Hotel Reviews
Travel Tuesday: The Nash (Formerly The Bobby) Nashville Hotel Review
A funny thing happened to me recently when I was booking a hotel. When Googling a property I had seen listed, I was surprised to find that “The Nash” in Nashville, ironically, didn’t rank well (something in Dallas kept coming up). Well, it turns out that this is because The Nash was previously known as The Bobby — and only changed its name a month ago!
But, whenever you want to call it, how was my stay at what is now The Nash? Let’s get into my experience.
The Nash (Nashville, Tennessee) Hotel Review
Booking The Nash (via American Express Hotel Collection)
Now that the American Express Platinum Card includes $600 in credits annually ($300 from January through June and $300 from July through December) for Fine Hotels & Resorts and Hotel Collection bookings, I’m always on the lookout for these properties when we travel. That’s exactly what led us to The Nash.
As a Hotel Collection property, The Nash offers Amex cardmembers a $100 property credit to use during their stay, complimentary upgrades when available, late check-out when available, and more. Plus, there was one perk that put it over the top for us: complimentary valet parking. Typically, this service would cost $65 per night, so this is quite a benefit — especially for a Hotel Collection property. I can’t say whether this is a standard offer or perhaps something they’re doing to attract bookings after their big rebrand, but I hope it’s the former.
For our two-night stay (which stretched from Good Friday to Easter Sunday), the prepaid total was $619.40. Then, there was $70.06 due at the hotel — but we’ll talk about that in a minute.
Location
Since we were headed to Nashville for a concert, we wanted to make sure we were close to the venue. Luckily, The Nash definitely fit the bill there.
For us, it was about a 5-minute walk to the Ryman Auditorium. That means you’re also not far from Broadway Street and its cacophanous scene. Basically, if you want to experience Downtown Nashville, The Nash is a great place to stay.
Parking and Check-In
Knowing we had complimentary valet, we kept an eye out for those familiar parking panels as we drove down 4th Ave. Sure enough, we spotted them and were able to easily pull in on the left side of the road (note: 4th Ave. is a one-way, so it’ll always be the left side of the road). Soon, a valet greeted us and took our information. Rather than holding a physical ticket, a text was sent to us with a link we could use to request and retrieve our car.
Heading inside, the front desk agent welcomed us, acknowledged our Amex booking, and gave us our welcome letter. Despite that, they still gave us a quick overview of the benefits, including complimentary valet parking. They also let us know that the code for said parking was included in the letter. Skipping ahead to our departure, the code did work perfectly fine — although you will seemingly still need to provide a credit card number along with the code. By the way, you can tip via the online system too, but you may still prefer cash, as there is a $1 fee.
Back to check in, this was also the point when I learned that we’d received an actual upgrade! Since Fine Hotels & Resorts and Hotel Collection upgrades are “when available,” I haven’t had the best luck. In some cases, we may get a higher floor or better view, but it’s rarely amounted to much for us. However, this time around, we were moved from a King Bed standard view room to one with a balcony (I guess that’s the universe making up for our Hotel Vandivort stay). I’ll talk more about the balcony when we get to the room, but I was happy to hear about the upgrade.
Anyway, as I mentioned, The Nash does charge an “experience fee.” But, in contrast to most resort fees and the like — which often boast perks like “free local calls” — this experience includes some tangible benefits. One of those is a welcome drink, although you won’t need to come thirsty. Instead, we were given tokens good for various things at the hotel’s venues. There were also complimentary bottles of water in the room, cookies and fruit for the taking on our floor’s lobby, and more. Look, I’m no fan of resort fees, but at least this one wasn’t so bad.
Once we got our goods and paid our deposit, we were off to the room.
Elevators
Before I get into it, overall, I give the elevators at The Nash a passing grade. Even with just two main elevators for guest room levels (plus an “express” one to the rooftop bar), we didn’t have many issues. The exception was when we first arrived and what I assume to be a bachelorette party got in line right before us. That took a few minutes.
