The North Star Inn — Hotel in Dry Ridge

Redoing the review as when I replied back to dawn my original review did not save!

So as I stated in my review the north star inn is a budget friendly inn and was clean when we came in and we also appreciated the water and nutri grain bars that evening. We came for a short overnight stay on our trip to tennesee to see family. Checked into room 107 at around 930 pm.. I do not mind less frills as long as the place is clean and everything works! You can tell the place is older with very slight renovations such as flooring some fresher paint in bathrooms. Overall decent for the price. My only complaints and unfortunately are the ones that are the biggest issues when staying at any hotel, motel or inn. The beds are very uncomfortable and cheap. Something I slept on when I was a kid. You know the light weight throw down spring cheapo mattress...her reply to its hard to please everyone reply on the mattress is a cop out answer as in a way that's true but not when you don't even try to put a decent mattress in the room. It's as cheap as a mattress as u can buy which blows my mind why so many places even some higher end places cheap out on the bed when that's why you stay to get a gd nights rest which we did not. When we woke up and I went to shower at 7 am mind you and we were leaving at 8 am the shower leaked from bottom pretty badly unless u found the right position and even then it leaked which took pressure away from the shower. I had nice hot water literally for around 3 to 5 minutes! Then slowing turned luke warm to cool. Tub is rusting and has built in grime that cannot be scrubbed away and was old dried blood stain on the shower curtain. These things are easy to see every time someone looks at a room so not a mistake. Just a way to ignore it and not want to put any money then have to, to keep running. I did go to the office to check out with my wife and let the lady know (I assumed was dawn but may have been wrong since dawn replied to me via in her pj's as she stated) and this lady I spoke to right away when I said the water wasn't hot she said brand new water heaters! Like to disregard my concern and my cold shower didn't seem to care at all. Then asked me like I'm a 5 year old if I let it run. Lady I'm 37 yrs old I think I know if hot water is working or not. I replied I took a shower so yes it ran a bit. She said oh I'll have look into it with a attitude. No sorry or wld u like to show me. Nothing. She cld care less and def I can see this lady as stated in another review is argumentive and doesn't give a care about your stay. We would've come back several times a year bug won't be back. If showed concern and fixed issues I'd been ok but we had no time to call as what would they do? Change the bed out at 930pm after hours? And I didnt know water didn't work already showered so no point to have fixed as we were checking out. I did let her know in person so she cld fix it. Again she didn't care! Won't return.

Dawn I was just in ur office checking out and u disregarded the issue entirely and we came in late and just took a shower this am. No time for you to fix any issue but made u aware of it which u didn't apologize or seem to care. Room is 107....u know we were their. That's a easy excuse for the mattress comfort to say it's all diffrent for people. A junk mattress no one would like. Take care....

Updated review based on the owner’s response -

I was tactful, honest, and kind in my initial review but you’ve opened the door for brutal honesty. This roadside motel is a dump! I was happy to support a ‘mom and pop’ small business owner. You and your establishment have disappointed me. The area surrounding the hotel is straight out of the movie “Deliverance”. The rooms were very small (smaller than your cell phone photos make them appear). Pets were reported when booking the rooms through Travelocity. The only green space to relieve pets include the strip of grass along the highway at the front of the hotel and the small grassy area near the dumpsters on the other side of the hotel. Floors were not clean. An individual can barely turn around in the bathroom. . . Even for a person on the smaller side. Tub/Shower needed to be scrubbed. When opening the hotel room door, an old musty smell with cigarette smoke greeted me. If there was dog urine, it was from a prior guest. I revisited the hotel clerk to ask for different rooms and was told that the hotel was booked solid. Upon check-in, I noticed the continental breakfast items - spotted bananas, loaf of bread, a few cereal boxes.

