The Citi Travel portal offers two hotel programs for cardholders with ThankYou Rewards points-earning credit cards: The Reserve and Hotel Collection.
The Reserve is Citi’s refresh of the Luxury Collection, and features five-star properties. This group of hotels is designed to compete with premium hotel collections such as American Express’ Fine Hotels + Resorts and The Edit by Chase Travel℠. It offers perks such as daily breakfast, a room upgrade (based on availability) and a $100 experience credit.
Meanwhile, Citi Travel’s Hotel Collection is a lower-tier collection that is on par with others in this space, such as Capital One’s Lifestyle Collection and Amex’s The Hotel Collection.
With recent changes to Citi’s lineup of points-earning cards, existing and prospective cardholders may be wondering how to use the Citi Travel portal for hotel bookings. Is it better to book with the Hotel Collection instead of booking directly, and can your Citi ThankYou Rewards points be of any use?
Here’s a detailed look at Citi’s Hotel Collection and The Reserve — and whether you should use them.
What is the Citi Hotel Collection?
Citi’s Hotel Collection is a specific list of hotels and resorts that can be booked via Citi Travel powered by Booking.com. It’s important to note that the Hotel Collection only includes four-star hotels and resorts.
Anyone with a credit card that earns Citi ThankYou points can access Citi Travel and Citi’s Hotel Collection. Reservations booked directly with a Hotel Collection property include additional benefits such as daily breakfast for two and complimentary Wi-Fi. Depending on individual room availability, you may also receive early check-in and late checkout privileges.
What is The Reserve by Citi Travel?
The Reserve is Citi Travel’s most premium accommodation offering. It includes select five-star properties and offers top-tier benefits.
Booking The Reserve properties is only available to the following cardholders:
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The information for the Citi Prestige Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Based on several searches of top destinations such as New York City, London, Paris and Rome, the selection of The Reserve properties is quite different from what you’ll find with a competitor’s travel portal. As the name suggests, you would expect to be able to book well-known and top-tier properties, but I’ve found it to be lacking. Major luxury brands such as Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Ritz-Carlton, Park Hyatt and others seem to be missing. In my opinion, the other hotels under The Reserve are not comparable to these brands.
Therefore, this could be a pain point for cardholders who may be looking for more luxurious and elevated properties, especially when they can be booked on Chase’s The Edit or Amex’s Fine Hotels + Resorts.
Comparing the perks and benefits of Citi’s The Reserve vs. Citi’s Hotel Collection
Here’s a breakdown of the perks and benefits each hotel program offers:
| Benefit | The Reserve | Hotel Collection |
|---|---|---|
| Daily breakfast for two | Included | Included |
| Complimentary Wi-Fi | Included | Included |
| Early check-in/late checkout | Based on availability | Based on availability |
| Room upgrade | Based on availability | Not offered |
| On-property credit | $100 experience credit (redemptions vary by property) | None |
Although some benefits are guaranteed when booking with either The Reserve or Hotel Collection, other perks, such as early check-in and late checkout, are not.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you cannot receive consecutive $100 experience credits if you make separate back-to-back reservations. According to Citi’s terms, multiple reservations at the same hotel on continuous dates count as one stay, even if you check out and check in again.
To see what offers are included with either hotel program, click on “See offers” when a hotel is marked as part of the Hotel Collection or The Reserve.
How to book Citi Hotel Collection and The Reserve stays
To book a hotel in the Hotel Collection or The Reserve, start your search on Citi Travel by providing your destination, dates and the number of guests.
In the results, you’ll notice hotels with a Hotel Collection or The Reserve tag.
To filter for Hotel Collection or The Reserve properties, be sure to check the boxes under “Collection type” on the left pane in the result filters. Even after filtering for hotels by collection type, Citi Travel may still show you other hotels, but they’ll be located after Hotel Collection and The Reserve properties.
Not all room rates at a property offer the extra benefits of Hotel Collection or The Reserve. Make sure you choose an eligible room rate to receive the additional benefits, and know that it will cost more than choosing a room rate without Hotel Collection or The Reserve benefits.
