The Westin Cincinnati

I can’t get over how loud and disruptive the ice rink across the street is. I’m here for work and this is terrible. I can’t focus or work because I can hear every word the announcer is saying and the crowd cheering. This has been going on for hours. Never again.

Recently stayed here one night while celebrating a family members birthday party. The main reason for choosing the hotel was its location to downtown and the Horseshoe Casino. The weekend also fell during a Bengal’s playoff game so the place was full for the night.
We arrived for check-​in and found the car-​line wrapped out onto the road. It only took us 10 minutes or so to make it into the garage (more on that in a minute). While we were traversing this line, one of my family member’s vehicles cars got backed in to. We will blame it on a visiting Steeler’s fan; however, the traffic jam around the hotel drop off was so severe it was making a few drivers act a little crazy (not blaming the hotel for the impatient driver). Back to the garage… wow! What a tight spiral to get down to the garage. One slight mistake in a larger vehicle and you will be rubbing the walls. There was plenty of parking on the 2^nd level down and we were able to get right by the elevator even when the hotel was full. You pay at ticket machine in the main lobby before you leave. Once you pay, you have 15 minutes to get to your car and exit. We were told that parking was $ 17 for the night, but ended up getting charged $ 20.
We had asked for two beds and unfortunately were stuck with a king size (there were four of us). We were then told that there were no more rooms available and they brought us up a roll away bed. The roll away was alright, but definitely not what we were expecting. Our room faced Fountain Square so we had a really nice view of the ice rink (8^th floor). Like others have said in regards to the bathroom, I’m not a huge fan of the rainfall shower, but that is just my opinion. Everything else with the room was fine for us. It should be noted that we tried to go get ice from the ice machine to find out that it wasn’t even plugged in.
Like I mentioned before, we stayed at the Hilton due to the location close to the casino. A Horseshoe bus comes by the hotel about every half hour and will take you to the casino for free. It runs very late into the night.
Overall, it was an OK place to lay our heads. However, we expected a lot more for the price we paid for just one night. I suppose we mostly were paying for the location. Also I will add that I think it is time to stop having to pay for WiFi. It’s 2016!

I really wanted to like this hotel because I usually prefer to stay at Westins and it’s the closest to my office. I’m wrapping up a week long business stay and feel like I need to share my disappointing experience.
The Pros:
— The bed, as usual, was very comfortable. I always love the heavenly beds.
— They allow dogs and with no fee. Since this was a longer trip I drove and brought my dog. A heavenly bed and dog bowls were waiting in the room upon my arrival. This was fantastic! Although be ware as you have to sign a waiver that you will not allow you to leave your dog unattended in the room. This makes no sense to me as I’m not going to live in my room while I’m here obviously. I didn’t follow the rules and didn’t have any issues but it’s still a little worrisome.
— Large, spacious room
The Cons:
— I had a room on the 11^th floor facing Fountain Square. There’s an ice rink in the winter but they have broomball leagues every night that go until about 10−11pm. I would’ve liked to skate during the week. The announcer is very loud and is generally disruptive if you need to work or just want some peace and quiet I wouldn’t suggest this hotel. I can only imagine how disruptive this can get during summer baseball games/​events.
— The bathroom is TINY. Blow drying my hair was even a struggle as the bathroom was so narrow. Plus the toilet was strangely low. I constantly felt like I was going to fall backwards when sitting down.
— I’m not a big fan of Westin showers. I don’t care for rainfall shower heads as its makes not washing your hair or getting partially wet impossible.
— The elevators are extremely slow and small. It’s typical to have to wait for a second elevator because the first one is too full.
— The food is AWFUL!!! I tried several different options and all of them were terrible. I’m not being picky… Everything really was that bad. The chicken on the last night actually made me ill. The only good thing I actually enjoyed was the tomato soup and the calamari was ok. However everything is extremely expensive so your soup will cost you $ 15 alone. Several times things were even left off. Got tacos that were obviously from a box and the staff left off the salsas and accoutrements. Inedible.
— generally unpleasant staff. The room service staff was incredibly friendly. 5 stars to them! However the front desk ladies couldn’t seem to be bothered and were never pleasant. I felt like a bother even asking a question.
— Static! I don’t like my rooms very warm so I wasn’t constantly running the thermostat. However, after returning from my day of work, I realized I couldn’t move without getting shocked. My poor pup was in the tub because she was so uncomfortable. I requested a humidifier, which they supplied but I had to constantly keep it running. It helped a little but did not completely resolve the issue.
— expensive self parking. $ 17/​day. We are in Cincinnati people… $ 17 seems a little steep.
The restaurants in the hotel on street level both have 3 stars on Unilocal which means if you want a decent meal you have to leave the hotel. There are several other options in the area worth a try. I wouldn’t put this too far up your list.

