Today we’d like to introduce you to Renée Butcher.
Renée, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
In some ways, Parkside Acoustic Bed & Breakfast has been nearly forty years in the making.
Rick and I both grew up in the Portland area and met in high school choir. By our junior year, we were engaged to be married. But life had other plans, and we eventually went our separate ways.
Then, nearly thirty years later, we got a second chance.
Not long after reconnecting, we stayed at a traditional bed and breakfast for the first time as a couple. The owners lived on-site, served us a delicious breakfast each morning, and chatted with us across the table like old friends. We loved the experience so much that we soon found ourselves dreaming about opening one of our own someday.
A decade later, we were finally ready to leap. It took a lot of time, patience, and searching, but when we found our home in Ashland – right across from the Bandshell – everything started falling into place.
We fell in love with the arts community, the walkability, the beauty of Lithia Park, and the sense of creativity that runs through the town. It felt like the perfect place to put down roots, open our doors, and begin this new chapter together.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When we opened our doors in June 2025, it was a huge milestone, but so much had to happen before we could welcome our first guest.
Finding the right property was our first challenge. We spent almost two years exploring communities throughout Oregon and Washington, looking for a place that felt like home and had the potential to become the bed and breakfast we envisioned.
Once we found the house, the real work began.
The building had wonderful bones and plenty of character, but it needed a tremendous amount of attention. For more than a year, our weekends disappeared into paint cans, power tools, and trips to the local hardware store. We joked that the employees there knew us by name. By the end, some of them actually did.
We weren’t out exploring our new town or making many friends yet. We were focused on bringing this old house back to life. Nearly everything guests see today reflects those months of work. If it’s painted, repaired, refinished, or hanging on a wall, there’s a good chance one of us had a hand in it.
As the renovation work wrapped up, we began navigating the permitting and licensing process. As first-time innkeepers, there was a lot to learn, and there were definitely moments when it felt overwhelming.
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but it has absolutely been worth it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Parkside Acoustic Bed & Breakfast?
Parkside Acoustic Bed & Breakfast is a small, music-inspired inn inn with just three guest rooms, located in Ashland, Oregon, steps from Lithia Park and within easy walking distance of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and downtown Ashland.
What makes us different is that Parkside Acoustic was built around the kind of experience we were looking for when we first fell in love with bed and breakfasts. We live on-site, prepare a scratch-made breakfast each morning, and genuinely enjoy getting to know our guests. Our hope is that visitors feel less like they’re checking into a lodging property and more like they’re being welcomed into a home designed for rest, creativity, and connection.
Music has been part of our story from the very beginning. We met in choir, still write and perform together, and wanted that creative spirit to be woven into what we offer guests. The inn includes a dedicated Music Room where guests can play piano, guitar, or ukulele, spin a favorite record, or simply settle in and enjoy the atmosphere.
Food is another important part of what we do. Breakfast is prepared from scratch and tailored to our guests’ dietary needs and preferences. Many of the recipes we serve have grown out of years of recipe development for my comfort-food website, The Good Hearted Woman.
More than anything, we’re proud of creating a place that reflects the things we love most – music, hospitality, good food, and genuine connection – and sharing those things with our guests.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to us is connection.
The older we get, the more we realize that most of what people remember about a place isn’t the building, the furniture, or even the destination. It’s how they felt while they were there and the people they met along the way.
As innkeepers, we have the privilege of being a small part of those memories.
One of the things we love most about running a traditional bed and breakfast is the opportunity to slow things down a little. Sharing breakfast around the table, learning where guests are from, helping them discover Ashland through local eyes, and occasionally even making a little music together – those small human connections matter to us.
If guests leave feeling rested, cared for, and a little more connected than when they arrived, we’ve given them something more than just a place to stay.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://parksideacousticbnb.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parksideacousticbnb/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parksideacousticbnb
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/parkside-acoustic-bed-and-breakfast-ashland
- Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g29998-d33252929-Reviews-Parkside_Acoustic_Bed_Breakfast-Ashland_Oregon.html
