Short answer
Athens, GA’s first three boutique hotels all opened between mid-2024 and early 2025, according to Visit Athens, and each one is in a historic building: Rivet House, a 50-room hotel with a spa inside the old Southern Manufacturing jeans factory at Southern Mill; The Athenian, an 11-room inn in an 1846 Greek Revival house on West Hancock Avenue; and The Bell Hotel, 12 rooms in the 1916 Southern Bell telephone building on West Clayton Street, with a rooftop terrace.
Rivet House is the one with a restaurant, valet parking and a game-day shuttle to Sanford Stadium. The other two are small, staff-light and right downtown.
Visit Athens, the city’s tourism office, pointed us to these three as a group: very different buildings, very different stays. We checked each hotel’s own website on October 2, 2026, plus Visit Athens’ opening announcements. None of the three publishes nightly rates, and rates in Athens swing hard on UGA home-game weekends, so this guide doesn’t quote any.
It compares what stays the same: location, size, parking, pets and house rules. Where a hotel publishes nothing, we say “not published.”
Athens boutique hotels at a glance
| Rivet House | The Athenian | The Bell Hotel | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 355 Oneta St., Building C200 (Southern Mill) | 347 W. Hancock Ave., downtown | 183 W. Clayton St., downtown |
| Rooms | 50 rooms and suites | 11 rooms | 12 rooms (8 rooms plus a 4-bedroom suite that sleeps 8) |
| Opened | June 2024 | Late 2024 to March 2025 (sources differ, see below) | February 2025 |
| The building | Southern Manufacturing Company, founded 1902, once one of the country’s largest makers of women’s jeans | 1846 Greek Revival house | 1916 Southern Bell telephone building by P. Thornton Marye, architect of Atlanta’s Fox Theatre |
| Food and drink | Osteria Olio (Italian) and a lobby coffee shop | None on site; Nespresso makers and mini-fridges in rooms | Lobby bar for hotel guests; no restaurant |
| Extras | Nine-room spa, fitness room | Shared lounge | Rooftop terrace with a fire pit |
| Parking | Valet $25 a night, or free self-parking a 2-minute walk away | 6 spots on site, first come, first served (fee not published); city decks nearby | Off-street parking listed; fee not published |
| Pets | Service animals only | No pets, including emotional support animals; service animals with advance notice | Not published |
| Check-in / out | 4pm / 11am | 3pm / 11am | Keyless check-in; times not published |
| Front desk | Staffed hotel | No front desk; door codes | 24/7 virtual front desk (operated by Kasa) |
| Game days | Trolley shuttle to Sanford Stadium for overnight guests on UGA home-game Saturdays | Not published | Not published |
| Accessibility | Accessible rooms available | No elevator | Not published |
Rivet House: the full-service one at Southern Mill
Rivet House opened on June 7, 2024, according to Visit Athens, with 50 rooms and suites. It sits inside Southern Mill, the mixed-use redevelopment of the Southern Manufacturing Company plant.
Visit Athens says the company was founded in 1902 and became one of the nation’s largest makers of women’s jeans before the site was reimagined in 2018; the hotel describes it as “a former apparel and denim manufacturing factory.” Visit Athens places it minutes from downtown and the UGA campus.
It is the only one of the three that works like a conventional hotel. Osteria Olio serves Italian food, there is a coffee shop in the lobby, and the Spa at Rivet House has nine treatment rooms (Sunday to Thursday 9am–5pm, Friday and Saturday 9am–6pm, with a 15% service fee on treatments).
There is also a fitness room. Valet parking costs $25 a night; self-parking is free and about a 2-minute walk away. Only service animals are allowed. Check-in is at 4pm and check-out at 11am.
The detail football weekends hinge on: on UGA home-game Saturdays, Rivet House runs a 28-passenger trolley shuttle between the hotel and Sanford Stadium for overnight guests. It does not publish game-weekend rates or minimum stays.
