Kimpton Experience

Bandit and Ben sharing the bed. Bandit says to me, “Don’t even think about it!”

I want to share my Kimpton experience in Baltimore. Last month, Ben, Bandit, and I went down to Baltimore so that Bandit could go on vacation to celebrate my birthday by running in the Baltimore Running Festival. We spent Saturday night at Hotel Monaco Baltimore, a Kimpton Hotel. We are big fans of the Kimpton and highly recommend it. Whenever we travel with Bandit and there’s a Kimpton hotel available. we try to stay there.

For one thing, they’re truly dog-friendly. All dogs stay free and are welcomed with a special goody bag of dog treats. The staff is friendly and I love how they’re happy to engage with Bandit. If you request a dog bed and food and water bowls, they’ll be brought up to your room. It’s such a relief to go out and know that Bandit is happily resting (well, as happily as a dog with separation anxiety can be) comfortably in the room, rather than our being forced to lock her up in a crate the way some hotels ask you to do if you’re leaving the dog alone.

Every day at 5 o’clock at every Kimpton, there’s a wine hour with complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres. It’s a nice social hour to mingle with other guests if you choose, or you can keep to yourself. It was lovely to socialize with Bandit because we love going to places with her. She was very well-behaved (and we rewarded her with little bites of the flatbread pizza that we were nibbling on).

Their rewards program, Kimpton Karma, is great. By being a member, you get free WiFi and $10 bar credit with every stay. The more often you stay at a Kimpton, the sweeter the benefits get.

Birthday fruit platter and bottle of sparkling wine

Another reason we love the Kimpton is that they go out of their way to make you feel special. When I tweeted that it was my birthday, Kimpton arranged to have a fruit platter and a bottle of sparkling wine delivered to the room. That’s Kimpton love!

Every Kimpton hotel is different and has something about it that’s unique. The Monaco has these incredibly gorgeous historic marble staircase. The ground floor lobby and staircase are very grand and evoke the era of Old Hollywood. At the top of the stairs, I resisted the urge to say, “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close up.” No wonder this hotel is a popular choice for weddings. Even though we could have taken the elevators to the main floor where check in was, we usually skipped the elevators in favor of the stairs. Now this is a way to get people to walk more!

I also became addicted to Goetze’s candy, a local Baltimore caramel cream candy. There was a candy jar full of those delectable caramel chews and I grabbed a handful every time I went by. The people working at the Kimpton didn’t judge me for my greediness, rather, they nodded their head in understanding. They don’t have treats just for humans; they have a hollow fire hydrant filled with dog treats.

Thank you, Hotel Monaco of Kimpton, for our wonderful stay in Baltimore!

***This is not a promotion/sponsored content. We paid for our stay.