There are very few hotels in the Cincinnati area that have outdoor pools but this one does. For this reason, it is the choice of many during Jimmy Buffett concert season. Our group of 10-15 chose this hotel for the pool experience and will continue to choose it year after year. It was fun to hang out at the pool with other fellow parrot heads and meet folks from all over. This hotel is older but has been remodeled to keep up with today's standards. It is not luxurious by any means but is clean and well kept with friendly staff members. Jeff ( I hope I got his name right) was very professional and offered us an early check in, which we greatly appreciated. We requested a room away from the elevator and this request was honored as well. The bed was very comfortable and offered a great night's sleep. Kudos to all at the Holiday Inn Covington on a job well done!

We booked two suites for three nights at this Holiday Inn. There was only one positive experience our entire stay and it was when I called the day before and asked the general manager if we could check in early because we are nurses and had worked 12 hours then drove 3 hours to the hotel and he agreed to let us check in earlier than the 2pm time that all elite members get. I get to the rooms to find them not very clean and dirty socks on the floor in front of the sofa. I used the restroom and attempted to wash my hands and the handle came off in my hand. I called the front desk and they sent a maintenance worker up and after a few trips in and out of my room he said the only way to repair the sink was to call his boss and get permission to shut off water to the entire floor. So I told him no need for all that we will just use the living room sink. The AC in the living room worked fine but the bedroom AC didn’t which made it hard to sleep. We went down to bring our luggage up from the cars and got two luggage carts both of which were broken with flat tires and impossible to steer. Told the front desk about it and they said they were working on ordering new ones. Well that doesn’t help me much with my luggage and getting it to the 3rd floor. When we checked in we were told that they were very short staffed so no housekeeping would be offered and we would need to come to the front desk if we needed anything. Each time we went in and out we noticed a lot of people loitering in the halls near the doors and just outside the doors which made us feel uncomfortable and unsafe. They were sitting in the halls laying across the luggage racks and sitting up and down the sidewalks at the entrances. It seemed more like a weekly hotel that people were living out of so when I spoke to the manager and brought this up he told me they were housing residents who were displaced from a apartment fire. I feel bad for the people but we were on vacation with my elderly mother and two small children and it just made me tense. The next day during our 10 year olds birthday party our 3 year old got under the desk on the floor and found 3 pills which were controlled substances and could have easily put them in her mouth. Thankfully we saw her and immediately took them from her and contacted the front desk who said someone would be right up and they never came up. Then we went to the zoo and after being there all day we returned to find neither of the room keys worked to either of our suites so I went to the front desk and complained and the clerk made new keys and I asked her was she sure they were done correctly so we wouldn’t have to go through this the next day and she told me that she just got there and not to talk to her like that. Just some more of the great customer service we received from this hotel. The next day we received a text asking us to rate them 1-10 with 1 being the worst so I gave them a 1 . Then the manager Chevonne texted back that it seems like they can’t do anything to please us and that their hotel wasn’t a good fit for them? Well excuse us for wanting clean rooms with working water and AC and without drugs on the floor that our kids might have eaten. I know that sounds really like an unreasonable expectation. I tried to call guest relations many times to move us somewhere else and we held for hours and they never came to the phone. Restaurants were closed because of no staffing. All of this made for a horrible vacation. This hotel needs major renovations and updates. They need qualified management and staff that can deliver excellent customer service. We are elite members so I can only imagine how they treat everyone else.