This article originally published in 2025 and was updated on September 25, 2026, with new information.
The late Dolly Parton was the undisputed queen of country music. Over a six-decade career, she sold more than 100 million albums and took home 10 Grammy Awards. Her 1973 smash hit “Jolene,” her most-streamed song on Spotify, has been listened to more than 955 million times. Her musical, Dolly—an autobiographical story about Parton’s ascent from poverty to country-music superstar, powered by her talent and determination—was staged in Nashville in summer 2025 and is now on Broadway. And on September 29, the SongTeller Hotel, currently in its soft opening phase in downtown Nashville, will celebrate its grand opening, along with Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum. The debut has taken on added poignancy following Parton’s death in August at age 80.
What to expect at Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel
Get a glimpse inside a replica of a Dolly Parton tour bus at the Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum.
Courtesy of Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum
The hotel is a partnership between Parton and Herschend Family Entertainment, the company that runs Parton’s theme park, Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. “SongTeller Hotel is Dolly’s love letter to Nashville,” says Merrill Puckett Miller, Herschend’s chief creative officer. “Through bold details, heartfelt tributes, and immersive moments, we want guests to step into her world and feel the warmth of her songtelling, her incredible power of telling stories through lyrics.”
Miller notes that the hotel’s design is meant to celebrate “all sides of Dolly, from rhinestone glamour to the Nashville grit and everything in between.”
The hotel’s public spaces and its rooms
The 12-story hotel in downtown Nashville announces itself with a marquee and enormous patchwork-patterned guitar topped by a glittery golden butterfly, all flanked by six magenta awnings. The public spaces are as colorful and maximalist as you’d expect from Parton: massive fringed chandeliers hang from the lobby ceiling, casting a warm light on raspberry sofas and burgundy and oxblood chairs, all atop a rainbow-patterned carpet.
The 245 guest rooms and suites are slightly more subdued but still lively. The signature rooms have dark carpets covered with patterns that resemble sound waves, bedside sconces that look like records, and wallpaper depicting tickets from Parton’s past concerts; one wall of the bathroom is eggshell blue, the soap dispensers hot pink.
The Acoustic suites are decorated with Parton’s acoustic guitars displayed on the walls, leopard-print footstools, and burgundy chesterfields; guests can put on a record and strum along or play the keyboard. The Six Sisters Suite, inspired by Parton’s five sisters, sleeps up to six and leans into the sleepover spirit, with a living room where friends and family can stay up late talking on a gold and champagne couch beneath a rainbow-droplet chandelier.
Dolly super-fans can book the two-story, 1,865-square-foot SongTeller Suite with its fireplace, jewel-tone feather chandelier, and a sprawling marble bathroom accented with inlaid gold.
In SongTeller Hotel’s Listening Lobby, with its oversize guitar-shaped table, a creative writing hour will be set aside for guests to try their hand at crafting lyrics.
Courtesy of SongTeller Hotel
Beyond the rooms, the hotel has two live-music venues that double as restaurants. Parton’s Live, an intimate lounge on the second floor, will host a lineup of emerging and established artists, including pop-country singer Stephanie Quayle and The Voice winner Jake Hoot. The menu leans Southern, with dishes such as biscuits, collard greens, and short ribs.
On the hotel’s top floor overlooking the river, Jolene’s is done up in hot-pink armchairs and love seats, chartreuse lamps, and rose motifs. Its contemporary American menu centers on shareable small plates, such as pimento cheese arancini with jalapeño jam and glazed pork belly. SongTeller hasn’t yet released Jolene’s performance calendar, but the venue has a grand piano, with live music planned several nights a week.
The hotel runs “SongTeller Rituals” that embrace the Dolly theme, such as playing selections from Parton’s robust song collection at the top of every hour and offering a creative writing hour in the Listening Lobby. A “Sunsets & Sequins Twilight Property Tour” provides guests with more information and context about the hotel’s public areas and museum.
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Head to Jolene’s on the top floor to catch a set of live music.
Courtesy of SongTeller Hotel
Inside the Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum
Spanning more than 20,000 square feet across the hotel’s third floor, Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum traces Parton’s early life and six-decade career through stage outfits, music awards, framed albums, and reproductions of her custom tour bus and writing room. The museum also looks beyond her work as a musician and actress, including her roles in such films as 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, to her lifelong philanthropy, from promoting child literacy through her Imagination Library to supporting COVID-19 vaccine research and hurricane-relief efforts.
“Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum is the largest collection of Dolly’s life story we have ever displayed,” says Rebecca Seaver, Parton’s niece and executive director of the museum and the Dolly Parton Archives. “She came to Nashville to make her dreams come true, so being able to honor her story of triumph in this way, in this town, is an incredible honor to me and her entire archive team.”
Rates for standard rooms at SongTeller Hotel start at $358 per night. Admission to Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum starts from $32.
