Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.
For my family and friends, any chance to escape quarantine, experience a new (outdoor) setting and destress from the past several months has been a welcome opportunity.
For those planning hotel stays, certain brands have limited-time promotions or specials to make your stay more comfortable and rewarding. Select IHG hotels in the Kimpton brand, one of the best in the IHG portfolio, are offering an added bonus if you mention a “secret” password during your hotel stay in the next month.
What is the Kimpton Secret Password?
Kimpton hotels offer a unique benefit a few times a year in the form of a “secret password.” This phrase will unlock a special benefit that varies by property — often in the form of free drink coupons, a room upgrade or a piece of locally inspired swag as a souvenir for your trip. Kimpton will typically announce the arrival of a new secret password benefit on their Twitter account which is then valid for a few months.
Thankfully, Kimpton has just announced a new secret password that is specifically relevant in the midst of 2020 travel restrictions. From now until Sept. 25, mention the password “Road Trip” upon check-in at any Kimpton hotel or resort to receive a special treat. You can see Kimpton’s full announcement on its Twitter.
Some properties offer a standard benefit such as a resort credit or fun souvenir. But other Kimpton hotels will let you spin a wheel or randomly select a prize that can sometimes be particularly rewarding. For example, some readers have “won” complimentary parking or free breakfast benefits which can easily be worth $50 or more.
So if you find yourself headed to the swanky Kimpton La Peer Hotel in Hollywood or the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Baltimore, it’s certainly worth quickly mentioning “Road Trip” to see what reward you might earn.
How to make your stay at Kimpton even more rewarding
If you plan to stay at a Kimpton anyways, you should certainly try to maximize your rewards with IHG elite status or one of IHG’s current promotions, like earning up to 4x bonus points on top of the normal base and elite points you’d get.
Or for folks with IHG Points saved up, consider redeeming your points for an award night at a Kimpton hotel. On these award stays, you can benefit from elite status and the Kimpton secret password all while redeeming points! Just make sure your redeeming your IHG points at a good rate, COVID-19 has made hotel pricing pretty wacky in some cases, so it might make sense to pay cash at certain properties and save your points for a more worthwhile redemption.
If you plan to pay for your Kimpton hotel stay, I recommend you use an IHG credit card to maximize your points earning. Keep in mind that the IHG® Rewards Premier Credit Card awards automatic IHG Platinum elite status to cardholders, so your stay will be off to better than normal start. Or if you don’t have the IHG credit card, you can see our post on the best cards to earn IHG points.
Although my IHG hotel stays are infrequent, I have held IHG Platinum status for several years just by being an IHG Premier cardholder. I love the simple, rewarding treatment of IHG elite status holders–and I’m actually writing this post from an upgraded room at an IHG hotel in California right now!
Cards that earn a bonus on general travel purchases can also be good candidates like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve® which earn 2x and 3x points, respectively, on travel.
Bottom line
Although I’ve never personally stayed in a Kimpton hotel, I’ve long dreamed about visiting the Kimpton Seafire on Grand Cayman or the Kimpton SurfComber in South Beach. If you do have plans to visit a Kimpton hotel in the next month or so, mention “Road Trip” at check-in to get a special prize.
Be sure to take advantage of IHG’s current promotions and maximize your spending by using the right credit card. Kimpton hotels typically treat IHG elites very well, even on hotel stays paid in points.