IHG Is Finally Adding Kimpton to Its Loyalty Program
Photo Caption: Nearly three years later, IHG is finally merging Kimpton's loyalty program into its own. Pictured here is the new Kimpton Hotel Born Denver. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
Skift Take
Whatever IHG ultimately does as it proceeds with this loyalty program merger, the No. 1 thing they don't want to do is to anger Kimpton Karma elites. We also wonder: Will new IHG CEO Keith Barr start letting IHG's most elite loyalty members get access to his phone number too?
It's been 1,008 days since InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) acquired Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the company that jumpstarted the boutique hotels movement in the U.S., for a cool $430 million.
And in those thousand or so days, there hasn't been much news to report on the two entities' respective loyalty programs, both of which have continued to operate separately — until now.
Friday morning, IHG announced that by early 2018, Kimpton Karma Rewards will become a part of IHG Rewards Club, forming a combined loyalty program with a single points-based reward system.
When the combination of the two programs is completed next year, all Kimpton Karma Rewards members will be automatically enrolled into IHG Rewards Club, which is considered to be the world's largest hotel loyalty program by membership numbers with more than 100 million members total. IHG wouldn't divulge exactly how many members are in the Kimpton Karma Rewards program, or what kind of overlap there is in mem
