Legit value: Transfer Citi to Preferred Hotels 1:4 [my experience]

I can now declare that Citi’s ability to transfer points 1 to 4 to Preferred Hotels can be a legit goldmine. I recently completed a stay in London at The Londoner Hotel. I’ll review the hotel separately (the hotel was great, but I hated its location). The reason for this post is to declare that the process of booking this hotel, checking in, and checking out was flawless. That’s notable because when Citi first implemented transfers to Preferred Hotels, it wasn’t ready for prime time. Transfers from Citi to Preferred were error-prone. The Preferred Hotels and I Prefer websites were buggy. Hotels that appeared to be available to book with points weren’t. My experience was flawless, and I got great value for my Citi points.

That said, I think it’s likely there are still problems that I didn’t encounter. A reader recently wrote in saying that they saw availability for free nights online, then transferred their points to I Prefer, but were unable to book their desired hotel. And if you’re interested in booking Preferred Hotels with Choice points (rather than transferring directly from Citi to Preferred Hotels as I did), I’m sure there are still problems.

Easy booking

I booked two rooms for a three-night stay at The Londoner Hotel. I found the hotel on the I Prefer website available for 100,000 points per night and was able to book both rooms at once:

The total cost for two rooms for 3 nights came to 600,000 I Prefer points. I logged into my Citi account and transferred 150,000 Citi points to Preferred Hotels. Thanks to the 1:4 transfer ratio, my account was instantly updated with 600,000 I Prefer points.

I logged out and back into my I Prefer account to see my new account balance and repeated the search for The Londoner Hotel. I then completed the booking within minutes. Within the booking process, I noted that the stay was freely cancelable up until the day before the stay.

Immediately after booking, I received a confirmation email which included information about the benefits I should receive as an I Prefer Rewards member:

Value: 2.9 cents per Citi point

The refundable cash rate for the hotel on the dates of our stay was $726 per night, after taxes. This was the rate most comparable to the points-booking, which offered the same cancellation rule: free up to the day before the stay. For the record, the non-refundable cash rate was $633 per night. When compared to the refundable rate, this booking resulted in 2.9 cents per Citi point value. Here’s the math:

• Refundable Cash Rate: $726 per night
• I Prefer points required: 100,000 points per night
• I Prefer point value = 0.73 cents per point
• Citi points required: 25,000 points per night
• Citi point value = 2.9 cents per point

Even when compared to the non-refundable cash rate, the value was excellent:

• Non-refundable Cash Rate: $633 per night
• I Prefer points required: 100,000 points per night
• I Prefer point value = 0.63 cents per point
• Citi points required: 25,000 points per night
• Citi point value = 2.5 cents per point

Easy hotel check-in & check-out

When booking Preferred Hotels with Choice points (a different process), there have been instances where the hotels were either unaware of the reservation or attempted to charge the guest the full cash rate. None of that was a problem here.

At check-in, the desk agent noted that the rooms had been booked with points and that we had been upgraded to deluxe King rooms.

At check-out, we were charged only for the food that we had ordered for the room, and we were given the option (which we accepted) to include a daily service charge, which was under £5 per day.

Poor elite recognition

I Prefer Gold members should receive a welcome amenity. Titanium members should receive both a welcome amenity and a complimentary food & beverage offering. We didn’t get anything at check-in. On the second day, I asked about this, and the agent I spoke with seemed surprised that we hadn’t received drink vouchers at check-in. After she gave us those drink vouchers (which were presumably the Gold welcome amenity), I asked about the Titanium food & beverage offering. The agent said that she wasn’t aware of anything like that, but would ask. She later told me that they definitely didn’t offer anything, but she offered to waive our final breakfast instead.

Conclusion

Preferred Hotels’ rewards program, I Prefer, appears to have resolved many (but not all) of the free-night booking issues it used to be plagued with. Free nights cost anywhere from 15,000 to 150,000 points per night. That high-end sounds ridiculously expensive until you consider that Citi ThankYou points transfer 1 to 4 as long as you have a Strata Premier, Strata Elite, or Citi Prestige card. That means that the Citi ThankYou points cost per night ranges from only 3,750 to 37,500 points per night. That’s great!

I Prefer is far from a perfect rewards program. A distressingly large number of Preferred Hotels don’t allow points bookings at all. Elite recognition is poor (at least at some properties). Additionally, there are no options to use points to book free nights in higher-level rooms. Despite these limitations, I’m excited to have a new way to get great value booking high-end hotels!

Please note that booking Preferred Hotels with Choice points is a different process, and it remains a riskier path. Through Choice, the chance of things going wrong with your booking seems to be higher than through I Prefer.

To learn how to find and book Preferred Hotels with points, see: Guide to booking Preferred Hotels with points.

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