The Athenian: an 11-room inn in an 1846 house
The Athenian is an 11-room inn at 347 W. Hancock Ave., in a Greek Revival house that the Red & Black, UGA’s student paper, reports was built in 1846 for Stevens Thomas, a UGA graduate. The house has since been a tuberculosis hospital, a YWCA boarding home, a fraternity house and offices.
Each room is named for a figure from Greek myth, from Zeus and Athena to Achilles and Hercules, and the inn says rooms keep heart pine floors, an original (non-working) fireplace and triple-hung windows. The Red & Black puts it less than a mile from campus and about a mile from Sanford Stadium.
It runs without a front desk: guests get door codes. There is no restaurant or bar, and no elevator, which matters if stairs are a problem. Parking is six first-come, first-served spots beside the house, with city decks and pay lots nearby.
Pets are not allowed, emotional support animals included; service animals are, with advance notice. Check-in is 3pm, check-out 11am. Its cancellation rule is strict: cancel by 4pm Eastern 14 days before arrival or lose the deposit.
On the opening date: Visit Athens gives March 2025, while the Red & Black reported in March 2025 that the inn had opened in September 2024. The hotel’s site doesn’t say.
The Bell Hotel: 12 rooms and a rooftop in the old telephone building
The Bell Hotel held its grand opening on February 11, 2025, after a two-year renovation, according to Visit Athens. The hotel says the building was designed by P. Thornton Marye, the architect of Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, and built in 1916 as a regional headquarters for the phone company; Visit Athens names it as Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The hotel has twelve rooms: standard kings and queens, balcony kings, and The Bellsuite, a four-bedroom suite that sleeps eight, which suits a family or a group in town for a game or a graduation. It is run by Kasa, so check-in is keyless and the front desk is virtual, around the clock.
Downstairs is a lobby bar for hotel guests; upstairs is a rooftop terrace with a fire pit and views over downtown. The hotel lists off-street parking but publishes no fee, and it doesn’t publish a pet policy or check-in times, so ask before you book.
Which one fits your trip
Pick Rivet House for a game weekend if you want the stadium shuttle, valet parking and dinner without leaving the building, or for a spa weekend. Pick The Athenian for a quiet couple’s stay in a historic house a short walk from downtown, as long as you can manage stairs and don’t need anyone at a desk.
Pick The Bell Hotel for a group that wants to share one suite downtown, or for the rooftop. If you’re bringing a dog, none of the three is a sure thing: two allow service animals only and the third doesn’t say.
Parking and game days in downtown Athens
If your hotel’s own parking is full, the College Avenue and Washington Street decks are free for the first hour and $2 an hour after that, Visit Athens told us. On UGA home-game days those decks switch to flat event pricing; our Athens things-to-do guide has the game-day rates, traffic and what closes. Athens is about 70 miles, roughly 90 minutes, from Atlanta.
Questions people ask
Which Athens boutique hotel is closest to Sanford Stadium?
The Athenian is about a mile from the stadium, per the Red & Black, and The Bell is downtown. Rivet House is farther out at Southern Mill, but it is the only one that runs a shuttle to Sanford Stadium on home-game Saturdays.
Do any of them allow dogs?
Not as far as their published policies go. Rivet House allows service animals only. The Athenian bans pets and emotional support animals and allows service animals with notice. The Bell Hotel doesn’t publish a pet policy.
Which one has a restaurant?
Only Rivet House, with Osteria Olio and a lobby coffee shop. The Bell has a guests-only bar and a rooftop terrace. The Athenian has no food or bar service, but it is a short walk to downtown restaurants.
Sources: the hotels’ own websites (rivethouse.com, stayathenian.com, thebellhotel.com), checked ; Visit Athens opening announcements for Rivet House (June 2024) and The Bell Hotel (February 2025); the Red & Black on The Athenian (March 2025). More on the city: our Athens, Georgia guide. All three are in our list of Georgia’s historic hotels.
Hank Whitlock is the pen name of the It's Georgia editor. Every guide is built around the questions a busy family actually asks before a trip: how long is the drive, what does parking cost, can the stroller make it, are dogs allowed. Details are checked against official park, city, and venue sources, and each guide shows the date it was last updated.
