My wife and I went to visit my mom in Denver in January 2026. We decided at the last minute to stay in a hotel, and I found the Kimpton Claret Hotel, which is part of IHG Hotels and Resorts’ portfolio, on American Express’ travel portal. This hotel is located in the Denver Tech Center, which is just outside the City of Denver, but still well within the busy part of the metropolitan area.
Lobby Seating Area
Booking:
I booked the hotel using my American Express Business Platinum card. One of my benefits on this card is a $300 statement credit when booking hotels that are part of The Hotel Collection for stays of two nights or longer. A two night stay at this hotel cost $414.38, so after receiving my statement credit, I paid $114.38 for two nights. Another benefit of booking through this program is a room upgrade if available, free breakfast, a $100 property credit, and early check in and check out, when available.
Check in:
Check in was disappointing. We did not receive a room upgrade. Two bottles of water are also supposed to be included at check in as part of the $35 per night resort fee, but the hotel was out of bottled water. I asked if the bottled water in the room’s minibar could be complimentary because the hotel was out of bottled water. I was initially denied that request, but the hotel later allowed it. We were able to secure a 4:00 p.m. check out for the day of our departure as well.
Room:
The room was a typical hotel room, although it did have a nice sitting area next to the window, which had a great view of the mountains! The bed was extremely comfortable, which we appreciated because our last two hotel stays had beds that we felt were very uncomfortable.
The hotel does not provide coffee makers in the room, which I thought was very odd. Instead, the hotel provides coffee and tea “service” in the lobby of the hotel. Each morning there is a coffee and tea dispenser set up in the lobby for guests to use, which is somewhat inconvenient if you want to have coffee while getting dressed.
A coffee maker is available for the room upon request. One frustrating experience was after requesting a coffee maker for our room the first morning of the stay, the housekeeping staff did not replenish the coffee pods or empty the used coffee pods out of the coffee maker, and we had to call for coffee the following morning as well. Housekeeping service was extremely slow as well when we requested the coffee maker and the additional coffee, taking almost an hour each time to come to the room.
Food:
The food at the hotel was excellent. We ate breakfast the second morning of our stay. I had a Wagyu burger for breakfast, and my wife had eggs on fried eggplant and prosciutto, which she said was amazing.
We did not try it, but the restaurant also had a Bloody Mary bar. It had numerous items for garnishing, including cheese, olives, shrimp, and bacon.
The hotel also provided a hot chocolate bar each morning. It had marshmallows, chocolate chips, peppermint chips, and sprinkles to top the hot chocolate with.
The rooftop bar is open in the evenings and has a DJ and has more of a club feel at night. It has amazing views of the mountains and the southwestern Denver metro area. The drinks were reasonably priced at $18 for most drinks. The bar is open until midnight and also serves food until 10:00 p.m., although we arrived too late to try any of the food offerings.
Amenities:
The hotel is very nicely decorated and has the appearance of a luxury hotel. It had elegant chairs and sofas in the lobby and in the rooftop bar, which were extremely comfortable.
The hotel has a 24 hour fitness center, which has Peloton bikes and other workout equipment, including a handful of cardio machines and light dumbbells.
The hotel provides valet parking at what we felt was an outrageous rate of $55 per night. This does not even include covered parking, as the first morning of our stay, our rental car was brought to us with snow on it. If you choose not to valet, there is a public parking garage available for an additional cost or free street parking, which is limited to two hours excluding overnight or on Sundays. We only used valet parking on our first night and chose to find street parking on the second night of our stay.
We did not have a chance to try the house car, but the daily resort fee includes use of a Mercedes EQS 580 to locations within a five mile radius of the hotel, which is available on a first come, first serve basis. The car did seem to have good availability.
Value:
I thought the value at this hotel was lacking. $70 of the $100 property credit I received was used to pay the nightly resort fee, and the remaining portion of the credit did not even cover one night of valet parking. Had I been paying a cash rate and not receiving any credits for my stay, the resort fee and valet fee easily add an extra 50% to the nightly rate. Even with the credit, we were unable to use it towards anything else actually offered at the hotel because it went towards other fees we incurred.
Overall Impression:
I was disappointed in this hotel. This was my first time staying in a hotel that is part of American Express’ “The Hotel Collection,” as I typically try to stay in American Express’ Fine Hotels and Resorts hotels. Hotels in The Hotel Collection are a tier below hotels that are part of the Fine Hotels and Resorts program, so I should have somewhat managed my expectations. That being said, small annoyances, such as no bottled water at check in, no coffee maker in the room, and long wait times for housekeeping to arrive when requesting items add up to have a large impact on the experience. The food was excellent and the hotel did have the appearance of a luxury hotel, but that being said, I would give other hotels in the Denver area a try before staying at this hotel again.