www.kimptonhotels.com/karma-rewards/overview
Rating (out of five stars): 4 stars
Kimpton Hotels recently overhauled their loyalty program as well as their website. The Karma Rewards home page features warm tones and a photo of a very desirable cocktail and declares, “Good things come to those who stay.”
InTouch is now called Karma Rewards and members and potential members can read about the program through five links: Overview, Benefits, FAQ’s, Exclusive Offers and Join. (Kimpton, take note: it should be FAQs–not the possessive FAQ’s.) Other than that grammatical error, the site is good, and is clean, fresh and built to work well on mobile devices. The Overview page mirrors the home page and indicates that members get a $10 bar credit, that they can earn free nights, receive exclusive offers, free WiFi and a $30 spa credit.
The Benefits page explains the different tier levels and what is offered at each level. Just for joining, members get benefits like a $10 bar credit. After three stays or 10 nights, you obtain Tier 2 with additional benefits, up to the Inner Circle (the fourth tier) with 14 stays or 40 nights in a year that includes benefits like greater award availability, a complimentary night at new hotels and even “exclusive direct access to Kimpton’s CEO.”
There is also a link to the full terms and conditions where you can learn things like stay credits will expire if a member has no account activity for 24 months and, “In keeping with our green hotel policy, member cards and other printed member material will not be mailed to members.” Also, the bar credit is $15 instead of $10 for New York City stays.
The Exclusive Offers page on the day we visited the site listed seven offers in 23 cities such as 25 percent off stays at the Monaco San Francisco or up to 20 percent off and double stay credit at more than 45 hotels across the country.
The site also incorporates humor into your experience. For example, when joining the program, you’ll be asked to pick an answer to, “I’m happy when my room is…” and one of the options is “not spinning.” You can also answer these fill-in-the blank questions: “If I wasn’t working, I’d be…” and “Anything else we should know?” (We are curious what Kimpton does with this information.)
Kimpton also asks those signing up for the program their favorite Kimpton Hotel or restaurant and for all the pet lovers out there–Kimpton asks for your pet’s name, type of pet, breed and favorite treat. You can also sign up for emails from Kimpton and can choose what interests you such as member feedback, pets, healthy travel, exclusive offers and more. Exclusive offers and newsletters & account summary are automatically selected. You can add to those with other interests or unsubscribe from all. You can also choose the email frequency. (We chose, “I can’t get enough.”)
You can also enter your Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and website/blog information. And if you give Kimpton the last four digits of your credit card, you’ll get, “a little extra Karma when you dine with us, even if you’re not staying in one of our boutiques hotels.”