Really enjoyed our stay at The Westin Cincinnati. Location couldn’t be better as it’s right downtown Cincinnati within walking distance of all the bars and restaurants you could want to visit! It also is pretty close to the river which makes all of that area walkable as well.
I actually got a really good
deal on this hotel, which typically puts you towards the bottom of the «We care about you and your stay» list. However, this was not the case at the Westin! We had a great experience the whole time. When we checked in, we requested a certain type of room and we got it! Everyone we interacted with was very friendly and helpful.
The hotel design itself is a little interesting as the main floor is a public area and then you take an escalator up to the hotel lobby which technically seems like it is on the second floor.
The rooms are big, beautiful, and modern and we even had a view over Fountain Square. Staying at the Westin was a big part of our wonderful trip to Cincinnati! We will be back.

Very pleased with how they accommodated me and the bridal party with giving us extra time and sending us things promptly. Stayed in a lovely suite and it was clean, spacious, and very comfortable. Will definitely stay here again.

So the city is a dump. Let’s start there. But the hotel is fine. Pros: decent renovation choices, ok sized rooms, good staff. Cons: no vending machines (if you want a coke you have to go room service), bad food options, wine list at hotel bar is awful, oddly expensive (no hotel in this city should ever charge $ 250+/night), McCormick & Schmicks isn’t very good, my room: bed reasonably comfy but an odd Murphy bed (in a suite; what dance parties are going on that they need to fold that up), small, small shower. It’s a fine hotel with generally good service, but in such a third rate city it’s very overpriced.

We come here all the time when we visit Cincy. Love this hotel and you can’t beat the «heavenly bed!» They gave us a gift when we came to celebrate our anniversary too. Great hotel, great service.

Quick and timely check in at the counter.
Staff was relatively friendly.
Room was clean and spacious.
Centrally located in the heart of cincinnati.

My family and I spent a night at the Westin so we could catch an early flight out of Cincinnati after visiting Dayton for the weekend. We really loved the location of the hotel. It was across the street from Fountain Square next to lots of restaurants and shopping. Our room was very contemporary and smelled so fresh like it was new. We will definitely stay there again. The service was really good too.

Stayed at the Westin last month for a week. Was in town for a dart tournament. The hotel was very nice. The rooms are beautiful and spotless. Many updates. Make sure you get a fountain square view.
A little pricey, but worth it.
The only thing stopping this from a 5 star is the parking situation. The hotel does not validate their guests. And 17.00 a day gets pretty high after a while. Even worse if you valet.

Have been to many Westins in different cities, the one in downtown Cincinnati isn’t the best one, not even close. I’ve stayed here for 20 stays and almost 60 nights. My experiences were not that pleasant.
Like today, after I worked out and came back to my room realizing they didn’t put a shampoo in the bathroom, and there was only one soap. I had to use the body wash to wash my hair. It’s okay, at least I got something to clean it.
However, worse things happened before. It was another night, I jumped in the shower waiting for hot water, after 5 mins I gave up because the water was still cold. It was 11pm, I called the so called «service express» and told them the situation. The lady who picked up the phone told me someone will come up and fix it. 1 hour later, no one showed up. I went to bed without taking a shower and fell asleep. In the middle of my sweet dream someone was knocking my door heavily. I looked at the clock and it was 12:30am. Obviously my ignoring the door didn’t work because I got a phone call from the hotel. Seriously? After 1.5 hours of my phone call and at 12:30am you sent someone to fix the shower?
I don’t want to compare it with the very nice Renaissance hotel right next to it. The door men there were always super nice and very helpful. You could get your checked luggage within seconds and they’ll prevent you from carrying your own luggage. They have a super awesome lounge with water fruit cookies and neat space. I’m sorry I did a little bit comparison and broke my promise. But the fact is on Thursday nights I always had to wait for minutes to get someone to take my checked luggage out. Fruits only showed up occasionally on limited Monday nights in the lobby.
Food is pricy in the hotel and even more expensive than Boston. I waited for more than 1 hour to get my food several times. Service Express is really hard to reach out to sometimes and I had to call 5 times to talk to someone who sounded not happy (not Kelly, she was always very pleasant and made me feel happy).
Besides above, I got dirty towels, broken fridge (there was one time the fridge became a freezer and froze all my fruit and yogurts I bought), clock with wrong time, broken AC, not-​working-​well sink, etc.
I’m not complaining here. Instead, I just wanted to list some facts and let the issues be exposed to the management team of the hotel. As a loyal SPG customer, hotels like this made me think, um…, is it time to switch to the Marriott, like 93% of my coworkers?
Updates:
⁶⁄₁₅: napkins on the bathroom counter is empty; waited for 30 secs to get someone on the service express; waited for another more than 1 hour to get my food.
¹²⁄₇: the services are getting way better now and I’m very satisfied with what they are offering.

