Cincinnati North Hotel

"The Ramada Plaza Hotel & Conference Center Cincinnati North is conveniently situated on Route 4, off Interstate 275, minutes from nearby shopping malls, movie theaters, and a variety of restaurants. Beautiful downtown Cincinnati and Kings Island® Amusement Park are a short 20 minute drive away. Our staff is ready to welcome you to our world of causal elegance. Choose from one of our 255 spacious guest rooms, which include eight deluxe two-bedroom suites and 17 executive suites. Relax and unwind in our heated indoor pool, and exercise room. The International Grille and Roxzzz Lounge offers cuisine from around the world as well as your traditional favorites."

That was an excerpt from one of the advertisements for the place. Any guest that would stay here would find this ironic. Reviews panned the Cincinnati North Hotel as a dingy, poorly managed embarrassment with mediocre food that "Deserves Less than a rating of 1." One review likened the continental breakfast to a soup kitchen spread. Also I don't ever remember a time I've been able to get from downtown to Springdale in 20 minutes.

Note the lack of curtains on the top floor. The entire floor
was in the process of being gutted for mold

Early 90s era satellite dish

The hotel originally opened in 1981 as an upscale Sheraton, but slowly fell down the ladder to mediocrity stopping along the way as a Ramada shortly before falling to disgrace as the Cincinnati North Hotel before finally closing in 2008. The location wasn't exactly prime for this level of a hotel, and one can possibly argue the financial crisis as a cause, but ultimately it was the bad reviews and extensive amount of building repairs needed that caused it to close down.

The building has a very bad mold problem and the upper floors were in the process of being gutted to remove this. A relative of mine used to work here shortly before its closing and constantly had health complaints from the mold exposure. In many reviews online customers complained of the strong mildew smell in the hallways. Even in the lobby the smell is instantly recognizable.

The light fixture is a nice contrast to the falling ceiling.

Spray bottles still have cleaning solution in them.

While the empty parking lot and overgrown foliage allude to this building's state of use, surprisingly inside it appears as it did the day it closed, and that everybody just dropped what they were doing and left. There are still shop vacs plugged in, work stations set up, and most of the rooms are still completely intact. There's even still pallets outside the back waiting to be loaded into the building. There is a staggering amount of evidence to show an absolute lack of effort to clean out the place before locking it down.

No one bothered to drain the pool.

Better view showing the pool floor

Self portrait by one of the hotel's 3 exercise machines.

Night at the Roxzzzz. It looks like they got ready to clean the place and just didn't.

The cash registers are seemingly the only thing hotel staff took with them upon leaving.

There's even still salt and pepper in the shakers.

Amazement? Or disgust.

The laziness is astonishing.

Moldy Hypnotiq anyone?

A behind the scenes look at what makes the food so mediocre.

A quick glance inside one of the freezers confirmed my worst fear.

What happened to tastes from around the world? That's not even name brand food.

There was a most awful smell outside of this door. I have no doubt there is meat behind it.

Double padlocks? Apparently locking the freezer

up tight was easier than actually cleaning it.

It's hard to put into words how awful the kitchen smelled.

Dishes still in order.

The employee locker room

The access hallway between the main banquet hall and kitchen was near
impossible to navigate from the clutter.

Still setup for a cancelled meeting.

View from the second story lobby.

After a disturbing tour of easily the dirtiest kitchen I have ever seen we decided to make our way to the rooms. Not surprisingly since everything else was pretty much just walked away from, the rooms are also completely intact, with beds still waiting to be made by housekeeping, and even a few "guest artifacts." Same as the Vernon Manor we decided not to waste much time in the rooms given the fact they are all near identical, and not to mention the bottom floor is about 80 degrees and the temperature climbs by roughly 2-4 degrees every floor as you go up. We were more focused on getting to the roof to some much needed fresh air.

The Continental Breakfast hall

A top floor room in the process of being gutted.

A guest forgot their salsa.

Room With a View

The view is good in that we're high up, but there's really

nothing to see besides Showcase Cinemas 18.

This has definitely been one of the more interesting explores, since despite the deplorable air quality there's really not too much to distinguish this from an open hotel that's simply undergoing renovation. With a lot of febreze you'd almost think it could open tomorrow.


Almost.