Kimpton Cares

At Kimpton, we believe that heartfelt human connections make peoples’ lives better. Since the inception of our company more than 40 years ago, we’ve been dedicated to a creating a world filled with ridiculously personal experiences that begin with our employees, extends to our guests, and includes everything we do.

Our commitment to social and environmental responsibility provides a higher sense of purpose – radiating to our guests, to our employees and to the communities we inhabit. For us, this isn’t a fad — it’s in our company DNA.

We believe that embracing diversity makes life extraordinary and experiences more meaningful.

We believe that it is only when people feel comfortable to be themselves that they can truly impact, enrich, and connect more deeply and more compassionately with those around them. That is when heartfelt, human connections are born.

Kimpton is committed to providing a space where guests and employees can enrich themselves and each other.

We’re proud that Kimpton’s award-winning culture continues to be recognized for diversity and inclusion practices, most recently by Forbes and Fortune that named us “The Best Employers for Diversity” (2019) and “Best Workplaces for Diversity” (2016-2019) respectively. However, we know that this is not enough, which is why we have been focusing on the meaningful ways we can listen and learn, advocate and act.  

At Kimpton, we take our Stay Human ethos to heart and have spent a significant amount of time reflecting on what humanity really means. As part of that process, we have and will continue to take new steps to ensure our Stay Human promise extends equally to all – in particular the Black community. To date, and in conjunction with the efforts of our parent company, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton has committed to listen and learn, advocate and act in the following ways:

Listen and Learn

• We’ve created an internal steering committee, Black Lives Matter: Act to Action, to drive meaningful change across our operations, marketing, financial, and people and culture departments.
• We’ve established an internal network of African American and Black employees at Kimpton, Kimpton African American and Black Employee Group, and their allies to attract, recruit, empower, develop, and retain individuals in the Black community.
• We’ve introduced mandatory Diversity + Inclusion training, inclusive of specific work on unconscious bias, to all corporate employees and on-property managers.

Advocate

• We’ve joined the advisory board at Tourism Diversity Matters, sponsored by Searchwide Global, supporting the Black Lives Matter efforts in the hospitality industry.
• Our parent company, IHG Hotels & Resorts, joined several Georgia companies to support the passage of a Hate Crimes Bill in the state by signing a business coalition letter to lawmakers pressing them on this issue. A bill supported by the NAACP has now passed and will become law. While that is a great victory, we believe hate crime legislation is necessary for ALL 50 states. We will continue to support important causes in the fight for equality and implement policies within our company to support these principles. Advocacy is an integral part of how we can effect change, and this is only the start.
  

Act

• We’ve established relationships with leading HBCUs to expand our recruiting efforts in the Black community.
• We’ve audited all of our company vendors and partners to elevate the Black guest experience and introduce new Black-owned businesses at the brand and property level. This includes examples such as:
  • Adding children’s books by Black authors to our Kids program.
  • Spotlighting Black artists and musicians in our regular bar and restaurant talent bookings and programming.
  • Establishing a library of products and goods from Black artists and makers for our hotel design catalog.
  • Featuring Black-owned food and beverage items in our restaurants and bodegas.
• We’ve partnered with the Black Travel Alliance to directly connect with members of the Black travel media to provide expanded content creator opportunities.
• We’ve committed to maintaining at least 25% BIPOC representation in all imagery across Kimpton’s marketing channels, such as our brand collateral, website, and social media accounts.
• We’ve begun to foster property-level partnerships with important museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Center for Civil Rights in Atlanta, to offer accessibility to prominent Black History centers for our guests.