user on either end would give either of us access to the card’s benefits and/or points. Thanks!
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I would like to book 2 rooms for 4 nights. Can I make 2 separate reservations, each for 1 room, so I can get 4th night free for 2 rooms? This would be ideal.
Otherwise I will need to make 1 reservation in one hotel and another reservation in a different nearby hotel (I think this is allowed right).
Can you please advise?
You’ll only get the credit for 1 room. From the terms:
“Group reservations, or other reservations consisting of multiple rooms, only one room will qualify for one complimentary night.”
Even at separate hotels, I don’t expect this would be allowed. You could try it, but I don’t think Citi will give you credit for 2 rooms on the same calendar day.
thanks, actually I called citi and I’ve confirmed that you are indeed correct. Different stays in different hotels on the same date won’t qualify for the 4th night free.
Any idea if 4th night free can be used to book in the name of another person? I could probably go the questionable route and add the second person as a guest, but is there a way to do it legitimately: book for another person and pay with my Prestige card?
No, Citi is very specific about that: it’s supposed to be in your name. After you book it, it is likely that you could contact the hotel to change the name on the reservation, but you still need to pay for the stay with your Prestige card to be sure to get the credit.