You can see below that a Hotel Collection-eligible room is about $200 more per night compared to a standard rate without the additional benefits.
Related: A comparison of luxury hotel programs from credit card issuers: Amex, Capital One, Chase and Citi
Will I earn elite status or loyalty benefits at hotels?
When booking a Hotel Collection or The Reserve property through Citi Travel, you will not be able to enter your loyalty number if the hotel is a part of a loyalty program brand such as World of Hyatt or Marriott Bonvoy.
Even if you have elite status with a hotel program, it will not be recognized when booking through Citi Travel, so you won’t receive any of those perks, nor will you get points or elite night credits for your stay.
Hotel rewards programs typically require booking directly with the hotel to receive elite status benefits. Therefore, if earning elite status is important to you, you may be better off booking with the property.
Related: 9 things to consider when choosing to book via a portal vs. booking directly
Can I use Citi points to book?
The good news is that you can use your Citi ThankYou Rewards points toward any hotel booking and not just ones for Hotel Collection or The Reserve properties. You can redeem points at a value of 1 cent apiece, and you can pay for a booking entirely using ThankYou points or a combination of points and cash.
Although this sounds convenient, it may not be the best value for your points. According to TPG’s August 2025 valuations, Citi ThankYou Rewards points are worth 1.9 cents each when you take advantage of Citi’s 21 transfer partners. In that case, redeeming ThankYou points for 1 cent apiece isn’t ideal if you’re trying to squeeze the most value out of your rewards.
Instead, transfer your points to loyalty programs such as American Airlines AAdvantage or Air France-KLM Flying Blue, where you’ll get maximum value for your redemptions, especially for premium-cabin tickets.
What are the benefits of booking through the Citi Travel portal?
If you have select Citi cards, you can combine a card’s hotel credit or perk with a booking made with a Hotel Collection or The Reserve property.
As a cardholder of the following cards, here are some benefits you can take advantage of for Hotel Collection or The Reserve bookings:
- Citi Strata Elite Card: Up to a $300 annual hotel credit on a single prepaid hotel stay (minimum two-night stay)
- Citi Strata Premier Card: A $100 hotel credit each calendar year on a booking of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees)
- Citi Prestige: Receive a fourth night free on hotel bookings, available up to twice per calendar year
You can book a Hotel Collection hotel as a cardholder of a Citi ThankYou points-earning credit card. The Reserve rates are only available to cardholders of the Citi Strata Elite, the Citi Strata Premier and the Citi Prestige.
You’ll earn bonus points on Citi Travel purchases with the following cards:
The information for the Citi Custom Cash has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
When you hear about getting free daily breakfast, an on-site $100 credit and the potential to get a room upgrade, it may sound like a win. However, it isn’t necessarily worth taking advantage of.
Booking a Hotel Collection or The Reserve property is worth it if the price is similar to what you’ll get when booking directly or with another issuer’s travel portal. It becomes less appealing when there’s a higher price, especially if it outweighs the additional benefits either program offers.
If you’re a cardholder of the Citi Strata Elite Card, Citi Strata Premier or the Citi Prestige, it may be worth booking with these programs so as long as you use the hotel benefits that these cards provide. It’s a good way to recoup some of the cost of the annual fee.
The hotel programs are useful for bookings at boutique hotels where the question of elite status is irrelevant and you receive elitelike benefits. In addition, if the price for a hotel is the same as booking another way (but without the added benefits), using these programs makes sense.
Related: Complete guide to booking Citi Prestige complimentary fourth-night hotel stays
Bottom line
Citi Travel offers two hotel programs, Hotel Collection and The Reserve, that provide cardholders with additional perks and benefits. When booking with either program, cardholders can also pay using their points, which is a huge plus for those not interested in transferring points to hotel partners.
Just keep in mind that bookings made with Hotel Collection or The Reserve tend to be higher priced than regular room rates, so consider if the tradeoff for additional benefits is worth the extra cost.
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