I would say staying anywhere, including downtown would be safe if you do your reference checks thoroughly. LE can be a concern in certain places in the Cincinnati area, so you would need to be careful if someone contacts you with no references. I personally think the LE activity in Cincy is overblown, you don't hear of many busts outside of street walkers and "hobbyists" who partake in that.

The thing is that right across the river from downtown Cincy is northern KY. Many touring providers stay in hotels in the Covington or Florence area. LE is no factor at all in NKY, at least up to this point, and you will really have nothing to worry about as far as that goes.