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Kimpton InTouch members have a valuable incentive to hotel stay this summer. Kimpton’s InTouch hotel frequent guest program will give members staying 3 times at any of the 42 Kimpton Hotels in the USA and Canada by August 31, 2008 a free night at any Kimpton Hotel.
Free Night Summer Promotion Terms:
- Promotional Period: June 15 – August 31, 2008
- Must be a Kimpton Hotels InTouch member at time of stay for credit eligibility. As long as member enrolls before checkout, the stay is eligible.
- Any Kimpton Hotels website published rate or package rate is eligible.
- A stay is defined as one or more consecutive nights at a single property regardless of check-in/ check-out dates.
- Free Night credit will be applied the week of September 1, 2008
- This promotion is combinable with the regular InTouch frequent guest benefit of earning a free night after 7 eligible stays.
- One Bonus Night can be earned for stays during the promotional period.
By the Numbers:
The Kimpton InTouch frequent guest earns one free night after 3 stays with this summer promotion. I put the numbers at about $480 to $600 after taxes, for 3 paid hotel nights based on sample rates in San Francisco ($144, Sir Francis Drake Hotel July 3, 2008), Denver ($143, Hotel Monaco, July 11) and Washington, D.C. ($139, Hotel Madera, July 12).
One free night for a mid-week urban stay in the Kimpton Hotels of New York City or Washington, D.C. can regularly be in the $350 to $500 range for mid-week stays.
$449, The Muse Hotel, NYC, Wed. Nov 19
$500 to stay 3 nights in a Kimpton hotel this summer can have a 100% return on investment with one night free in a $500 per night room in New York City later in the year.
7 Stays Earns a Free Night, the regular benefit with Kimpton InTouch
The InTouch frequent guest normally earns a free night after 7 stays. There is a significant opportunity for high value when you combine the summer promotion with the regular loyalty benefit to earn 2 free hotel nights with as few as 7 paid nights (as 7 one-night stays). I put the numbers at about $1,000 to $1,400 for 7 paid hotel nights based on rates in San Francisco ($144, Sir Francis Drake Hotel July 3, 2008), Denver ($143, Hotel Monaco, July 11) and Washington, D.C. ($139, Hotel Madera, July 12). There is the potential for nearly $2,000 in hotel room value with 9 hotel nights for around a $1,100 pay-out.
A brand new member to Kimpton Hotels InTouch program can get nearly a 100% return on investment if you can plan your hotel stays to maximize the value of the free nights. At the low-end a member should be able to get at least $600 in free room value with two free nights after as few as 7 paid nights.
Kimpton InTouch Free Night Rewards Benefit Spans the Years
A feature of Kimpton’s InTouch frequent guest program is a running hotel stay history on the member’s account that carries eligibility for free night credit from one calendar year to later years. Normally a member earns a free Kimpton hotel night credit after every 7 hotel stays or 20 hotel nights. The stays and nights do not need to be in the same year. In theory, after earning a free night from the 2008 summer promotion with 3 stays, the member could stay 2 more times in 2009 and 2 more times in 2010 and earn a free night after the 7th stay two years from now.
Loyalty Traveler Commentary “Earn Them and Burn Them”
The rules as written now for Kimpton InTouch frequent guests grant a free night after every 7 stays. This rule can change at anytime and it is important for a loyalty traveler to realize frequent guest program rules are dynamic. The trend in hotel frequent guest programs across the industry is to make free nights more expensive to redeem. Since Kimpton’s InTouch does not work on a hotel points-based structure of earning and redemption, the logical adjustment in the future is to up the stays/nights ratio for a free night. The free night after 7 Kimpton stays will likely be adjusted as the program grows and might be adjusted to something like earn a free night after 10 stays or 25 nights.
Earn Them and Burn Them.
The point is the loyalty traveler should plan on earning and spending within six months to a year to accurately estimate the value of your hotel loyalty program promotions. In the current hotel industry environment there are not many instances where loyalty program benefits become significantly more generous for the member in terms of earning free nights and plenty of instances where value deteriorated significantly with frequent guest program adjustments.
About Kimpton Hotels
There are currently 41 boutique-style hotels open in the USA and most prominent in the key cities of San Francisco (9 hotels) and Washington, D.C. (7 hotels). There are not a lot of Kimpton Hotels, however, they are located in the major cities around the country. Several more hotels will be opening soon and industry news indicates Kimpton Hotels has money and plans to buy properties in key US and Canadian markets over the next couple of years.
1 comment:
I stayed at the Hotel Vintage Park in Seattle, one of three Kimpton hotels in Seattle--Alexis and Monaco being the other two. It's fabulous, featuring the wineries of WA state in each room. It has the chumminess of a B & B with wine tastings every night and each room distinctively designed and, yet, the annonimity and aloofness of a fine hotel; a wonderful combination.
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