This past Thanksgiving, my husband and I had to make an impossible choice: to travel to Savannah to say goodbye to his dying grandmother, or to play it safe with COVID and stay at home.
It truly was a gift from God that the Russell was the exact halfway point for our road trip down South (traveling from Chicago). This breathtaking hotel, perched upon a hilltop in Nashville’s East Neighborhood, did more than provide a clean, contactless hotel experience. It gave us the opportunity to truly relax in the midst of what could be called “the least relaxing year of our lives”.
If the impeccable design choices and colorful interiors weren’t enough to persuade you to stay, the motives behind their mission statement just might seal the deal. The Russell is an active participant in the “Rooms for Rooms” program, and the average weekend stay in their gorgeous hotel provides 16 nights in a bed, 100 free showers, and 30 free meals to the homeless community in their own backyard of Nashville, Tennessee. Some could argue that turning a church into a hotel is “not the point of a church”. As a Christian, I would like to offer the following argument: is it not the soul purpose of the church to feed the hungry, provide for the least of these, and love thy neighbor? If that is the point of the church, then the Russell is the best example of any church I’ve ever attended in my whole 24 years of life.
Staying in a hotel can be a hard choice for many to make during this time. But if you’re in the Nashville area for a bit, or just stopping through for a night or two, there is no better place you could choose to rest your head for the night.