But the problem wasn’t that there were people in line — it’s that the key card scanner was only on one side. Because of this, when I got in and quickly moved to the side to allow others to join, I didn’t realize I needed to tap my key before hitting a floor. It wasn’t until we arrived on a higher floor that I realized my selection had been dismissed due to my failure. Granted, this actually worked out better since I didn’t have to push through the women that came on after us and were on a higher floor… but I was still a bit annoyed.
Other than that, while relatively small, the elevators served us well during our stay.
The Room
Approaching our room from the elevator, I had high hopes. Luckily for me, they were met when I walked through the door.
The first thing I noticed was the bathroom, which featured a large, circular mirror that also had a light around it. In other words, it’s the perfect ring light for your Instagram modeling needs. Next to that was a lovely shower. And while said shower had a non-moveable half door on it, I thankfully did not end up soaking the floor as I do in France (where these half sheets of glass seem to be popular).
Moving to the exterior of the bathroom, it’s surrounded by a wall made up of differently patterned glass. But, I quickly realized that, while the bathroom setup looked pretty cool, it might not offer a ton of privacy to plutonic travelers or families. However, I soon noticed that there’s also a curtain that can be pulled around the entire bathroom box (as it were) to prevent those awkward silhouettes.
Stepping into the bedroom itself, the armoire — which extended to the mini bar, TV, and more — included some fun and unique designating designs. For example, an icon of a large coat took up most of the closet door while a depiction of boots was near the bottom of the same door. Covering the in-room safe was a door marked with a large diamond ring. And even the television cabinet could be closed to show a drawing of a TV. The only exception is that, from what I could tell, the guitar icon (which reminded me of the Monkees’ logo) was not denoting a spot to store your string instrument and was likely just a tone setter for the Music City vibe.
At the end of the armoire was a minibar that included a variety of liquors, several snacks, and other items. When I looked online, I was unable to determine if the room had amenities, such as a coffee maker or minifridge, so I assumed it didn’t. In reality, there was indeed a Keurig machine in the room. There was also a minifridge… although it’s a filled minibar with basically no room for any personal items. That said, unlike many Vegas rooms I’ve stayed in, there didn’t seem to be any autocharge sensors that would go off if you removed items. Use that information as you will.
Turning to the bed, I think The Nash may set the record for my favorite bedding so far. While the base sheets themselves were pretty standard, I really liked the upper layers. I also liked the headboard, which matched the room.
Next to the bed on either side were nightstands with built-in power options. This included regular plugs as well as both USB-A and USB-C plugs. The alarm clock on one side also featured a wireless charging pad. These were all convenient and, to me, show that these rooms must have been updated relatively recently.
Now for the fun part. As it turns out, the balcony that our upgraded room came equipped with wasn’t some dinky step-out. This was a deep, nicely paneled balcony, furnished with two chairs and a small table in between. And while the view wasn’t the best, it was still a great place to sit and relax. That was especially true during a rainstorm, which we were able to enjoy the sounds of while staying dry thanks to the size and covering of the balcony. Needless to say, this ended up being one of our favorite parts of the room (enhanced by it being unexpected).
One tiny potential issue with this room is the control for the bed lighting. As I learned, the on-off switch is located next to the plugs on one side of the bed. Not only did this take me a while to find, but I can only imagine how difficult it might be for someone who intends to sleep on the opposite side of the bed to find. I actually considered asking the front desk how many calls they get about that… but I forgot when it came to check out. So, let this serve as your “pro tip” should you decide to stay here.
Overall, we not only loved the vibe of our room at The Nash but also found it to be comfortable and fun.
WiFi
Normally, I don’t really have much to say about the Internet connection at various places I stay, but I did find the WiFi at The Nash to be on the slow side. Perhaps that’s because they also offer a paid premium tier. Either way, the regular connection was lacking, with the speed test showing just 5.71 Mbps download speeds. Comparatively, when I tried using my Solis Tag, I clocked 25.89 Mbps down, while the Solis 5G got me download speeds of 69.76 Mbps.
Even with the slow speeds, I was still able to watch YouTube without issue. Plus, the in-room TV had a Chromecast connection feature to stream content to. Still, if you have video meetings or the sort during your stay, you might want to have a backup plan.
