Hilton Garden Inn Cincinnati Blue Ash

The room was a bit dated but mostly okay. The heater fan was so loud it woke me around a dozen times as it switched itself on. The shower didn't work right, and there were toothpaste drips on the mirror, though the rest of the room was clean. Breakfast was close to nonexistent. I took an apple, but it was old and wrinkled. I'll pick a different hotel next time.

The rooms were clean, but dated, and this was by far the worst Hilton/Hampton property I've stayed at. The bar area was neglected, with the few bottles on display bleached by constant sun. They should remove it or treat upkeep as part of doing business. Breakfast was pathetic. They were short staffed and got my simple order wrong. Other Hilton Garden hotels I've visited had really good breakfasts. Here, the coffee machine with fake milk cost extra, and the regular and decaf coffee were lukewarm and stale. There was no fresh milk or half and half. That might not matter at a budget hotel in the middle of nowhere, but this isn't one. Even Hampton Inns have better basic amenities. Not recommended.

Three rooms over two nights is completely unacceptable. This place is poorly managed, and I won't return. I don't recommend it to anyone. My first room hadn't been cleaned, and the next was a mess too. The AC was loud, the shower door was broken, the corners were moldy, and the water pressure kept changing. The smoke detector chirped all night because its battery was missing. I reported it at 11:00 AM, but at 6:30 PM it still hadn't been fixed. The desk tried to move me to a third room instead of just finding a battery. I had to take one from that room's alarm myself so I could sleep.

The location worked well, with easy interstate access but some distance from the traffic at a major junction. The rooms could use a thorough cleaning and an update. They weren't filthy, just poorly kept. The lobby has a sweet, cloying fragrance piped in. I found it unpleasant. No wonder this is the cheapest Hilton in the area. I'm a Diamond level Hilton Honors member and have stayed in Hilton properties in the UK, Japan, and more than a dozen US cities, from Hamptons to resorts. This was easily the most inhospitable one I've experienced. The staff seemed better suited to other work. At check-in, the desk guy barely stopped FaceTiming friends “back in the mid east or wherever” long enough to ask for my ID. For all 3 days, staff were mostly focused on FaceTiming their brethren or socializing. The food service guy was the only exception. They seemed too cheap to offer Diamond-level amenities or even acknowledge my Hilton loyalty.