Holiday Inn Express & Suites Cincinnati Riverfront

Hotels are a tough business to run, and as someone who lives in them, I start to get annoyed by the slightest deficiency. As picky as I am, my stay at this Holiday Inn Express & Suites was easily one of my best stays. First off is location. This hotel is a quick walk to both Main St, and Madison Ave, the two streets where most of the bars/restaurants are located, and Covington has a surprising number of excellent establishments. It's also a quick walk to the bridge over to downtown Cincinnati, with gorgeous photo opportunities. There is also a trail that runs along the river, on the other side of the flood wall. It's a quick drive to get to the bridges as well, only five minutes from Downtown Cincinnati. The employees at this hotel are an absolute delight, much better than even some higher end hotels that I have stayed in. The rooms are clean and comfortable, with plenty of plugs. This is certainly my to-go hotel for the Cincinnati area going forward!

Price was affordable. Location was okay as it was close to highway. View was terrible. While it is along the river, there is no actual view or the river as there is a giant brick wall there. All of the Staff were friendly and our room was clean. Would likely never stay here again though. Noise, noise and more noise!! The walls are thin, I heard the family across the hall and their screaming kids nonstop from 6am til about 10 before finally leaving, the towel rack fell as soon as I lifted a towel (it was balanced in place and not firmly secured), we could smell weed in the halls (which I mean is whatever..to each their own). I'm leaving exhausted from the restless nights. I give it a 3 bc it wasn't the worst but it's definitely not for us.

Hotel was clean, people were nice. There is a pool schedule because of covid and the breakfast was not cooked. Just some cereal, muffins, fruit and coffee. Great stay and I would definitely come back.

Stayed 2 nights. First night, no heat in the room and they stated they had no other rooms available. They brought up blankets the next morning and apologized. They stated the maintenance guy clocks in at 11am and the heat will be fixed. Second night, heat was still not working. At approximately 9:48pm they upgraded us to a suite. The following day while checking out I spoke to the manager Beth about our situation and experience. Her response was “didn’t we upgrade you to a suite”. She never once apologized for the situation and finally only offered to take off $50. I called and emailed corporate with proof. No one has reached back out to me. The message I have for the guests, if there is an issue with the room take videos and dispute the charge.

Really good location, walkable to all the fun things to do in Newport. The view from the 5th floor way also good, and our room was nice and clean. I was a little bit frustrated at one point with the covid policies they had in place - everyone was required to reserve a time to swim, which was something we wanted to so on this first vacation with our toddler. We planned around the time we were allowed, 8 to 9 AM, then once it came, they let two other families in as well, so I'm not sure why any of that was necessary. Had they not had that policy, I would have found a quite time to go, so as it is we either had to swim with 5 other rambunctious kids (we just have one toddler who isn't used to swimming) or not at all. And then the breakfast bar not stocked with anything except plain cheerios and muffins. But overall, I think a lot of this is just the annoyances of covid, and I would stay here again.