Red Roof Inn

This place is JUST awful now. I had stayed here previously and it was not bad for a Red Roof. This time it was another story.
First, when you drive up, it is so unkempt it looks like it is abandoned. Second, underneath my bed was a year’s worth of stuff (dust, paper clips, condom wrappers. Well, I managed to get them to come partially clean it, but the housekeeping staff had fewer cleaning skills than I do. and no real tools. Finally, my fridge barely cooled on totally max setting. I asked them to fix or replace. well they seemed to think it worked fine.
Clearly, I am going to have to find somewhere else to stay next time I visit this area.

Note to all travel nurses: this Red Roof Inn does not honor the hospital discount that I usually receive when working assignments in the Cincinnati area, the rooms are not as clean as they used to be, I had to buy a broom to sweep the floor and when I pulled back the matt in the bathtub there was grimy black mold underneath!!! Also had someone knocking on my door at 1am, loud music and people arguing in the parking lot!!!

There’s a whole cluster of hotels in the area, so you have choices here. The Red Roof Inn Sharonville was cheap, which is its best feature. The front desk staff was also quite friendly, which I appreciate. The room was not very clean — in my room and in my friends’ room, we found strands of hair that weren’t ours. The air conditioning unit is super loud, which makes it difficult to sleep.

On the bright side, the location is pretty convenient… pretty much fall off of I75 and into the parking lot. Staff at the front desk is exceptionally nice and professional… better than you’d expect for the price. Newer matress and decent linens. Newer TV is a solid plus. On the down side, this is a very, very tired property not helped by questionable maintenance. Someone at least should sweep up the cigarette butts. And the room… uhmmm…wow. Broken glass in the picture frames and no shower curtain. How do you not have a shower curtain? I could go on, but I think those two items sum it up. Overall, there’s worse places to stay. But there’s much better, too.

I’m used to chain motels, racing bicycles, it’s usually my first choice because more refined establishments get their panties in a bunch when you wheel a bicycle through the lobby. I’ve stayed at many a Red Roofed (or «roved?») in my time and while it’s not the swankiest place, it is serviceable.
This stay was for a, you guessed it, bicycle race. Two nights, and that was all. Only difference this time around was that my infant unit of four months would be with us. Reviews for this particular motel were across the board, but I decided to give it a try anyway. So here goes.
The Room:
Typical small chain motel room. I opted for the less expensive standard room with a king-​sized bed. The photos of the business class rooms on their site looked like company stock photos so I didn’t want to trust those. Generally business class rooms are nicer. With the king standard, the bed takes up about 75% of the floor space. It’s one lane all around or someone is taking the bed lane. Room was clean. It didn’t smell. The television worked. All in all, unremarkable yet functional. It’s just a tight squeeze with two adults and a pack and play crib.
The Area:
I decided to include this because I’m of the belief that the local area influences who a motel books or attracts. This particular Red Roof Inn was next to the highway, assuming for its proximity to a convention center, but on the so-​so side of the highway. Low rates also attract so-​so people. One night sounded a little too fun for some occupants down the way. Luckily, nothing was broken into, and all my possessions came back.
Three stars because it was clean, functional, and cheap. Maybe a four if the room was a shade bigger and a five if the other occupants weren’t so shady.

The only reason I’m giving this place 2 stars is because of how cheap it is and how close it is to the Sharonville Convention Center. The price and location are the only good things that this place has going for it.
I stayed here in March 2014 during Horrorhound Weekend. Red Roof is within walking distance and since I didn’t want to spend a ton on a room that I probably wouldn’t be in very much, the price sealed the deal.
I reserved a room a week in advance. When I checked in, the lady at the front counter spoke to me like she was reading from a script. She rambled everything off so quickly that when she was done I had no idea where my room was and had to go find it on my own.
The room was tiny. It had a king sized bed that took up the entire room, save about 2 – 3 feet of space around it on all sides. The bathroom had streaks of yellow on the walls and the whole room in general seemed unkempt, aside from the bed and towels.
We brought along a cooler since our room didn’t have a refrigerator. My boyfriend went to find ice to fill it with and upon asking staff where the machine was, the same lady told him that it was «that way» and pointed off in a direction and said «you’ll find it.»
At one point, we ran out of towels and my boyfriend went to ask for more. A different lady was working and this one actually rolled her eyes at him before walking away and then putting towels on the counter without saying a single word to him.
There was a safe in our room that neither of us were told anything about nor had any access to, but when I paid for the room there was a charge for the room safe.
This Red Roof Inn is laughably bad. The service was a complete joke. I can live with a dirty room considering how cheap it was but for the employees here to treat my boyfriend and I as nothing but a burden to them? Pretty insulting.
NOTE: I received an invitation to fill out a survey for my stay, which I did with brutal honesty. I got a reply from the manager which said she would be dealing with the employees and there was an apology as well. What would have been great instead of an apology would have been a full or even partial refund or a free night’s stay. Anything other than empty promises and empty sympathy.

Not the best, not the worst. The cover on the bed was stained, the non-​smoking room had clearly been smoked in, and the fridge smelled like sweet and sour chicken. Friendly enough service, and clean besides the bed cover so it was a fine place to rest my head for the night.