The Ohioan Hotel & Event Center (formerly Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center) — Hotel in Orange Township

Do NOT stay at this hotel unless you can survive in a room that is not at all soundproof! I booked a queen suite with separate sitting room for my daughter and I. We wanted a quiet, relaxing place to stay for a 3 day weekend and the reviews for this place were excellent. First let me list the nice things about the property:1. It is a full blown conference center with a huge, well maintained and manicured landscape. 2. The outdoor spaces are lovely, including the outdoor pool area.3. The location is very close to Columbus and to the uber wealthy city of Powell.4. A gorgeous county park with loads of picnic areas and walking trails is located directly across the street from the conference center.Now for the negatives:1. No soundproofing!!! We could hear every word of conversations that took place in the room next door. But the most disturbing thing is that we couldn’t sleep because of noise from the room overhead. My daughter contacted the front desk in the early evening of our first night’s stay asking them to call the guests above us with a “gentle reminder” to avoid heavy walking. She was told that the request could not be made until after the 10 pm quiet time. We had a brown noise machine running at top volume for the entire night, but even that didn’t block the heavy footfalls from above. The constant sound of people walking (it sounded like elephants) continued the next morning which forced us out of our room. (We payed extra for a suite with a separate sitting area so that we could relax outside of the bedroom, but couldn’t take advantage of it because of the noise). My daughter ended up sleeping on a couch at a friend’s house the second night because she was so sleep deprived. However, I returned to the hotel which was a huge mistake! When I turned out the lights at 11 pm, things were quiet, but at 11:30 pm the stomping family returned. The noise of the footfalls and then squeaking floors woke me up at 11:30 pm, 3:30 am and 5:45 am. I finally got out of bed at 6 am, walked to the lobby in my pajamas, and told the staff that I couldn’t stay in this place another night. I must have looked a fright, because the agent immediately canceled the final night of our reservation with no questions asked. Just to be clear, I don’t think that the family above us was intentionally loud. I think that they had absolutely no idea that their movements were creating such a disturbance. 2. Despite the fact that the lovely county park is directly across the street, it’s incredibly difficult to access the park entrance as a pedestrian. There is a single pedestrian crosswalk at the southwest corner of the conference center, but there are no sidewalks that connect to the crosswalk. Walkers are forced to either walk along a very busy road with no shoulder, or walk on the grass for about 1/2 mile to get from the hotel parking lot to the crosswalk. I find it incredibly surprising that Nationwide didn’t consider putting in sidewalks to make access to the park more accessible and safe for pedestrians. 3. Be forewarned that the conference center includes facilities that cater to weddings, so if you stay here on a weekend, be prepared for lots of outdoor evening activities. No one should have to pay $200/night to stay in a room that isn’t...

This is a nice hotel. The staff were pretty good, but there are few things that were odd about the place. I hope the following pieces of information below help people make informed decisions about choosing to go here and help the hotel itself to find ways to improve on it's future renovation, which they said is coming soon.

Payment from 2 different sources blew their minds, and it was very difficult to get everything switched over until the last day. I know this is probably rare for staff to deal with, but for those travelers out there who may be pulling from different sources. You might want to know this up front. It was mentioned when making the reservation, and it was assured that it wouldn't be a problem, but unfortunately, it is.

The hotel does not have a single ATM onsite.

The hotel doesn't have concierge assistance.

When booking, they could not note a disability in terms of finding a room that could accommodate.

The hallways are not straight, and getting luggage carts down the halls is a challenge for someone with a disability.

The breakfast policy is confusing, but thankfully, we were included. The problem is that breakfast is served in the Ohio room. Which is in the far western side of the campus and not adjacent to the lobby of the hotel. If you stay indoors, you have to take another jagged corridor of the hotel. Then you have to take a lift down a flight of steps. And then, and even more jagged narrow hallway to get to the Ohio room, and there are very few signs to help navigate, especially at each juncture. It makes you wonder if you're going in the right direction. The other option is to take a pathway from the lobby outdoors. It is a gentle grade, but you still have to go in and navigate a very narrow indoor passageway to get to the Ohio room because you can not enter it directly from outside.

Since there is always a security person on staff each shift, I would suggest maybe giving them a golf cart to be able to take those with disabilities from one end of the campus to the other when needed.

Toilets in the rooms and in the public areas set right up against the toilet paper dispensers, making it very difficult to sit on the toilet in a normal way.

There are no USB outlets in the rooms. Please bring plugs with USB outlets.

Parking is also another issue. I had to park far away from everything. I even arrived 1 day earlier to try to avoid that. And it still didn't work out. the overflow handicap parking requires you to walk down across a bridge and then a sharp rise to the building. Then you gotta stop everything and pull your card out to enter from that end. And then you have to go up about seven steps to get to the first floor. If you continue to the front entrance, you have quite a haul that you have to make to get there (doubling your trip length) if you bypass that entry with the steps.

I do have to give a wonderful shout out to catering folks and chefs who were so kind to help me avoid allergens. The food was very good, and I'm very thankful for all of their help and handling of my allergies.

The campus is absolutely beautiful. I felt very safe at this hotel. The room was comfortable, and I got a decent sleep...

The property was beautiful and clean and we were very excited for our stay.

Sadly, our stay did not happen due to poor customer service at checkin. We booked an April 1-3 spring staycation for our family. Before booking, we called the property to make sure the indoor pool would be open. We were told that it was but that we would have to schedule with the front desk upon arrival for a 2 hour time slot. This seemed perfectly reasonable and we booked, planning to let our children swim for two hours daily and then explore the large metro park across the street. Upon arrival, we were told that there were no pool reservations available for our entire stay. I told her that I was told to reserve my spot when checking in and she said that guests should actually book as soon as they have a reservation. I said this was NOT what I was told when I called and she said she couldn’t help that and the pool was booked. I reflexively responded, “Oh no! I am going to have very upset kids!” And she replied in a very snarky tone , “Okay,” (to indicate she did not care in the least and was annoyed by my statement). I asked to speak to a manager since the pool was the main reason we had booked and there had been no notice that we needed to book a time slot PRIOR to arrival. He simply repeated that this was “COVID” and that “it is first come, first serve” and he has “192 rooms and only 10 can use the pool.” We explained we had been misinformed and had booked 4 months ago and would have reserved months ago if we had known. He did not care in the least and said we were the only people to ever complain. He seemed to never have had an upset customer and was unsure how to handle it. I did not raise my voice but I was deeply upset and he kept gaslighting me and telling me to “stop yelling.” I was using a talking level voice and was talking passionately but definitely was not yelling. He was not solution oriented in the least and offered no options for us except to cancel our reservation. I had four VERY disappointed children who had to repack and leave the hotel.

I understand that COVID regulations are a challenge but there is no excuse for treating guests with no compassion or kindness. Perhaps, if only 10/192 rooms can access the pool under the current system, the process might need to be reconsidered. Could the time be a one hour window? Should rooms be limited to one slot per day (with a waitlist in case no others want to use it)? Could reservations be required to be made in person? We are very sad not to have gotten to stay here and enjoy...