Citi Adds Preferred Hotels As A Transfer Partner

They said it couldn't be done. Blog after blog said there were no rooms available fully on points with Citi's newest transfer partner, Preferred Hotels. There is no doubt that the Preferred Hotels iPrefer program is clunky and not super beneficial for points bookings, but where others failed I have succeeded. I have found a whopping FOUR hotels where you can book the rooms fully with points in the Preferred Hotels iPrefer program. There in lies the rub of this program. While it can offer you a lot of value, most of the time you will be covering most of the freight. Funny enough, Citi has another transfer partner (Choice Hotels) which offers you more flexibility with Preferred Hotels than its own program does. Let's get into all of this with the news that Citi adds Preferred Hotels as a transfer partner with a crazy 1 to 4 rate.

Newest Transfer Partner On The Block

Whenever a new transfer partner hits a transferrable currency it is big news. Outside of Bilt's fast ascension into the transfer partner game, these things don't happen all that often. Then, when you hear you are going to get 4 points in return for 1 Citi ThankYou point your ears perk up even more. That is unheard of around these parts, even with lowly valued points like Hilton Honors.

Well, that is exactly what you got as Citi ThankYou points added the Preferred Hotels iPrefer program as a transfer partner. For every 1 Citi point you will receive 4 iPrefer points. Pure insanity! That must mean they are worth near nothing, right? It is a fair assumption, but it would be wrong. You know that saying about assumptions after all, don't you? The value actually falls in the range of Hilton and Marriott points, and that is before you account for getting 4 of them. That is if you can actually use them, and usability is where value gets thrown out the window.

My Initial Searches

There are supposed to be over 650 hotels in the Preferred Hotels program, which is a decent amount. It is on the small side compared to the larger chains, but 650 gives us quite a bit to work with. That is if you can actually book them with points. Most people gave up searching after a little bit, but I figured out how to search their entire portfolio for points bookings. You know what I found? Four hotels, yes FOUR, that had rooms fully bookable on points.

• Inn by the Sea, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
  • 100,000 points a night
  • Available into June
• The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
  • 30,000 points a night
  • Available across the calendar
• Hotel España, Barcelona Spain
  • 50,000 points a night
  • Available through the summer
• THE THOUSAND KYOTO
  • 50,000 points a night
  • Available into next spring

There could be more than this, because their system is junk, but this is all I could come up with. To Preferred Hotels' credit the points prices stayed static throughout the calendar, even as the cash prices fluctuated widely. The value of these points seem to be in the $0.003 – $0.009 range per point. That would give you a range of 1.2 cents to 3.6 cents per Citi ThankYou point. The high end of that range is pretty amazing, no doubt.

Cash & Points Bookings

Outside of these hotels there were hit and miss cash and points booking opportunities. Most of the options I saw were for 10,000 points plus cash, but it looks like they do go up to 30,000 points plus cash for super expensive hotels. The cash amount would fluctuate as the room rates went up or down. Because of that, the value of the points would fluctuate on cash and points bookings too. They offered similar values as listed above for total award bookings. If you were going to pay cash for one of these hotels anyway, then this option may make sense to shave a little bit off the top.

While many of the hotels offers points and cash options, just as many offered no points bookings at all. It sounds like some hotels in the Preferred Hotels iPrefer program never enroll their hotel in the points program, which is a bummer.

What About Booking With Choice Hotels Instead?

The really weird thing about this addition of Preferred Hotels to the Citi ThankYou points portfolio is that you could already book their hotels with ThankYou points. That is because Preferred Hotels is a partner of Choice Hotels, and the Choice Privileges program is a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou points. For these transfers to Choice Hotels get an industry best 2 Choice Privileges points for 1 ThankYou point.

There is no doubt that the 4 points you get with the iPrefer transfer is better than the 2 you get with Choice. Choice Hotel points are worth about double iPrefer points on average though, so it makes sense in that respect. However, the Preferred Hotels partnership works a bit outside of Choice's normal award chart, so that isn't comparing apples to apples.

Here is how it looks when they go head to head booking the same hotels (yes, all 4 of them!) between the two programs:

• Inn by the Sea,
  • 100,000 iPrefer points a night, or 25,000 Citi ThankYou points
  • 81,000 Choice Privileges points, or 40,500 Citi ThankYou points
• The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
  • 30,000 iPrefer points a night, or 7,500 ThankYou points
  • 26,000 Choice Privileges points, or 13,000 ThankYou points
• Hotel España, Barcelona Spain
  • 50,000 iPrefer points a night, or 12,500 ThankYou points
  • 27,000 Choice Privileges points, or 13,500 ThankYou Points
• THE THOUSAND KYOTO
  • 50,000 iPrefer points a night, or 12,500 ThankYou points
  • 35,000 Choice Privileges points, or 17,500 ThankYou points

As you can see, the Preferred Hotels iPrefer program comes out ahead in every single comparison. That is of course assuming you are transferring the complete amount from Citi ThankYou points for both bookings. The problem is that so few hotels are bookable fully on points in the iPrefer program, and that is the feather in the Choice Privileges cap.

Where Choice Hotels Becomes The Better Option For Your ThankYou Points

When you search the Preferred Hotels program via Choice Hotels (you can do that here) you notice a stark difference. There are so many more hotels available fully on points! Something can be worth a ton, but if it isn't useful does it really matter? Nope! That is what we are running into here. The Choice Privileges program offers so much more opportunity that it is the far better option for booking Preferred Hotels, except for the rare place you can find iPrefer award space.

Citi Adds Preferred Hotels As A Transfer Partner: ToP Thoughts

I'll put together a guide on booking Preferred Hotels with the Choice program soon so people know how to search both programs. My best advice is to start with the iPrefer program for your searches. If you can book the hotel with their points then this will likely be your best option. If there is no iPrefer award space showing, then head over to the Choice Hotels program and search the same areas for award space. You will likely be able to find what you are looking for there, even if it is a little more expensive than it could be otherwise.

If the iPrefer program ever gets its properties to fully buy into award bookings then this program could be the best option for your Citi ThankYou points. Until then, it will be a super, super niche booking option. I would suggest jumping on that Barcelona and Kyoto award space while you can though!