Used to be good program but now no longer is, with useless rewards and bad customer service. Sent them the following letter and got a response offering to extend reward nights for another year- usefulness of that is zero. Then got another response saying they are just as disappointed at the outcome of this as I am. Time to try another hotel chain.

7/23/2014

Rosty
<Address>

Kimpton Hotels
222 Kearny St, Ste 200
San Francisco, CA 94108

To Whom It May Concern,

The purpose of this letter is to complain about Kimpton InTouch/Karma Rewards Loyalty Program and your company’s inferior customer service in general.

On July 22, 2014 I contacted your Karma Rewards helpline with intent to redeem two reward nights for staying in Portland from October 3 to October 5, 2014. After confusion with my reward nights was sorted out the representative advised me that there were no reward nights available for redemption at any of the Portland area hotels that weekend. This is despite the fact that all three hotels were showing availability. I advised the representative that I was long-time Kimpton InTouch/Inner Circle member and expected to be able to redeem awards or at least get a clear explanation of why these were not redeemable. As such I asked to speak to his supervisor. The representative told me that no supervisor was available at the time and ensured me that either Lorraine or Trish would contact me first thing in the morning. I followed up this request with e-mail to Kimpton and got response back from Lauren indicating that my concern was forwarded to Lorraine and Trish and one of them would be contacting me as soon as possible. As of 2pm PST on July 23, 2014 nobody has contact me and there is no indication that anyone ever will.

I have been Kimpton customer for many years and always gave your hotels preference during all business and personal trips. This is indicated clearly by my preferred status in your Rewards Loyalty Program. Over these years your company was boasting benefits of this Loyalty Program as being the best in class. Unfortunately as I just discovered this loyalty program offers very little other than useless non-redeemable reward nights and non-existent customer service. Regretfully I invested both time and money to stay in your hotels while I could have been accruing useful points at one of the better hotel chains.

In summary I would like to point out the business cost of this customer service failure. I already canceled my reservation at 70 park avenue hotel for the upcoming August trip at the cost of approximately $1,500. Going forward I will no longer book my business or personal trips at any of your hotels. With approximately 6-8 business trips per year this adds up to $9,000-12,000. Finally there will be costs from negative publicity associated with this matter as I intend to post negative feedback on all travel related sites that I am a member of.

Regards,
Rosty

There's a thread about reduced award availability here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...aluations.html

Thank you for the reference. Glad to hear that I am not the only one having issues with their loyalty program.

Just called to see how the Inner Circle benefit of free stays at new hotels would play out after the Karma Conversion. I haven't been able to use any of the free stays to date, but I wanted to see if I could score one on an upcoming vacation now that I finally have some time off. The person I spoke with basically told me there wasn't such a benefit - she was polite, but it was a very frustrating conversation.

Hi HookemHorns,

I'm so sorry you were told that the New Hotel Free Night Offer isn't happening. The fact is that The Brice has just opened it's doors to our Inner Circle members so they can check out our Southern Belle on us. The offer is good until 12/30/2014. Here's the info:

https://www.kimptonhotels.com/promos...w-hotel-offers

FYI, the phone number (888-424-7667) on that website doesn't seem to work.

Nice catch. They have the phone number typo on there twice (also in the Terms section.)

Extra Karma for you SJC AA!

For those who don't know, I think the correct number is 1-866-424-7667.

Completely useless reward program, as indicated earlier. Just tried to redeem a reward night in Seattle and got - we have no reward availability in any of our hotels, sorry. Glad I went with Hilton Honors instead.

FlyerTalkers - We launched Kimpton Karma Rewards last month, and we’d love to chat with you about the new program and anything you might be curious about. Join us on Twitter August 28th at 10am PDT for a #KimptonKarmaChat with Maggie Lang, Sr. Director of Guest Marketing at Kimpton.

I got an invitation to an event called Crave Kimpton at the Hotel Monaco in DC on September 18th. It looks interesting according to their website. I think I am going to try make it.

That sounds awesome. Please report back on the experience. Do you frequent that location or live in the area? (Curious what triggers an invite)

I am an Inner Circle member with DC area address. Another friend of mine who was also Inner Circle and a DC area resident got an invitation too, so I assume that was their criteria. I'll be sure to post a re-cap after the event. Looks like it should be fun!

I received the Crave invite too. I should be able to attend

Edit: I RSVP'd but have no confirmation. Is that what others are experiencing?

Don't forget about our Twitter chat this morning. Please join us at 10am PT. We launched Kimpton Karma Rewards last month, and we’d love to chat with you about the new program and anything you might be curious about. Join us on Twitter August 28th at 10am PDT for a #KimptonKarmaChat with Maggie Lang, Sr. Director of Guest Marketing at Kimpton.

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