The Guild Downtown - Vine St Cincinnati — Hotel in Cincinnati

I have stayed at The Guild in both Miami and Denver and had good experiences. I was excited to find a Guild property in Cincinnati (not to be confused with the former Guild location on Freedom Way) when planning a recent trip. The room rate was reasonable, so I booked a 2-night stay. ||||The booking process is easy. However, the first red flag was receiving a text on the morning of check-in, asking what time I planned to arrive that evening. The Guild is not a typical hotel. They rent vacant units in apartment buildings as hotel rooms. Guests check-in with a virtual key, which negates the need for a front desk person. Guests book reservations online and have to scan a copy of their driver's license for security purposes. This time I was also required to send a photo of me holding my driver's license to verify I was using my ID. I'm on board with this, especially since check-in is supposed to be a contactless experience. ||||I let the agent know I was planning to arrive around 6 pm. Cincinnati is a 6-hour drive, but we ran into three separate accidents and construction, so we didn't arrive until closer to 7:30. Once I parked I saw messages from the Guild asking about my arrival time. I never text and drive or look at my phone while behind the wheel. The agent canceled my reservation. ||||Full disclosure- they corrected the situation. However, I was upset when I read the message stating someone had canceled my reservation. I chose the Guild for its reputation and location. The last thing I wanted to do after a long drive was to find another place to stay, especially trying to coordinate with other members of our party. ||||I inadvertently went to the wrong address since the Guild used to operate another Cincinnati location. Their website still has that location listed. That was on me, but it was still quite frustrating. ||||I was able to check-in, but the stress of having the reservation canceled wasn't worth it. I will stay at a traditional hotel with good service and amenities instead of dealing with someone with a Google voice number out of Austin, TX. This lack of professionalism also makes me second guess providing private information virtually such as my driver's license.||||The room itself was adequate. The silverware provided was probably from the Dollar Store, and the elevators are filthy, but the stay ended up being just fine. The Guild has a cool model but fails...

I visited Cincinnati with my parents for my grandmother's funeral. While my family lived in Cincinnati for nearly 30 years, we relocated to the Carolinas. We made arrangements to stay at The Guild Downtown for the duration of our stay specifically so we could shower and get ready for the funeral in private, and without being a burden to family members that live in the area. Well, the joke was on us... we had no hot water for the entire stay (Saturday through Tuesday). We called immediately upon checking in on Saturday evening (after an 8-hour drive) and the feedback was that the earliest it could be looked at was Monday because there was no weekend maintenance. My mother was so desperately looking forward to a hot shower and a comfortable place to stay after staying with her mother for the last two weeks leading up to my grandmother's passing. While the staff told us on Sunday that we could change rooms, this really wasn't a helpful option for us, as we were busy with pre-funeral arrangements, and spending time with family. On Monday morning, the staff let us know the water was now working as it should - but still no hot water. So, on the morning of the funeral, we had to wash our hair in the sink, which was at best warm water, and certainly not a comfortable experience. Later on Monday, I was on the phone with customer service a few times expressing our frustration and desire for some compensation. While we eventually received a discount on our stay, we went back and forth with The Guild for days. Not to mention, there were other concerns we encountered: 1. The fob reader on the first floor was not functional, so we had to walk up to the second floor to get the elevator. 2. When getting to our room, the counters were sticky and we had to purchase Clorox wipes to clean up the mess. 3. The lobby, hallways, and stairs were dirty and clearly needed to be cleaned. Overall, we were very unimpressed by The Guild Downtown, and will not be staying there in the future when we visit Cincinnati.

I will note that the customer service agent I spoke with on Monday was very kind, and did get us a fair discount -...

First of all, BE AWARE OF THIS: After I had already booked the hotel, non-refundable because I booked the day before, I was notified that to finalize my booking they needed to get more information about me, including driver's license information so that they could complete a BACKGROUND CHECK. After I reserved the room and printed the confirmation I did not go back into my email that evening. That next day, the day of my stay, I got a text about 2:30 in the afternoon that I needed to submit the additional information prior to 6 p.m. in order to "ensure you are able to stay with us." I was in an important meeting but took the time to submit. While I am glad that they take the safety of their guests seriously, I feel that this should have been made perfectly clear from the beginning. I booked from their website, not a 3rd party, and didn't see anywhere that they would do a background check. Afterwards, I did go back to their website and searched and finally saw this when I clicked on the Terms and Conditions at the very bottom of their webpage and read through all of the fine print. Who really seeks those out and reads them? Me next time. I have nothing to hide, but that is not the point. I just think when they know they intend to invade a client's privacy in such a way they need to let him/her know in a more frank and up front way (not hidden in the fine print where you'd have to search for it to find it) before booking a non-refundable room with a credit card.

Note that you will need to use your phone to access the building, elevator, room, etc. I did not see that anywhere in writing either. Heaven forbid a guest did not have a smart phone! I went to a Reds game the night I stayed there and worried when I saw my phone battery was getting low. There is no front desk or anything so I don't know what would have happened if my phone had died.

Otherwise, accommodations were fine. Very clean and very quiet. I'm not trying to put this establishment down at all. I just feel like customers need to be made aware of pertinent...