Not to stir up a hornets' nest, but I'm curious about how people are perceiving the new (in theory, expanded) IC free nights availability.

On my end, it continues to be absolutely horrible.

The vast majority of my stays, both paid and free redemptions, are in NY or Miami, and availability in both cities across all properties is horrendous.

There was a lot of talk about how this would be improved with more availability for IC, but I seriously doubt this is the case.

I can't imagine that there are so many IC members that it would break the bank to offer unlimited standard room availability on redemptions for top-tier elites. This is essentially the only thing that Kimpton could do to get me to start staying with them again.

It's a slap in the face to their most frequent guests, and it infuriates me to no end. Why would they rather have rooms go unfilled than make their top customers happy?

I've got no recent intel to offer, but would love to hear some perspectives on this as well. I've got a boatload of free nights that I'll likely try to start using here in a couple of months (probably more West Coast than East -- Seattle, Portland, San Fran). An updated view of how available nights are for IC folks would be useful.

This continues to frustrate me as well. There never seems to be availability where I want even months out. I have never had such issues booking a reward night with another hotel chain. Part of the frustration for me is having to call to check for availability, this often includes a long wait for a rep and ends in no rooms being available.

A reward night shouldn't be such a hassle!

Agreed, if it was online it would be annoying.

NYC availability is very limited.

I should probably let the hubs, who is the actual holder/booker of the Kimpton account, reply, but as far as I know we haven't really had problems using our free nights. We've tended to use them as part of a longer stay when rates are high so we can cost-average down. We've also tended to use them on the West Coast (LA and SF).

I have had a terrible time trying to book NYC properties and have been trying for months. It is very frustrating and I agree that the wait to speak with someone is very long. What troubles me is that you now have to use them within 12 months, rather than the previous 24 month policy. They have been kind enough to extend two separate certificates so that I don't lose them, but if they allowed more availability as other chains do, this wouldn't be an issue. I'm really hoping they re-think their policies.

This year I've successfully redeemed three consecutive nights in New York City, two separate nights in SF, and one night in Seattle. So while availability is not as good as with programs that allow rewards on any available standard room, I've been satisfied with my redemptions so far.

Is this before or after April 2014? Thus year, I redeemed several nights in April in NYC, and at that time reserved three nights in June. When I've called to redeem since then, I've been told that their policies have changed.

The NYC stays were in August, mostly likely reserved after April. Two of the SF stays were after April too.

I think, however, that only one of the SF redemptions was made after the transition to Kimpton Karma from InTouch.

I tried again today and was able to book two consecutive nights (a Friday and Saturday) for late March, 2015 at the MUSE! No luck in NYC for December though. So I'll just have to plan a bit more in advance for NYC stays.

I too have been trying to find availability in NYC in December. Looking over a 4 date range for almost 4 months now but have yet to find anything available. A reward night is only as good as its availability.

Since earning a free night with Kimpton, I've tried multiple times in multiple cities to use the night but have never been able to find an open room.

My experiences with Kimpton have been uneven, from a fantastic stay in Chicago to meh in NY to bad in DC. The perpetual lack of ability to redeem a reward pretty much closes the book on Kimptons for me.