There are many hotels in Grand Rapids. Most are for business. Or maybe landing spots for visiting nearby family or hitting a travelling sporting event.

One of our first customers was a man whose son was in the hospital around the corner from our Bed and Breakfast. We didn’t yet have beds built in all our rooms, so at first we referred him to one of the other B&Bs, like Peaches, The Leonard, or the Lafayette House. But it was ArtPrize week, and everyone was booked. So we said, give us an hour and we’ll cobble a room together. He spent two nights with us within easy walking distance to St Mary’s and his son.

The man who built our 1882 Bed & Breakfast once lived in the hotel that is now the Amway Grand Plaza hotel. From our pioneer days, Grand Rapids has needed housing for businessmen. Today there’s also the JW Marriot or City Flats hotel in the downtown core to offer luxury and trendy accommodations.

And no doubt, the chain motels abound in the suburbs and interchanges for those passing through efficiently. If you need a hotel in Grand Rapids, there are many corporate and conglomerate options.

But we are less hotel and more home. The Parsonage Inn is more a Victorian refuge in the heart of the city than a cookie-cutter room in a factory building. We live here in this house, so we hope it’s more like staying with your favorite relatives than counting the frequent flyer miles. Our furniture has stories, like the couch that survived the 1956 F5 tornado, or the 1939 grandparents’ honeymoon suite, or the $5 coffee table that kept our kids safe from hot pizza.

We too are a hotel in Grand Rapids, but as a bed and breakfast filled with stories, we are more home than hotel! We hope you’ll come for a visit!

-Steven Koster