As another reviewer stated . . . I’m scratching my head wondering how there can be so many positive reviews for this place. Are you incentivizing people for positive reviews? When I checked out early (12:30 by the way, and only leaving my small house-trained lapdogs for the morning hours - your records are inaccurate if you are suggesting a “much later check-out time”), I nicely reported the issue of the odor. I kindly told the man that I would not return for another stay at this establishment. Again, the staff that I dealt with were friendly. The staff, excluding you, is the only positive about this place. As for your ‘victim’ comment - Anyone who stays at The North Star Inn expecting a clean and relaxing stay falls ‘victim’ to the very opposite. An Bates Hotel-ish experience as another reviewer posted.

I will not entertain banter from you after this updated post. I can see that you are argumentative and slant stories in your favor.

Initial Review -

Friendly staff upon check-in. Location is close to the Ark Encounter. Beds were comfortable. TV at odd placement in room. Booked two pet-friendly rooms (206 & 207) for two nights. Both rooms had an odor but room 206 had an odd odor with cigarette smoke odor on top of the other odor. Limited space to relieve pets. Blind-spot as you exit ground floor parking lot to front of establishment in order to gain access to road - be cautious. Driving up the hill and over the rise, one could easily end up in the ditch. Checked out a day early due to room condition. Hotel staff offered room treatment for odor but no refund for not staying second night due to exiting rooms past checkout time (12:30 PM). Consider staying in Georgetown, KY — would be a better option if you are just going up to visit the Ark Encounter. A little more of a drive, but worth it — more restaurant and hotel options. The North Star Cafe is closed. Continental breakfast was an option. The bottled waters, granola bars, and thank you card was a...

Very disappointing second (and last) visit. My family loves small, even older hotels so this isn't a review based on the hotel being old. It was not clean... when opening the cabinet in the bathroom to get a roll of TP, the smell of mold almost knocked me over, it was terrible, and if you are allergic to mold you will not find your stay a pleasant one. The corners on the bathroom haven't been cleaned in an age, scary in this time of supposed 'uber cleanliness' in light of Covid. The beds were quite comfortable, I'll say that. My main issue was with other guests and the staff being unwilling to do anything and being annoyed with me for saying anything. I drove for 10.5 hours on Thursday to see The Ark on Friday with my 75 year old mother, and after day at The Ark on Friday we were very tired. When we arrived back we were greeted with a dog barking without break in an adjacent room for a solid 45 minutes. We went to the cafe for dinner, and mentioned the dog. The lady in the cafe said she'd try to reach the owners. (My request was for the guests to be called, as the dog had to be stressed, not for anything to be done with him or her). When we got back to our room... dog still barking. I popped back into the cafe to indicate that it was still happening, they said, 'I've not had time to do anything about it' (fairly annoyed with me). 45 minutes or so of barking later the owners came back and the dog quieted down. Flash forward a few hours and we are finally asleep, preparing for our 10.5 hour drive home the next day. The residents upstairs must have checked in with the circus, there was 25 minutes of stomping and furniture moving in the 250 square foot room right above our heads. I called the front desk to see if it would be possible to have them keep it down, and was met with a very annoyed clerk who told me, 'They just checked in, it's only been about 20 minutes...' I said it seemed like longer, but could anything be done? 'No (laughs dismissively) I cannot tell a guest to be quiet this early (9:30pm at this point), if they are still loud at 11pm I can ask them to keep it down'. I said thank you for being so unhelpful, hung up, and we tried our best to sleep and get out early the next day. I know they cannot control what guests do, but a simple bit of customer service on top of the really sub-par room would have saved the visit. I'll never go again and would not recommend this place. (Now, let's wait for the snarky remark as was given to the other customer, 'Mary Mary quite contrary', when she made similar complaints about cleanliness. If that happens it'll be more evidence that this is a no-go property.) Shame, it could be nice with a bit of tweaking like a shelf in the bathroom to put your things and even a small bit of service when there is an issue. I did find that the lady in the cafe at breakfast was awesome, just lovely. I'd love to see them correct the customer service issue with some of the staff, and...