A hotel restaurant group can make hospitality as personal as a neighborhood spot with powerful data

See how the 70+ restaurants approach personalized guest experiences, and how OpenTable empowers their team for success at scale.

A hotel restaurant group can make hospitality as personal as a neighborhood spot with powerful data

See how the 70+ restaurants approach personalized guest experiences, and how OpenTable empowers their team for success at scale.

Fast facts

Restaurant name:
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants

Type of restaurant:
Hospitality group

Locations:
73 restaurants in 49 cities in North America, Europe, and Asia

Year founded:
1981

Hospitality is at the heart of the restaurant business. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants design each of their 70 plus locations to become part of the local community and a welcoming haven for locals and travelers alike. We sat down with Joyce Cremin, Senior Director of Marketing & Strategy at Kimpton, to learn more about their approach to personalizing guest experiences, plus how OpenTable helps them scale up their success.

What do guests love about Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants?

We pride ourselves on providing what we call ‘ridiculously personal experiences’ which ties into why a platform like OpenTable is really important to us—to be able to know preferences ahead of time and share vital information across the group—that helps us make the experience better, watch out for pitfalls, and ideally surprise and really delight our guests.

What’s one of the biggest benefits you’ve seen using OpenTable?

We have over 70 bespoke concepts, so we really need the ability to manage across different locations and roles.

For example, our GMs also wear marketing hats. So from a home office standpoint, where I sit, we need marketing tools that help me oversee everything, but that our GMs can manage individually. With OpenTable, it’s been really easy for GMs to update local menus or offer special experiences, and it only requires a reminder on my end to approve. That definitely saves our whole team time.

Fast facts

Restaurant name:
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants

Type of restaurant:
Hospitality group

Locations:
73 restaurants in 49 cities in North America, Europe, and Asia

Year founded:
1981

Hospitality is at the heart of the restaurant business. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants design each of their 70 plus locations to become part of the local community and a welcoming haven for locals and travelers alike. We sat down with Joyce Cremin, Senior Director of Marketing & Strategy at Kimpton, to learn more about their approach to personalizing guest experiences, plus how OpenTable helps them scale up their success.

What do guests love about Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants?

We pride ourselves on providing what we call ‘ridiculously personal experiences’ which ties into why a platform like OpenTable is really important to us—to be able to know preferences ahead of time and share vital information across the group—that helps us make the experience better, watch out for pitfalls, and ideally surprise and really delight our guests.

What’s one of the biggest benefits you’ve seen using OpenTable?

We have over 70 bespoke concepts, so we really need the ability to manage across different locations and roles.

For example, our GMs also wear marketing hats. So from a home office standpoint, where I sit, we need marketing tools that help me oversee everything, but that our GMs can manage individually. With OpenTable, it’s been really easy for GMs to update local menus or offer special experiences, and it only requires a reminder on my end to approve. That definitely saves our whole team time.

How has your approach to managing reviews and Kimpton’s online reputation changed?

Wrapping our arms around reputation management has been huge. Previously we had a couple different vendors used across the group—legacy vendors and new vendors—they were all siloed and unfortunately not giving the restaurants the insights needed to really understand the voice of the guests at our restaurants and bars.

Having reputation management rolled into our OpenTable platform has been incredible. Now I have one dashboard where I can quickly see across the portfolio how our restaurants are faring, note any major changes, and report more broadly on performance.

Does your team rely on performance reporting?

Yes, and the user-friendly nature of the OpenTable platform and reporting has been really beneficial. Now our teams can self-serve more reporting, rather than relying on our data analytics team to slice and dice and pull that together. It also makes our executive team’s lives easier because we can roll up all that reporting from across the group in a way that’s digestible and impactful.

How has your approach to managing reviews and Kimpton’s online reputation changed?

Wrapping our arms around reputation management has been huge. Previously we had a couple different vendors used across the group—legacy vendors and new vendors—they were all siloed and unfortunately not giving the restaurants the insights needed to really understand the voice of the guests at our restaurants and bars.

Having reputation management rolled into our OpenTable platform has been incredible. Now I have one dashboard where I can quickly see across the portfolio how our restaurants are faring, note any major changes, and report more broadly on performance.

Does your team rely on performance reporting?

Yes, and the user-friendly nature of the OpenTable platform and reporting has been really beneficial. Now our teams can self-serve more reporting, rather than relying on our data analytics team to slice and dice and pull that together. It also makes our executive team’s lives easier because we can roll up all that reporting from across the group in a way that’s digestible and impactful.

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“OpenTable has really listened to our specific needs for both the corporate and local levels of our business… knowing there’s a partner like OpenTable that we can lean on for answers, support, and guidance—it’s a big win.”

Joyce Cremin, Senior Director of Marketing & Strategy
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants

What makes you recommend OpenTable to other restaurants?

Over the past few years in particular, OpenTable has really listened to our specific needs for both the corporate and local levels of our business, and that has meant a lot to us. We know you all are innovating, and we get to see what’s coming in development to get excited about.

Restaurant teams may stay light for a little while longer, so knowing there’s a partner like OpenTable that we can lean on for answers, support, and guidance—it’s a big win.

What makes you recommend OpenTable to other restaurants?

Over the past few years in particular, OpenTable has really listened to our specific needs for both the corporate and local levels of our business, and that has meant a lot to us. We know you all are innovating, and we get to see what’s coming in development to get excited about.

Restaurant teams may stay light for a little while longer, so knowing there’s a partner like OpenTable that we can lean on for answers, support, and guidance—it’s a big win.

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