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The Kimpton Seafire Resort in Grand Cayman is an IHG property. We stayed 3 nights using three separate uncapped IHG free night certificates (mine, my wife’s, and another family member’s). Unfortunately, uncapped IHG free nights are no longer available through IHG credit cards. Instead, this resort is available for 70,000 IHG points per night. Cash rates range from about $700 to well over $1,000 per night. For details about how I booked our flights to Grand Cayman, see: Assembling a cheap award to paradise.
Kimpton Seafire Grand Cayman Bottom Line Review
The Seafire is a terrific ocean-side resort. My wife and I loved our stay. Thanks to our Platinum elite status (which we had thanks to having IHG credit cards), we were upgraded to a glorious ocean view room. We even received three separate Platinum welcome gifts since each night was booked under a different person’s Platinum elite account. Breakfast was excellent (but not included for free), the beach was fantastic, and we also enjoyed the free afternoon happy hour with wine and hors d’oeuvres.
- Points Price: 70,000 points per night
- Point Value: Excellent. Paid rates are often over $1,000 per night. Also, the paid rate resort fee is $75 plus 10% of the base rate. On award stays, you do pay the $75 resort fee, but not the 10%. Altogether, this means that it’s easy to get 1.5 cents per point value or more at this property. That’s fantastic for IHG points! On either point or cash stays, elites get $5 off the resort fee per day.
- Location: Excellent. The Seafire is near the end of Grand Cayman’s terrific Seven Mile Beach.
- Resort Dining: Good. We loved breakfast and were thankful that they had a few reasonably priced (and delicious) options like the berry parfait and the banana split (see the menu in the photos below). We tried the chef’s table fixed price dining one evening. The food was beautiful but we thought the quality didn’t live up to the price.
- Bedroom: Excellent. Beautiful room. Beautiful view.
- Service: Excellent
- Resort fee: $75 per day plus 10% of base rate (on award stays, the base rate is $0 so this part doesn’t factor in). Resort fee includes water activities such as snorkeling, sailing, and paddle boards. The resort fee even includes a GoPro camera for underwater recording, but make sure to bring your own memory card or else you’ll have to buy one there. Platinum members get a $5 per day discount. Unlike Hilton and Hyatt, IHG does not waive resort fees on point stays.
- Misc:
- Welcome gifts: Since we booked our 3 nights as 3 separate reservations under 3 different Platinum elite accounts, we received 3 different welcome gifts during our stay!
- Happy hour: Daily happy hour included free wine and hors d’oeuvres. The food was much more substantial than we’ve seen at other Kimpton hotels and could almost substitute for a light dinner, but sometimes the food ran out quickly.
- Secret password gift: When we checked in we mentioned the Kimpton secret password and we were given a small Seafire travel mug. I referred to it a sippy cup.
- Check out gift: When checking out, we were given a small gift bag of sea salt. This was awesome because we were actually planning to buy some sea salt before leaving. Were they listening to us?
- IHG Elite Benefits: As Platinum elite members we got a very nice room upgrade, $5 per day off the resort fee, and welcome gifts.
- Would I stay again? Yes, definitely.
Photos and captions follow…
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Did you request an upgrade at booking or at check in with platinum elite status? (Or is it automatic?)
We were automatically upgraded but it can’t hurt to ask if you don’t get an upgrade.
I spent the holidays here, I don’t know why but during the holidays their reception smells like a piss Id rather not spend my special occasions here
Bad experience with this Kimpton branch. They have fees for the pets and don’t have a wine hour. No special occasions specials, and parking fee is high. Food and service at this hotel is awful and overcharged us.
Good place but poor food and service. Not recommended for those who want a pleasant vacation time.
My husband and I also used our last 2 Unlimited IHG night certs at Kimpton Seafire Grand Cayman. My room and view looked pretty similar. I would LOVE to return, and just realized I could use the 4th night free deal here! I loved the doorbell, the low mood lighting, the soft under cabinet floor lighting in the bathroom which was great for night time. The grounds were beautiful, the room, balcony, and resort was beautiful, the beach and pool area was big and beautiful. The customer service was amazing there, we felt like royalty! We went to the Westin next and customer service there was not even close to Kimpton. Loved seeing this review and remembering our wonderful stay. Thank you for this post!
[…] value out of IHG points and free night certificates. I’ll bet that everyone’s beloved Kimpton Seafire won’t be available for any fewer points than today but may become even more expensive for […]
I’ve updated this post to correct the resort fee and to add a bullet about point value. On cash stays this property charges a resort fee of $75 PLUS 10% of the base room rate. On point stays, they charge $75 only. In either case, elites get a $5 discount.
The ridiculous 10% resort fee plus high base rates combine to make this resort crazy expensive on cash stays. As a result, 70,000 points per night is almost always a fantastic deal. In fact, when IHG offers points for sale at .5 cents each, you would do much better to buy the needed points and then to book an award stay rather than booking with cash.
Looks like a great hotel, but is it a good value for points bookings? (at 70,000 points per night)
I held next feb president’s week – 8 nights for 420k pts (book 3 get one free, and I did this twice). The cash rate is nearly $1k per night and that’s before resort fee, service charge and taxes. So prob closer to $1300 per night. I’d argue that this may be one of the best redemption values for ihg- especially if you get it during a peak vacation week.
My wife and I spent 5 nights there at the end of May and it was amazing. We had a very similar room as described in this review. We only ate in the restaurant once, but it was great. The beach restaurant we ate at once and it was solid and had some good tacos a few times while on the beach. We had a car and had most of our meals off site. We have been to Cayman before (Westin) so know our way around. The combo of the beach, blue water and quality of the Seafire just might make it our favorite spot we have ever been. Totally worth the points.
We absolutely loved the Seafire. The good news is that we used points and stayed 4 nights. We were there for our 50th anniversary. We got upgraded to a one bedroom oceanfront suite. It was over 1600 square feet and was going for $1689 per night on Priceline. The bad news was we were in an earthquake. No one knew what to do since it’s so rare. After walking down the stairs, we got sent back up got hours due to a tsunami warning. Scary. But adored the property.
Sounds like an amazing trip. Thank you for the write-up. Are you able to book IHG certificates for other people? Have one that we don’t know if we are going to be able to use. Thanks 🙂
I’m pretty sure it’s possible but I don’t remember the process. You may have to book in your own name and then call and change the reservation to a different name.
how far is it from the Ritz?
It’s about a 5 minute drive or a 20-30 minute walk along the beach. Directionally you have to go past the westin to get there, as opposed to toward the Marriott.
I’m glad you were able to use your unlimited free nights there. It look’s gorgeous. We used ours at the Intercontinental in Hong Kong. Now I’m trying to figure out how to get outsize use of the limited free night options…
Loved the Seafire. Stayed 4 nights last April. Had about the same view as yours. The General Manager’s wife happened to stop one night while we were waiting for a bus that may or may not have showed up. She was so nice to give us a ride back to the hotel. And of course the diving was world class.