The interior décor and room renovations are still not up to par. Great views of the city, but the elegance is still missing. The staff is very accommodating and understanding.

The view from our room on the 14^th floor was awesome. The room beautiful. Omg! And the bed was amazing comfortable. The sheets and bedding divine! Can’t wait to come back again. We took advantage of the 3pm late check out. And on the front end our customer service rep upon check was extremely polite and helpful!

The bathroom floor and toilet were not very clean, and then we looked at the bath tub and saw how filthy it was (see the pictures I posted). It was filthy. The room smelled like a man’s cologne (which makes me think the bedding or pillow cases were not changed. The walls are very thin and allowed us to be awoken throughout the night from some noisy guests next door. We called the front desk to complain, but did not reached an operator who said «I’ll transfer you to the front desk… then said «I’m getting aggravated!» in response to our request… not realizing the call never transferred (sorry you actually had to work!). The stay was very unpleasant.

Although i staying at the Renaissance Marriott hotel around the corner during my visit to Cincinnati, I’m spending more time in the Westin lobby than my room at the Marriott. Why? The Westin provides free WiFi in the lobby while Renaissance charges $ 13 per day. A large Starbucks coffee at the Ingredients Bistro in the Westin Lobby costs $ 3 and includes unlimited refills. I can drink coffee for 4 days on what it costs for a day of Internet at the Marriott.
The lobby is spacious and casual. It offers plenty of seating for travelers with laptops, including a laptop bar with outlets, lighting, and a Fountain Square view.
I’ll be traveling to downtown Cincinnati several times this year and will plan future stays at the Westin. When I do, I’ll add more to this review.

This is a typical business hotel. There’s nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either. The staff members here are very friendly as they should be in the hotel industry. I’ve not been in a situation where I expected to go the extra mile.
Tips: bottled water is complimentary for SPG members (you can sign up for free). Starbucks coffee and Tazo tea are also complimentary. They’re available in the room together with paper cups and a brewer.

Two stars seems harsh. It’s another «wish there was a half star option». The issues were minor and overall the hotel is fine, but I have, in fact, had better (in Cincy too). We went for a conference event. It’s a standard downtown hotel. Check in was simple, valet was quick and easy and service in those areas was solid.
Where stars were lost is in other arenas. Our meal during the conference was just OK. It was an undercooked filet with overcooked shrimp. I am not a fan of massively produced food. It was just not done well. I would not want to pay for that at my wedding so I feel it needs to be mentioned. It was just all a bit bleh to me. No real surprise. I had low expectations but it was still disappointing.
And, what really lost the stars was not in the hotel’s control — our neighbors were LOUD. At least three children and one that cried off and on very loudly through the wall starting at 5 AM. So much for relaxing in those fabulous beds! Honestly, I was shocked I could hear it so well. The kids were so loud and disruptive and I felt badly for their parents who DEFINITELY didn’t get any sleep. The children were also sliding the window curtains back and forth constantly which was also SUPER loud. I blame the paper thin walls on this disruption. It ruined what would have otherwise been a lovely stay. I realize this has NOTHING to do with the Westin’s staff, service, etc. but it has to be noted that it was incredibly loud. There was nothing we could do and I sad to say… I would avoid this hotel solely based on the fact that a good night’s sleep cannot be guaranteed. And, yes, I do know this can happen anywhere at anytime… it just stinks that it happened to us on the ONE weekend we were away from own miniature terrorists. The walls are TOO thin especially for the cost.
Lastly — no wifi included. BOO just boo. Such a dumb thing that US hotels don’t include. Motel 8 includes wi-​fi but not the Westin, Hilton, Marriott. Bizarre and downright annoying especially for the cost per night. Blah.
This review went from eh-​to sour fast. My bad.

