A 561 room French Art Deco grand hotel inside the 1931 Carew Tower, the Cincinnati skyscraper that anticipated Rockefeller Center, with the original Hall of Mirrors ballroom and Palm Court bar intact.
"The Netherland Plaza is one of the four surviving great French Art Deco hotels in the United States. The Hall of Mirrors is the room. The Palm Court is the bar. The rest is a 561 room Hilton that has been quietly maintained for ninety five years, which is itself the achievement."
The Netherland Plaza opened in 1931 as part of the Carew Tower complex, a mixed use skyscraper conceived by Cincinnati businessman John J. Emery during the depths of the Depression. The Tower was the tallest building in the city until 1990 and the design rehearsal that informed Rockefeller Center in New York. The hotel occupies the lower 19 floors and was decorated by the Walter W. Ahlschlager firm in the French Art Deco vocabulary that defined civic luxury between the wars: rare Brazilian rosewood, marble inlay, nickel silver fixtures, Egyptian motifs, and stylised floral ceilings. The Netherland Plaza was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985, one of the first hotels to receive the designation, and remains a charter member of Historic Hotels of America.
The 561 rooms and suites are spread across the central tower floors and were last comprehensively renovated in 2008 with a further public space refresh in 2019. Standard rooms run roughly 28 to 32 square metres in the modernised contemporary style; the Junior Suites and the corner Tower Suites carry the original 1930s mouldings and casement windows; the Presidential Suite on a high floor reads as a private apartment with city and river views in two directions. The room product is solid four-star Hilton rather than boutique luxury; the building is the reason to stay.
The Hall of Mirrors, the original two storey grand ballroom, is the most photographed interior in the city outside Union Terminal and is in nightly use for weddings and corporate functions. Orchids at Palm Court is the hotel's signature restaurant, an AAA Five Diamond room from 2010 to 2019 and currently a Forbes recommended kitchen running an American fine dining menu under chef Todd Kelly. The Palm Court itself, the public lobby bar, holds the original 1931 fountain and is the best classical hotel bar in Ohio. Breakfast is in Orchids or via room service; both options are correct rather than exciting.
Service across the property is functional Hilton at the end and quietly excellent at the senior end. The doormen and concierge desk handle a steady stream of conference and convention traffic with practised speed; the Orchids and Palm Court staff lean older and longer tenured than the city's other hotels. The Netherland Plaza is the consensus booking for Cincinnati Bengals games, the annual Reds Opening Day, ATP Tennis at the Mason Open, and any conference using the Duke Energy Convention Center across the street. It is the city's grand hotel; it has earned the description.
For a Cincinnati conference at the Duke Energy Convention Center, the Netherland Plaza is the default booking. The hotel is connected to the convention centre by skywalk; the meeting rooms within the property are themselves the original 1931 spaces; the Tower Suites on high floors run as quiet private offices during the day. Corporate rates are competitive and reliably available even during peak conference weeks.
A Netherland Plaza anniversary works best as a one or two night affair with dinner at Orchids and a cocktail in the Palm Court. The Hall of Mirrors hosts the city's better wedding receptions, so an anniversary couple is in good company. Book a Tower Suite for the 1931 mouldings and a corner view; ask the concierge to arrange the Palm Court fountain at sunset for a quiet moment.
The Netherland Plaza is the easier downtown family booking than the smaller boutique properties. Connecting room blocks are available on the higher floors; the Carew Tower observation deck on floor 49 is included for guests; the Macy's and Tiffany on the lower retail levels are an indoor weather option. The location is two blocks from Fountain Square and four blocks from the Great American Ball Park.
35 West 5th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
United States
Downtown Cincinnati central business district
561 rooms and suites
Doubles from USD 192 per night
Tower Suites from USD 420 per night
Presidential Suite from USD 1,200 per night
Check in: 3:00 PM
Check out: 12:00 PM
Opened 1931 inside Carew Tower; National Historic Landmark 1985; Historic Hotels of America charter member
Orchids at Palm Court (American fine dining)
Palm Court Bar (classical lobby)
Hall of Mirrors (original 1931 ballroom)
Spa floor and full fitness centre
Skywalk to Convention Center
Complimentary WiFi throughout
From USD 192 per night. Reserve well ahead for Bengals home weekends, Reds Opening Day in early April, and any Duke Energy Convention Center week.
See Current Rates →A 117 room luxury Autograph Collection hotel inside a 1909 building on Lytle Park.
A 156 room art driven boutique with a free contemporary museum on the ground floor.
A 134 all suite hotel inside the 1926 Phelps Building with a rooftop bar.
New openings, special offers, and the week’s best value suites. One email a week, no noise.