Originally Posted by jpdx

Just completed a stay here. Really nice hard product, excellent staff.

We did some hotel hopping on this trip to burn various free nights -- also stayed at PH and Renaissance Vendome on this trip -- the Kimpton easily beats the latter and in many ways also the former. Over the last decade, we also had multiple stays at the IC, Indigo, various Hyatt and SPG/Marriott properties. The Kimpton is a solid choice compared to any of them.

The design of public spaces and rooms is beautiful. As Spire, we were upgraded to a Deluxe room -- apparently two categories up from our booked category (Essential). The latter are really small (200sqft), but of course such rooms are common at Parisian hotels. The Deluxe room was 300-ish sqft, and felt rather spacious. Beautifully appointed, with an extremely well-stocked minibar, a couch and coffee table, and a fair bit of open space to maneuver around. Bathroom is luxurious with great toiletries (Caudage). I couldn't really say anything bad about the room, except of course that it's lacking a work desk.

There's a Kimpton social hour at the library (above the lobby) offering wine/beer and tapas from 5 to 6pm -- for some reason, nobody else showed up, so just before 6pm, the waitress brought over the entire bottle of wine she had uncorked for us, along with a tray of lobster spring rolls and some gluten-free muffin bites, and invited us to finish it all off.

The social hour will reportedly remain past the official opening on August 23rd, but because our stay happened during the soft opening ("vernissage," see my post upthread), we also received some other benefits and had to deal with some closures. There was a welcome gift set up, consisting of some pastries, a 200ml bottle of vodka, and some cosmopolitan mixers. We put this to good use on the rooftop, where we sat for an hour and watched the sunset. The rooftop bar was still closed, so we had the space to ourselves. The view is spectacular, basically 360 degree views over Paris. Breakfast was offered per vernissage email, but I doubt that this will become a regular benefit (the price tag is an eye-watering €54). It was quite good, California-themed, breakfast burritos, avocado and the like. Nice after a month of French/Swiss/German hotel breakfasts, but perhaps not what most people seek out in Paris.

The fitness center is well-appointed, with Technogym machines. Pool area also very nice, and no Covid restrictions currently (at Renaissance, you had to pre-book 45 minute timeslots). Staff very friendly and genuinely interested in making sure that guests enjoy their stay, actively seeking feedback. Taxi drivers don't know the hotel yet, so make sure to have the address or be able to explain the location.

Overall, a GREAT hotel option in Paris. I wouldn't have minded a slightly better upgrade, seeing that the hotel was almost empty, but I realize that a 2 category upgrade on a points stay is all that (perhaps more than) one can hope for as Spire in Europe. (I didn't -generally don't- reach out prior to the stay to request a better upgrade, and I didn't -generally don't- haggle at check-in. There's a good chance that an "influencer" or perhaps anyone putting in a bit of effort would have gotten a suite). The hotel was an excellent place to use a 40k Chase free night cert, but I currently see it at 100k points. Anyone who has existing reservations at the 40k level will get excellent value here (even post "vernissage"), but I'd struggle to redeem here at the new inflated level, especially if you can get the Indigo at half the price. Similarly, there's no way I'd be shelling out €400 for the Kimpton when one could book the Indigo or, say, Marriott Opera for half.