The highlight of our stay was definitely the staff. Everyone was very welcoming. Valet guys were very nice, very polite and helpful. Check in was fantastic – the young woman checking us in was extremely courteous and helpful, she was able to answer all of our questions with a smile. The staff at the restaurant and bar – also great. So, well done on those points, Westin Cincinnati.
The not-​so-​great? While the rooms are a decent size and SEEM clean enough – there are definitely signs of wear and tear all over. The bed itself was comfortable and clean. But the furniture and fixtures are definitely in need of repair or replacement. Lots of scuffs and dings and tears in the room. My husband went to unplug the iron after use – he didn’t even pull the plug very hard, but the entire outlet cover came off. The bathroom looked clean enough, but definitely needs a good power wash. The shower/​tub was a very good size – I didn’t feel like the shower curtain was going to close in on me while showering, I hate that, but the tub and tile itself definitely needs a good bleaching. Wifi is about $ 10 for 24 hours, sometimes this is waved if you are a Starwood preferred guest, so it’s worth signing up for the program for that alone if you’re staying at Starwood properties.
We had a fantastic view of the square from our room which was really nice. But there is loud music coming from the stage that’s permanently set up in the square. The bands played until 11pm, we didn’t mind it because we were there on the weekend – we actually had heard of and liked the band playing but I imagine a lot of people would hate the noise, especially if you go to bed before 11pm. But I think the fact there is such good, FREE live entertainment downtown is a really great attraction for the city.
Overall, the location is great, the staff is great, but the rooms in this particual Westin don’t meet the high expectations that come along with booking a Starwood property.

This is a lovely hotel. Our room was clean, the desk staff was friendly and helpful, and the bartender at the lounge had a fine, steady hand if you catch my drift.
We were here for our birthday and chose the Westin because of how close it is to the Banks. There are so many place within walking distance that you don’t have to stay inside if you don’t want to. Although, staying in the hotel isn’t a bad choice either. There are some fabulous (albeit pricey) dining options and the lounge/​bar is pretty sweet. All-​in-​all, this was a reasonably luxurious, quiet, comfortable hotel. I’d stay here again in a heartbeat.

While this hotel is leaps and bounds ahead of the Hyatt or Millennium Hotels, they still miss the mark in some critical areas.
Calling the hotel to request a room type is a challenge. They’re quick to quip that they’re sold out. Suddenly suggest that you’re an SPG member and their tone changes. See, not all group reservations corporate travel bookers have time to enter dozens of loyalty numbers, so some never get added to the reservation. Here’s a novel idea… treat every guest like a top tier member, regardless of status.
The valets were fine, but they should be, they work for tips.
Front desk folks were pleasant, but when it’s late I don’t need every detail of the hotel, I just want to go night-​night.
Elevators up to the room are old. They also require you to fumble for a guest room key. I hate that, I’m juggling my luggage, last thing I want to do is go digging for my room key just to get to my floor.
Entering the room it was dark. Every light turned off, making me feel around for the switch. Heck, even a night light would help or a lamp. They’re so concerned with saving a few bucks on the lights that they create a liability when someone trips and falls because the room was pitch black.
I loved that they had two luggage racks in the closet, but sadly only one small dry cleaning bag.
After investigating the bedding I now realized why they keep the lights off. One bed obviously had sheets that hadn’t been changed. Something you’d expect from a Days Inn, or pay by the hour motel. In the bathroom it got worse. One of the big bath towels had two holes in it. I snapped a photo then finished it off by ripping it in two and throwing it away – something housekeeping should have done prior to folding it and placing it in the shower.
The one bed that had cleaner sheets was comfortable, but super small. Perfect for maybe children, but not professional athletes, or fast food loving Americans.
Westin’s corporate Twitter people were responsive about my towel photo. The hotel manager emailed me about the incident the next day. Sadly, when I changed rooms I found similar problems. Instead of holes in the towels, the new room had stains on the Westin signature bath towel. Perhaps the hotel needs better linen service? More attention to detail? Or just a housekeeping manager and GM that cared.
For every front line employee from phone to front desk to valet to rave/​complain about being sold out, I’m sure they could afford some new or even clean towels.
My towel rant is over. The hotel’s wifi was $ 9.95/night (⁴⁄₂₀₁₃). It offered decent speed. Fast enough that I didn’t have to speedtest it. My coworkers said the business center was decent. My more fun coworkers practically spent nights at the bar. So either they have a generous pour or there’s no place safe within walking distance of the hotel. It looked like they have a Starbucks in the lobby.
I was pleased with the speed of the valet parking retrieval.
The room design is old, they don’t have many power outlets. I found that in both of my rooms one lamp had been unplugged, not sure if this was guests trying to access power, or if it was a way for them to cheap out without having to physically remove a lamp.
The hotel was responsive to social media and email, but I wish that translated into true improvement for housekeeping.