People tend to fall into one of two camps when selecting a hotel. There are those who view hotels as merely places to crash and those who treat hotels as the center-point around which their trip revolves. We count ourselves firmly among the latter, with a belief that your choice of hotel has the potential to make or break a trip (or at least turn a good trip into an insanely great trip).
Getting your hotel choice right often involves a lot of research or simply turning to an authority you trust to quickly point you to the best of the best. For that, you have “best” lists from Conde Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure, 50 Best’s ranking of the world’s best hotels (though their restaurant and bar rankings get more attention), rankings from Forbes and AAA (with Forbes 5 Star and AAA 5 Diamond being top honors) and, of course, InsideHook’s 100 Best Hotels in the World.
When it comes to identifying the crème de la crème in hospitality, however, few names garner respect quite like Michelin. Renowned for the stars they award to the world’s best gastronomic experiences, Michelin is now broadening their scope and ranking hotels too — but with “keys” rather than stars. Just like a restaurant can be awarded one, two or three Michelin stars, hotels now have the chance to be awarded one, two or three Michelin keys. And just as with Michelin-starred restaurants, these coveted accolades are handed down by Michelin’s incognito inspection team based on anonymous visits.
Michelin has been releasing their key-awarded hotels in bursts, starting in April with the reveal of their United States, Canada and Mexico selections, followed by their Spain, Italy, France and Thailand selections. As of this October, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland were added as well.
Because it’s logical to assume that more hotels in more countries will be reviewed and ranked in the coming year — and with Michelin keys poised to become one of the go-to indicators of hotel quality — we thought we’d give you a brief rundown of how the system works.
InsideHook’s 100 Best Hotels in the World
From Abu Dhabi to ZurichMichelin Keys and Selection Criteria
Given that their restaurant picks have hogged the spotlight, it’s no surprise most people don’t know Michelin has been recommending hotels for more than 100 years. Back in 1920, they recommend their first hotel, and hotel recommendations have been included in their Europe and Asia guides ever since. On their website, they also have a database of more than 5,000 recommended hotels around the world. These hotels, however, were all just generally “Michelin-recommended” and never parsed out, sorted or ranked in any major way. That’s where keys come in.
Through an intensive review and additional anonymous visits of their recommended hotels, Michelin set out to identify the best of the best among them based on five criteria: excellence in architecture and interior design, with design that has a clear and compelling personality; quality and consistency of service with staff dedicated to your comfort; overall personality and character; reliable and consistent value for the price; and a significant contribution to the neighborhood or setting, a place in harmony with its surroundings and reflective of the local identity. Special attention was also paid to hotels with first-rate food experiences and hotels demonstrating sustainability and social responsibility.
From there, Michelin began awarding keys to the most standout properties, with one key designating “a very special stay,” two keys designating “an exceptional stay” and three keys designating hotels offering “an extraordinary stay.”
One, Two and Three Key Hotels
To give you a sense of how keys were distributed, in the United States 207 hotels received one, including Indianapolis’s Bottleworks Hotel, Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea and NYC’s The Bowery Hotel. Moving up, 70 American hotels nabbed two keys, with the likes of Colorado’s Dunton Hot Springs (featured here in our guide to the best hotels with fly fishing programs), Austin, Texas’s, Commodore Perry Estate and Montecito, California’s, Rosewood Miramar Beach making the cut.
Then there’s the three key hotels, the most coveted honor reserved for the best of the best among the best of the best, which Michelin describes as “all about astonishment and indulgence,” “the ultimate in comfort and service, style and elegance,” “one of the world’s most remarkable and extraordinary hotels and a destination in itself for that trip of a lifetime.” To further paint the picture, think also about the level of mastery of craft service and creativity it takes for a restaurant to receive the equivalent three Michelin stars and the famous names like The French Laundry, Eleven Madison Park, Noma and Per Se who’ve achieved it. Point being, it’s an honor not easily achieved and why only 16 American hotels have lived up to this high standard. These include Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, California, NYC’s Crosby Street Hotel, Napa Valley’s Auberge du Soleil, Utah’s Amangiri, Florida’s Little Palm Island Resort and Spa and Hawaii’s Kona Village, a Rosewood Resort.
You can explore the full, current list of all key hotels in the United States here and internationally here, but know things can change. Just like restaurants can lose a star if quality slips, hotels can also lose a Key. According to Michelin, “when a hotel no longer meets our standards, it’s removed. This can be done solely at the discretion of the hotel team or as a result of guest feedback.”
Hopefully getting and maintaining Michelin keys will keep hotels on their toes, as stars have done for restaurants, resulting in better hotel stays for us all.
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