Citi Travel, Booking.com to Create New Platform

Financial services giant Citi Bank is expanding its foray into the travel business by launching Citi Travel in conjunction with Booking.com.

The launch will take place early in the fourth quarter of this year, the company said.

According to research by Citi Travel and Booking.com, Americans are eager to travel but often plan their trips around sales or promotions to catch better deals. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it inhibits travelers from vacationing or going to a family function that are specific to a certain date.

Citi and Booking.com understand that, hence the reason they created the Citi Travel portal platform.

“Leveraging the scale and range of Booking.com, the new Citi Travel provides an unmatched breadth of hotel reservation options,” the companies said in a statement. “With more than 1.4 million hotels available worldwide – ranging from boutiques to beloved chains – there is the right option for every budget, vacation type and preference.”

The collaboration between Citi and Booking.com is part of an overall trend of financial institutions and banks delving more and more into the travel sector. That includes Capital One and Hopper Cloud; the launch of the U.K.-based bankrate app Revolut, backed by Expedia; U.S. Bancorp’s acquisition of the app TravelBank; American Express’ exclusive booking site on GetYourGuide; and JPMorgan Chase, which will soon launch ChaseTravel.com for all Chase members.

Citi Travel benefits for cardmembers will include:

Comparing compare hotel, air, and car rental options and more through an intuitive and modern platform, now accessible directly from the Citi website and Citi mobile app.

Paying for travel with your cards, ThankYou Points, or a combination of the two. Some 22 percent of survey respondents to Citi and Booking.com say and inability to use or earn rewards is one of the biggest roadblocks for them when booking a vacation.