This past weekend, the Michael W Travels family headed to Philadelphia. The primary reason for our short visit was to spend our first ever stay at a Kimpton Hotel.
Our very pricey Saturday night stay was booked with my IHG Anniversary Free Night, making this a really sweet deal.
While checking in, I gave the Kimpton Secret Password. However, the front desk didn’t know that a new password was out. Regardless, we were given a nice little credit.
Before leaving the check-in area, I was told that there was something else for being an IHG Rewards Club Platinum Elite member.
I was given a Raid The Bar coupon, good for $10 at the bar or at the room mini bar. Before getting to our room, we were already liking the Kimpton culture. It appears that they like to give a little something back to their guests.
Once we arrived at our room, I decided to check out what the options were for the mini bar. I don’t believe that I’ve ever used the mini bar in my life. In fact, we usually ask to have it emptied to use the fridge for the kids’ food and drinks.
$10 might sound like a generous offer but in all honesty, you can’t do much bar raiding for $10 at the Kimpton! The mini bar prices are PRICEY!
Do I need an $8 Red Bull? Maybe a $5 bag of chips!
In the end, I decided to go with an item which I figured Lucas and I would enjoy.
For $10, we went with a pouch of Righteous Felon Beef Jerky.
I can’t say that I’ve heard of the brand before but the flavor sounded good and the packaging looked nice enough.
The jerky sells for around $5.50- $8.00 per packet so this wasn’t even such a crazy mark-up for a hotel mini bar!
Thanks Kimpton for the IHG Rewards Club elite benefit!
Handley V Baxendale- Calling the perk “jerky” was a joke about our selection, not a knock on Kimpton. However, calling the benefit, Raid the Bar is a stretch when you can’t purchase much for that amount.
Steve T- I didn’t know that all get a Raid the Bar. The back of the coupon says it’s the IHG Elite perk.
All guests at Kimpton receive a Raid the Bar credit whether or not you are an IHG member. Although this isn’t an issue with your Free Night stay, a bigger concern is that Kimpton hasn’t always interfaced with the IHG program. If you charged the stay with an IHG credit card, you may not get the 5X points for each dollar spent and if you are registered with Accelerate you may not get the 1500 point bonus.
That’s actually not true.
With the new program, only Gold Elite and above get Raid the Bar.
I actually like this better since it means you’re actually getting something for being a frequent guest, where before all you had to do was sign up.
I stayed at the Kimpton Monaco under my wife’s free night and she is a Spire member.
She received the same Raid the Bar $10 credit, and although not overwhelming, we chose a larger $5.50 bag of peanut M & M’s and some cheeze twists like cheetos @ $4.40.
Since they came under $10.00 they were both free and were quite satisfying watching the rain swept Memorial Day concert — which we had hoped to attend in person.
I would not describe the perk as jerky, and unlike you, our gift was an engraved Kimpton glass — I would have preferred the credit.
Nevertheless, you should not disparage any gifts at all, in my opinon.