Affluent consumers have been willing to spend on travel experiences for quite a while now. Smart hotels, destinations, and travel companies have been taking advantage of that fact, offering exclusive opportunities that may cost a little extra, but are worth the price.

Kimpton Hotels is taking this idea to the next level by tying experiences into their rewards program. It’s a pretty genius move. They’re offering experiential rewards (in-room spa credit, restaurant credit, welcome amenity) with their new Karma Rewards Program. It’s a tiered program – the more you stay, the more you get. The tagline: Good things come to those who stay™.

Kimpton is showing that it knows exactly what affluent consumers want – better value and enhanced experiences. In fact, staying overnight isn’t the only behavior that gets rewarded. Members can earn perks for (un-calculated) social media engagement and other “good deeds” as well.

Many of the rewards you get simply for joining. Among them, “Raid the Bar” privileges (apparently carried over from their previous program). That alone caught my attention. And if you are in the “Inner Circle” you get to spend time with the Kimpton CEO, which is pretty bold, considering Kimpton is not even an UHNW brand.

Overall, a great strategy, and it likely won’t go unnoticed by competing hotel brands. I wonder where we’ll see it pop up next.