I worked at THIS Holiday Inn, at the front desk, in the restaurant and also the nightclub. The club originally was called Red Slipper Lounge. When I was a bartender there, it was called Spanky's. I was there for the last few years the hotel was open and the club was barely keeping things afloat. At that point the hotel was renamed the Preston hotel. They lost the flagship name and backing of the H.I. brand. We still had all the regular customers, though. We had the businessman and we had the families. We still had events each week and theme nights.. It was very sad to hear everything was closing but the club was the only thing making any money anymore... I'm still very upset that someone stole all the photographs I took of the entire hotel and of the bar on that last night. Also, I took a sharpie in and all the customers signed the walls in the bar. Reading the comments were just so special. People were talking about who they met there and the special times that they've had there. Our bar manager's husband actually wrote, "Thanks, Spanky's. Now I get my wife back!" I know who has the signage and the painted mirrors and who bought the rights to reuse the name Spanky's. They tried to relocate the magic of Spanky's and invite the customers to go to a new spot but it just never worked out. Even if it was very close to the old location, it just didn't work. You don't get the same vibe. We even had some of the same staff. Two different attempts at extra locations, and it's just not the same. The only keepsake I still have is a shirt. We called the last night "The Last Spank!" I named that event actually! Wow. I'm so glad we made those t-shirts. I believe it was July of 2001. Does anybody have a video of the club? At all? That was such a fun night. The staff was invited to stay overnight of course because nothing mattered anymore. We didn't even clean up the last night. Even though we were crying and straightening up a little bit, We literally chose what open liquor bottles we wanted and we sat around and reminisced all night long, we sang we laughed we cried and we played whatever music we wanted to hear and pretty much got trashed together. Then went up to the front desk and got a key to a room. The next day when we all left no one ever walked through there again. It very quickly got turned into a huge pile of rubble. I drove by a few days later and I parked and walked up to the chain link fence and just broke down and cried right there! 😢 Those were great times. I remember going to this hotel before I ever even considered working there. It was a good staycation. I still live right outside Cincinnati. This hotel was located in the perfect spot on the northbound side of I75. North of Cincinnati right near the very top of the I275 loop that goes around Cincinnati and drives you through Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. It's been a great place to live. I was born here and raised down south and I've been back here for the last 30 years. I'm about to go back down south again, but it's been a good run! There was a Drury Inn a Cracker barrel in a gas station put up on that property to the side of the highway. Those things are still there today. It's the Thursday before the Christmas weekend of 2022. It's the first big rain/ice and snow event of the year. The whole nation is getting affected almost by this blizzard!!
It was a yearly trip when I was young. Had family that worked for GE, and in mid September GE employees and their families would get massively discounted tickets, and we always stayed in the Holidome.
I worked at THIS Holiday Inn, at the front desk, in the restaurant and also the nightclub. The club originally was called Red Slipper Lounge. When I was a bartender there, it was called Spanky's. I was there for the last few years the hotel was open and the club was barely keeping things afloat.
At that point the hotel was renamed the Preston hotel. They lost the flagship name and backing of the H.I. brand. We still had all the regular customers, though. We had the businessman and we had the families.
We still had events each week and theme nights.. It was very sad to hear everything was closing but the club was the only thing making any money anymore...
I'm still very upset that someone stole all the photographs I took of the entire hotel and of the bar on that last night.
Also, I took a sharpie in and all the customers signed the walls in the bar. Reading the comments were just so special. People were talking about who they met there and the special times that they've had there.
Our bar manager's husband actually wrote, "Thanks, Spanky's. Now I get my wife back!"
I know who has the signage and the painted mirrors and who bought the rights to reuse the name Spanky's.
They tried to relocate the magic of Spanky's and invite the customers to go to a new spot but it just never worked out.
Even if it was very close to the old location, it just didn't work. You don't get the same vibe. We even had some of the same staff. Two different attempts at extra locations, and it's just not the same.
The only keepsake I still have is a shirt. We called the last night "The Last Spank!" I named that event actually! Wow. I'm so glad we made those t-shirts. I believe it was July of 2001.
Does anybody have a video of the club? At all? That was such a fun night. The staff was invited to stay overnight of course because nothing mattered anymore. We didn't even clean up the last night. Even though we were crying and straightening up a little bit, We literally chose what open liquor bottles we wanted and we sat around and reminisced all night long, we sang we laughed we cried and we played whatever music we wanted to hear and pretty much got trashed together. Then went up to the front desk and got a key to a room. The next day when we all left no one ever walked through there again. It very quickly got turned into a huge pile of rubble. I drove by a few days later and I parked and walked up to the chain link fence and just broke down and cried right there! 😢 Those were great times. I remember going to this hotel before I ever even considered working there. It was a good staycation. I still live right outside Cincinnati. This hotel was located in the perfect spot on the northbound side of I75. North of Cincinnati right near the very top of the I275 loop that goes around Cincinnati and drives you through Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. It's been a great place to live. I was born here and raised down south and I've been back here for the last 30 years. I'm about to go back down south again, but it's been a good run!
There was a Drury Inn a Cracker barrel in a gas station put up on that property to the side of the highway. Those things are still there today. It's the Thursday before the Christmas weekend of 2022. It's the first big rain/ice and snow event of the year. The whole nation is getting affected almost by this blizzard!!
So that’s what the grassy area surrounded by the 2 hotels and Cracker Barrel was.
"You ain't seen nothin' till you've been in a motel baby, like the Holiday Inn"
- Elton John
I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Thought it was gone forever. Thank you for sharing this.
Wow! I worked at the Sharonville location in ‘94. Remember their club, Spanky’s?
I just wish I could see the exterior of it
Damn, super nostalgia going on here. Remember going here in the late 80s and early 90s. Spent waaay too many quarters in that arcade.
I remember staying here once in the mid 80s. Went to Kings Island the next day.
It was a yearly trip when I was young. Had family that worked for GE, and in mid September GE employees and their families would get massively discounted tickets, and we always stayed in the Holidome.
I remember going here as a kid! It was so much fun!
A Winegardner Hammond Holiday Inn
I stayed here in the late 1980s. I had the time of my life!
Had a similar one in Dayton. Then it became a dump and got obliterated by the tornado in 2019
It’s like half the hotel is play place
Depressing, glad my parents never took me to a Holidome for a so called vacation
We're glad you weren't there too
You ever cut yourself on all that edge?