21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati

Really nice hotel! Love the atmosphere and the artistic vibe! The staff was very friendly. I highly recommend!

We are on a mission to stay at all the 21c Museum hotels. This one is our third. The experience is consistent regardless if individual variaations. The staff is wonderful. The room is kavish. /The 24/7 art gallery will have intriguing exhibits, There are a couple of things I'd like improved. One I that the rooms do not have easy access to ekectrucak outlets o USB ports, When they renovate, it's something they should add. The one issue that I didn't like the most--the hallway to our room was not all on one level, We got off the elevator and had to stop our luggage cart short of a two-steo stair, Happily our room was the first one at the top of those stairs, if we'd been in a further one it might have been an issue to hump our admittedky too-much luggage in. But all in all we continue to look forward to more 21c.

As suggested by the name, 21c Museum Hotel combines an art museum with a hotel, specifically in a lobby art gallery and second floor gallery. The art is contemporary and the hotel is in the same building as Cincinnati’s modern art museum. The location is very well-situated in the heart of Cincinnati’s downtown, close to ballparks and Fountain Square. Beyond the art theme in the lobby, it’s otherwise a mostly generic property. Surprisingly, the guest room had just one small painting. The bathroom has 3-D tiles of human body parts in the shower, which was weird. While the art is decidedly contemporary, this is an old building with creaky elevators and dark hallways with carpet that needs replacing. Nothing about it matches the contemporary art. It was disappointing that the guest room did not have a fridge. Or a view of anything, though it was otherwise nice and had a high-pressure, easily-operated shower and convenient ledge for toiletries. The fitness room is better than I expected it would be for a boutique hotel. The Metropole restaurant has middling service, but the food and prices were pretty good for a hotel restaurant. Though, again, the restaurant evokes a Parisian bistro, not a contemporary hip eatery.

We booked a King Studio room on the Accor website. When we arrived to check-in, they could not find our booking. Our flight was cancelled due to the storms in Cincinnati from Toronto. Our booking was sorted out very quickly, checked in, given breakfast vouchers and we were on our way to our room. Once arriving on the 7th floor, the room was not what we had booked. Went back downstairs to get this sorted out. The hotel was booked out, but they found us a room what we did book and we we on our way to our new room. There are 2 lifts for rooms that are quiet. Once you arrive on your floor, it is cold throughout the corridors. The room doors are very heavy to open. The bathroom was to the left with a single vanity, a hand held magnifying mirror that did not do a good job at all. The shower was a walk-in where water leaked out. The shower door was almost hanging off the hinges. The water was hot, but the shower head pelted the water down so hard it would sting. If you turned down the pressure, it means the water goes colder. We reported the shower door and the shower head. To the hotels credit, they had a maintenance person to fix during the day while we were out. A large mirror above the vanity with a shelf to put your toiletries on. There were plenty of towels when we arrived, but after that, we had to call housekeeping to deliver towels, bath mat etc as they would “forget” to put them in the room. The bathroom was not the cleanest, there was dust in the corners and the tile grout needed a good scrub. One day one of the towels was frayed around the edges, it should have been thrown out. The towels are also thin. The bed was a king size and pillows were supposed to be foam, but they were not the best, they were lumpy and hard. A large safe was in the drawer of the side table and when you closed the drawer, it would shake the lamp. The windows had blinds in a track to keep the room dark. One blind was out of the track, my husband fixed that. The curtains need replacing and so does the carpet. A 2 seater couch at the foot of the bed has seen better days. The desk has your points for charging, next to that is a cupboard with a coffee maker, glasses etc but no fridge. The hotel told us they had some trouble with them so they were removed from the rooms. A large wall mounted tv with 2 large deep drawers for your clothes. The wardrobe was small, but most of them are. A couple of shelves and hangers. Breakfast was eaten in the restaurant downstairs. It needs to be shut down and fully renovated. The floor has tessellated tiles with quite a few missing, the floor was sticky and the bench seats had the vinyl ripped away. When you arrive to the dining room, you can seat yourself anywhere where a table is set. We did just that and waited about 15 minutes for the server to come by. Water and juice is offered straightaway along with a menu. The menu consists of eggs all ways, omelettes, grits, bacon etc. The food was good. One day, there was no one to serve. They had to get the sales team to serve. This also happened on our last day too. Don’t know what happened with their staff. This hotel was taken over by another company last year (2025), but still under Accor, but it needs a lot of work. More care from staff, especially housekeeping and management/Accor need to inspect the rooms and start to plan much needed upgrades. They could start with a deep clean. This would have to be the second worst hotel I have ever stayed in. Very disappointing Accor.

I stayed at the 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati for a two-night stay booked through Chase Bank's The Edit program, which includes complimentary breakfast and a $100 property credit. I received a one bedroom king room (not upgraded) on the 5th floor that did not feature much of a view. The room was fine overall, although the desk was a bit cramped and did not offer as many power outlets as the desks at other hotels I have recently visited. The lighting in the room was also a bit quirky. The lamp to one side of the bed worked fine, while the lamp on the other side of the bed worked rarely. The bathroom was fine, and the shower featured some of the most amazing water pressure I have ever experienced at a hotel, making every shower a massage too. I had hoped to use my Chase The Edit $100 property credit by having dinner at the hotel on my first night there, so I made a reservation at the restaurant through OpenTable. Upon arriving at the property, however, I was advised that the restaurant was not open Tuesday nights but would reopen for dinner the next night. The sign outside the restaurant said the same thing. Oddly, I never received notification through the OpenTable app that my reservation was for a night the restaurant would be closed. To make a long story short, I was able to reschedule my second night's dinner reservation for elsewhere to my first night in town and to move my reservation at the hotel's restaurant to the second night. The hotel's restaurant was pretty good for both breakfast and dinner. My favorite part of the hotel was its art gallery, which featured some great pieces of art. As some of the photos from other travelers depicts, the bathroom tiles also feature works of art in the form of body parts. My flight into Cincinnati arrived early, so I got to the hotel around 1 p.m. Check-in time was not until 3 p.m., but my room became available an hour early, which I appreciated. I did not get to find out if late check-out would have been an option for me, as I ended up leaving Cincinnati earlier than originally planned on my final day in town to avoid bad weather forecasted for my destination later in the day. The hotel is very centrally located. It was about a 10 minute walk to Great American Ballpark, and a 10 to 15 minute walk to the Over the Rhine area, which is a great place to grab lunch or dinner. This was my first ever stay at a 21c Museum Hotel, although I did grab dinner way back when at the Bentonville, AR location. I also have not stayed at any other downtown Cincinnati hotels recently, so I have nothing else to compare it to in the area. I do share the views of others on here that the hotel's rooms and hallways would benefit from renovations. But I would definitely consider returning here because my recent stay was good overall.