A Nairobi hotel has gone down into history books as the first and only hotel in Kenya to be accepted into the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts program.
The program offers exclusive benefits for American Express (AmEx) Platinum and Centurion credit cardholders. The Hemingways Nairobi Hotel is the lucky enterprise to enjoy these benefits for the first time in the country.
The Fine Hotels and Resorts program consists of over 1,000 hotels and resorts that have partnered with American Express to incentivize members to book with their properties. In exchange, members get extra Membership Rewards Points and benefits.
The Group Operations Director Hemingways Collection, Ross Evans was happy about the acceptance into the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts Programme saying that it is a stamp of approval for the hotel brand.
The program offers eligible American Express cardholders of the Platinum and Business Platinum cards elite benefits and perks at over 1,000 luxury hotels worldwide when booked through American Express travel port. The Hemmingways is now the only Kenyan representative in the fleet of luxurious hotels.
Some of the benefits the hotel guests will enjoy include guaranteed late checkout, complimentary room upgrade, and a $100 (Ksh 10,000) credit towards food and beverage.
“We are privileged to pioneer this journey by being the only Kenyan hotel to get accepted in the program. This further positions Kenya as a prime luxury tourist destination to the international market”, Evans noted.
The qualification process entails a hotel applying into the program and getting randomly inspected on specific standards of quality by the AmEx Fine Hotels and Resorts team and once approved, getting acceptance into the program as one of its partner hotels.
This milestone for Hemingways comes barely months after it also joined the exclusive Virtuoso network. Virtuoso connects travellers to the world’s best travel advisors, who plan trips according to the customer’s preferences and offer exclusive perks and upgrades to members.
The network was founded in 1992 with only 20 hotels, and now has more than 1,700 preferred suppliers in 100 countries.
However, Hemingways is neither the first nor the only hotel in Kenya to join the Virtuoso network as is the case with the American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts program. Hotels in Kenya already on the Virtuoso network are Fairmont The Norfolk, Mahali Mzuri and Seven.
There are four in Tanzania — andBeyond Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Elewana the Manor also at Ngorongoro, Four Seasons Safari Lodge at Serengeti and Singita Grumeti. One&Only Nyungwe House is the only establishment on the luxury network in Rwanda. There are none in Uganda.
