Kimpton Hotels Is Maintaining Its Brand Values, One Social Media Post at a Time


Skift Take

Brand values, look and feel have a place on social media and the success of this translations hinges on how well the brand itself picks, grooms and empowers their team.

As travel brands join more conversations on social media, being casual and keeping the brand identity and values intact has to be more fluid. That's especially hard when you're a well-love brand that gets purchased by a global giant, as happened when InterContinental Hotels Group bought Kimpton in December for $430 million. Kimpton's biggest fans turned to social media first to voice their worries, but Kimpton has maintained its own identity since the merger, especially across Twitter, Facebook, and the other social channels. Skift caught up with Whitney Smith, Director of Social Media Manager at Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants about how it still differentiates its brand and translates its values on social media. An edited version of the interview follows: Skift: The ways that Kimpton Hotels is trying to differentiate itself against its competitors is really important. Can you go into more depth on your brand values? Smith: If you think about airports, a lot of ti