Overall: A fantastic use of IHG‘s 4th Night Free, but Kimpton needs to get with the IHG program.
Pros: Great location, beautiful hotel and surrounding property; quiet rooms.
Cons: Cheap bathrooms; no credit for on-property dining.
We paid: $0; 150,000 IHG points for 4 nights. Value: $1,436
How to stay at the Kimpton RiverPlace Portland Hotel without paying full price:
- Get the IHG Premier Card and link it to your IHG account.
- Hit the minimum spend required:
- $3K (at time of this writing) in 3 months
- Wait for your bonus points/nights to come into your IHG account.
- Search the app or website for award availability.
- Standard Nights at the Kimpton RiverPlace Hotel run for 50,000 points/night.
- If you book 3 nights with points (150,000 total), you get the 4th night free.
- UPDATE: As of June 2020, IHG introduced dynamic pricing. Standard Nights used to cost 50,000 points, and so far are staying steady at the same rate. It remains to be seen whether IHG’s overall pricing will increase after the coronavirus crisis passes.
- Book online through the IHG app or website. Call to link free night reservations together and make sure you get your 4th night free.
- For a full set of step-by-step instructions, see my guide to booking IHG hotels for free here.
Full Review: Kimpton RiverPlace Hotel Portland
This hotel, and surrounding area, is just beautiful. Of course it rained nonstop while we were there, so my pictures didn’t turn out as well as I would’ve liked, but the property is truly breathtaking.
Image courtesy of the hotel 
I just felt like I had to do a lot of “work” to help this place realize that it’s part of the IHG program. IHG acquired the Kimpton portfolio of hotels in late 2014, and it feels like the transition hasn’t fully occurred yet.
When we checked in, they didn’t recognize me as an IHG Platinum member (which is thanks to my IHG Premier Card). They didn’t give me my “Welcome Amenity,” which at this property was a $10 Raid the Bar credit. I had to go look this up, and they gave it to me after I came downstairs and asked about it.
The room was basic, no upgrade, but very comfortable. Note that no matter your status, when you book IHG hotels using points, their terms & conditions specifically state you will not receive an upgrade. This is in contrast to other hotel chains, most notably Hilton, where my partner routinely gets amazing upgrades regardless of booking with points or miles. (See the Conrad Osaka review for an over-the-top example.)
Even though the IHG terms state that rooms booked with points won’t receive upgrades, there are exceptions to this rule anyway: We got an upgrade to a nice Club room at the lovely InterContinental Berlin, which we booked with IHG points.
No dice here for an upgrade at the Kimpton RiverPlace, but our room was still nice.
The provided robes and umbrellas were thoughtful, since this is the Pacific Northwest and it rained for pretty much 4 days straight.
Another plus: They gave us some great blackout drapes, and the hotel is really quiet. We got some great sleep on this trip.
A downside: For such a beautiful property, I thought the bathroom was cheap. They don’t give you mini bottles of toiletries, which I know is all the rage these days. I’m not a fan. The tub/shower combo was nothing special either, and we could’ve used more towels.
Adding to the cheap impression: Selling the toiletries they don’t give you mini bottles of.
I liked that they don’t auto-charge $100 to your account if you used the hotel’s mini-fridge. However, that $10 Raid the Bar credit doesn’t go far. Each mini bottle of water cost $4.
Near the minibar was this note below. I don’t think a $5 dining credit to decline housekeeping is fair. It’s bad for the housekeepers and it’s a bad deal for guests. As mentioned, $4 gives you one warm mini bottle of water to share between two people.
But I want to end the room review on a positive note, because the Kimpton RiverPlace really is a worthy luxury property. There was a complimentary happy hour in the evening with beer, wine, and a small selection of snacks. We weren’t able to go, but we walked past it a couple times and it looked really nice. We appreciated the gesture.
Word to the wise: There is a $20 daily “guest amenities fee,” which you would pay if you were paying with cash, or a Cash & Points rate. Ours was waived because we paid entirely with points.
Review: Kimpton RiverPlace Hotel Portland Dining
We ate at the King Tide Fish & Shell, their on-site seafood restaurant, and really enjoyed it. The pickled deviled eggs were particularly awesome.
Let me be clear, I loved this restaurant and would definitely go back. That said, I have a gripe with the way IHG handles its program with the restaurant. We had a lovely time and charged the bill to our room, because I thought I’d get points for it – just like with every other hotel chain’s on-site restaurant. But a week later, the points still hadn’t appeared, and when I called IHG they were confused. After some searching around, they informed me that IHG awards no points for on-site dining with Kimpton hotels.
That’s right, you get zero points for dining on-property at a Kimpton hotel. I said I was disappointed because I charged the bill to my room specifically to receive IHG points. They pointed out that the Terms & Conditions state, in point 20 of this really long T&C page, that “Eligible Charges,” except at Kimpton hotels, also include food and beverage, telephone, laundry….”
Ok IHG, you got me. I should’ve read all the fine print. My takeaway here, though, is that IHG allows its acquired properties to avoid providing value to the program.
To IHG’s credit, they did provide me a one-time courtesy adjustment of the points I would’ve earned at the (lovely!) restaurant. I got my points after asking nicely, which is a huge piece of advice I always give: There’s nothing wrong with asking nicely.
Value per IHG point
$1,436 for 4 nights is what I would’ve paid in cash. Plus, I would’ve paid a $20 per night additional fee, for a total of $1,516. Since I paid with 150,000 points — including my 4th night free — this is an excellent redemption value of 1.01 cents per IHG point, double TPG’s valuation of .5 cents per point as of this writing.
Bottom line
This hotel was beautiful and quaint, with quiet and comfortable rooms. It also represents a fantastic value for redeeming IHG points. However, it doesn’t feel like Kimpton has been fully folded into the IHG family of hotels yet.
Would I stay here again? Absolutely I would, if I could get this kind of great value again! I wouldn’t try to receive IHG points at the on-site restaurant again though.
