Trying to use an expiring award night next week in Portland where there are 3 Kimpton properties. All 3 properties seem to show 'standard' room availability (as well as suite availability).

Speaking with an agent, they all show no award availability. Even with the "Greater Reward Availability" to ICs they're showing nothing. The agent was kind enough to escallate to her supervisor to see if they could do anything. But emailed me to confirm that nothing was available.

I get keeping award nights availability limited for revenue management purposes. But to keep the process opaque is equally frustrating. Anyhoo I've never used the IC CEO line, is it worth a call or am I being petty?

I've never used the "direct line" but keep us posted if you choose to do it.

Keep in mind that the Riverplace Hotel (one of three Portland properties) is pretty small. I think they have less than 90 rooms, is on the waterfront, and it is currently the nicest time of year to visit Portland. Probably comparable to the Canary which is also pretty difficult to book with rewards.

For what it's worth, I book reward nights relatively frequently in Portland, but there is almost never availability until the week before. If there's nothing available a few weeks out I usually just call every day starting a week out and have been successful every time I've tried this in the last year or so (maybe 3-4 times total - at the RiverPlace, our first choice, or the Vintage). But it sounds like you're trying to book close-in, so maybe even that approach doesn't work in the July/August high season...

I ended up booking a "last minute special" cash rate at the Vintage. Good news was it ended up being a good $125 discount off of the 'rack' rate - and got a nice IC upgrade to boot. But i still continue to find it a bummer that they'll hold back nights from award redemption, while offering last-minute deep-discounts and rooms on "Hotel Tonight."

Just curious if anyone has any guesses how Kimpton reimburses hotel owners for award nights - curious if that impacts the revenue management decisions. Is it like Hyatt where its a fixed reimbursement rate? Or some other formula (might the hotels even "eat" the award night as part of their 'marketing' budget which I get the sense is how the IC new property rewards are handled...)

Actually, I believe both Hyatt and SPG only have a fixed reimbursement rate when the hotel's occupancy rate for the night is below a certain percentage, at which point it is increased to something like the average daily room rate or something similar. It makes sense for those programs because the award nights are not capacity controlled (in theory so long as there is a "standard" room available, awards nights are available for redemption).

Because both IHG and Kimpton's award nights are capacity controlled, I would be willing to bet that there is just a fixed reimbursement rate which is likely way below each property's typical room rates.

Because Kimpton is such a small chain with a small loyalty program, I'm not sure there is too much public knowledge about how the award night capacity controls work (like if properties must make a certain % of nights available each year, and even on those nights, if they must make a certain number of standard rooms available).

I'm looking to use some reward nights in Seattle in July. This is my first time booking reward nights with Kimpton. I called in and there was nothing available at any hotel in Seattle (there are 4 Kimptons). But she said they likely haven't loaded any inventory yet and suggested calling back 4 months out.

It was fairly vague so I'm curious if anyone has had experience with award inventory? Is it fairly specific to how each hotel decides to handle it? Calling in is a bit of a pain so checking back frequently won't be as easy as if I could look online.

Thanks

A few months ago i used a reward for canary Santa Barbara fiesta Saturday august 2018...