In Remembrance of Kimpton

This morning, I shed a quiet tear in remembrance of Kimpton Hotels. By now, you’ve no doubt heard the news (which Weekly Flyer broke yesterday) that Kimpton has agreed to be acquired by Intercontinental Hotels Group. While I can’t say I was a frequent customer of the brand, I did often look for opportunities to stay with them when I could. Each stay always left me more impressed than the last. For a fleeting moment, I was once an Inner Circle member of the previous edition of their loyalty program. It was impressive, but Kimpton’s limited footprint simply did not allow me to maintain the stay count I needed.

Reality truly set in with an email this morning:

As a loyal member of our Kimpton Karma Rewards program, I wanted to share some very exciting news with you. We’ve just announced that Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has signed an agreement to be acquired by one of the world’s leading hospitality companies, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) www.ihg.com. We’re thrilled to be joining IHG, alongside the nine successful brands already in their portfolio, and see great alignment between our two companies.

Rest assured, this news doesn’t have any immediate impact to your benefits or how you experience Kimpton. We’ll continue to offer the same great perks and benefits through our Kimpton Karma Rewards program across our 62 Kimpton hotels and any reward nights you’ve racked up stay perfectly intact. For the time being (emphasis mine), the Kimpton Karma Rewards program and IHG Rewards Club will continue to run as separate loyalty programs.

We’re excited by the opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to expanding the unique Kimpton brand of hospitality.
As I’m sure you can imagine, transitions of this nature always take time. Please know we’ll continue to keep you informed. We just wanted to be the first to share the good news.

We’re always listening and love to hear from you.

Warmest Regards,
Mike Depatie, CEO

While I’m always hearing from some friends that I vastly underestimate the value of IHG Rewards, I can’t seem to mentally breakup with the idea that IHG = the Holiday Inn that used to be the only hotel in the small town along I-95 that I hail from. Perhaps with their takeover of Kimpton, I’ll take a second look. But for now, I’ll just shed a tear in remembrance of Kimpton.

-MJ, December 16, 2014