Dining
The Nash houses a few different dining locations on the property itself. First up is the B-Side Café, which also has a coffee stand. This is actually where we ended up using our “welcome drink” tokens, redeeming them for lattes and then paying cash for drip coffee. Of note, it seems that the patio is dog-friendly as we saw a couple of cute pups out there while we sipped our drinks.
The main venue on the property is Ink & Ivory. Incidentally, when I tried to look up the restaurant menu before our trip, I was a bit taken aback that I couldn’t find one. I later learned that the menu is basically the same as the in-room dining one, so you might want to check that if you’re curious. Overall, it’s a solid menu, but it’s not the most extensive I’ve encountered.
We opted to hit up Ink & Ivory for dinner on Saturday night. To our surprise (perhaps due to the holiday weekend?), the place was dead — to the point where we actually thought they were closed until we noticed one other table of diners. A minute or two later, the host came out and seated us in a large booth just because.
Since neither of us were super hungry (thanks to a large meal at a Resy restaurant earlier in the afternoon), we decided to split the ribeye steak rather than getting our own dishes. The steak came out great and ended up being just enough for the two of us. My wife also tried a mocktail that she quite enjoyed. Add in the large bottle of San Pellegrino, and we were right near the $100 credit, meaning we just needed to pay the tip out of pocket.
Outside of the main level, there are two other venues at The Nash: the rooftop bar Elevate and the underground dive bar The Writer’s Lounge. We popped up to Elevate briefly, but didn’t check out the menu. Meanwhile, we didn’t get down to The Writer’s Lounge at all, but the photos make me wish we’d remembered to do that.
If you’re staying on an Amex Hotel Collection booking, your $100 property credit can be used at any of these locations. Just charge your purchase to the room and the credit will be applied. There are a few exceptions, such as gratuity, but it’s pretty straightforward overall.
Final Thoughts on The Nash (Formerly The Bobby)
All things considered, we loved our stay at The Nash! For one, the location was perfect for us as it was an easy walk from the Ryman and back. Plus, between our Amex credit, the standard benefits that come with The Hotel Collection, and the bonus valet parking perk, we got to enjoy an elevated stay for a very reasonable price. Oh, and I was also a big fan of the balcony our upgraded room included.
As far as downsides, I do wish that the main restaurant menu had just a few more options — and made said menu more accessible ahead of time. Also, the slow WiFi wasn’t too much of an issue for us on this trip, but I could see it becoming a problem if we were trying to work from my room. Lastly (and leastly), the TV interface got on my nerves for reasons too nitpicky to even describe.
Other than that, though, we thoroughly enjoyed our time at The Nash. In fact, we’ve already started discussing potential returns in the future. So, whether you’re heading to Nashville for a specific reason or just want a good place to use your Amex credit, I think The Nash is worth a look.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Nash hotel like in Nashville, Tennessee?
The Nash hotel in Nashville offers a boutique luxury experience, recently rebranded from The Bobby. Guests enjoy sophisticated amenities and a prime location, making it a popular choice for a memorable stay in Music City.
Is The Nash hotel in Nashville the same as The Bobby hotel?
Yes, The Nash hotel in Nashville is indeed the same property formerly known as The Bobby hotel. It recently underwent a name change, but maintains its excellent service and amenities under the new Nash identity.
What American Express Hotel Collection benefits are available at The Nash?
American Express Hotel Collection members staying at The Nash hotel receive a $100 property credit, complimentary upgrades when available, and late check-out. Valet parking was also included during a recent stay.
Does The Nash hotel Nashville offer complimentary valet parking?
Normally, valet parking at The Nash is $65 per night. However, complimentary valet parking is currently offered as a perk to those who book via the American Express Hotel Collection.
How much did a two-night stay at The Nash hotel cost?
A recent two-night weekend stay at The Nash hotel, booked through the American Express Hotel Collection, cost $619.40 prepaid, plus an additional $70.06 due at check-out. This included various Hotel Collection perks, including a $100 property credit.
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