Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Richwood-Cincinnati South by IHG

I changed this to three stars after the manager called and explained the charge discrepancy by blaming the website. I can’t check whether that was true now because I no longer have our original email. We weren’t after a refund since the amount was small. It was the principle and, by then, the lack of communication that bothered us. The manager ended up hanging up on me. There were four rooms in our group, and the invoices left under the doors on checkout morning had inconsistent charges. I tried contacting the hotel several times, but kept getting put off with promises of a callback or sent to voicemail. After an online complaint, the manager finally called. Corporate also gave me a couple of things that weren’t true, though I can understand how she might not have known, since she was in another country. The rooms themselves were clean and spacious, and the breakfast worker was nice. Breakfast was good, too, and the hotel was handy for the interstate. But the smell in the pool and elevator area and in the hallways was awful, maybe ammonia. Fortunately, it wasn’t in our rooms. The pool needs attention: paint was peeling, the smell burned my nostrils, and the water was very cloudy. I asked the front desk on Saturday if anyone would tend to it, and they said not on weekends, even though we’d been there since Thursday. I wouldn’t stay here again. The hotel needs serious attention.

We chose this hotel again after a good stay the previous year. We wanted the kids to use the pool and the adults to unwind in the hot tub after a 13-hour drive. We stayed one night, Jan 1-2, then drove back to Canada the next morning without using either amenity. We checked in around 7:30 PM and went to the pool area about an hour later. The pool smelled strongly and unpleasantly, and there was visible debris in the hot tub. Neither was usable, and my kids were upset after changing into their swimsuits. The front desk advised us to avoid the pool and said other families had already canceled and left for the same reason. No one told us at check-in that the pool and hot tub couldn’t be used. If we’d known, we would have booked somewhere else instead of losing over an hour. By around 9:30 PM, it wasn’t realistic to find another hotel, especially one with a pool. We stayed just to sleep. I tried reaching the manager afterward and got no response. The amenities we chose the hotel for weren’t available, and the lack of communication at check-in and afterward was unacceptable. I can’t recommend it based on this stay.

The location made it easy to get to what we needed, and breakfast offered a good variety that tasted great. My room was spotless and comfortable as soon as I arrived. The staff were welcoming and professional, too. I enjoyed staying at Holiday Inn Express and would happily come back.

The staff were lovely, smiling, and easy to ask questions. The location was handy, with Walmart, a gas station, and a restaurant nearby. Breakfast was hot, plentiful, and served in a very clean area. We arrived at 8:30 PM, and with three of us needing showers, we asked for extra towels. They said there were none at all. We also couldn’t get an extra pillow for the pullout couch. The bathroom door wouldn’t latch and kept swinging open, so we wedged a washcloth under it. On checkout day our keys stopped working after 8 AM, and we had to keep returning to the desk. The hot tub had an oily film on the surface. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but it wouldn’t be my last either.