De- or reflagging, as hotel industry folks know very well, happens all the time but a tipster tells us this particular switcheroo, might be directly related to IHG acquisition of the hotel brand late last year.
More Kimpton hotels to be rebranded in the weeks ahead to avoid become unionized. IHG's local union contract requires any new IHG properties go thru "card check", and the union came a' knockin'. Lasalle and Pebblebrook own almost every Kimpton Hotel in SFO, so Kimpton will only be left managing the Buchanan and Sir Francis Drake, which are already unionized.
Our tipster also says that Viceroy Hotel Group may pick up the management contract for at least two other Kimptons.
We reached out to Kimpton for a statement about the deflagging but have yet to heard back. We'll keep you posted on which if other Kimptons get deflagged. Currently, The Marker (which has changed absolutely nothing at the hotel) is going for about $329 a night.
For what it's worth, Kimpton was made #11 on Fortune mag's "Best Places to Work" in 2015.
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