It’s been a big year for MICHELIN and hotels. In 2024, the MICHELIN Key debuted as the hotel equivalent of the MICHELIN Star for restaurants, denoting the most outstanding accommodations in our selection.
Less than a year later and the MICHELIN Key is in three continents, 13 countries, and nearly 1,500 hotels. It's found its way to the world's major cities and remote forests, to humble inns and opulent boutiques, to hotels in five-room inns and hotels in sprawling luxury towers. Inspectors consider a variety of factors in determining the list of MICHELIN Keys in each country. In the end, the strongest commonality is quality.
Learn more about each Key selection, sorted by continent and country, below:
North America: Keys Where You Least Expect Them
Many Keys in the Americas stand alone in the countryside, special finds that we encourage you to let become the trip itself. This is the continent where you’ll book some of the only glamping hotels with Keys in the entire world (Paws Up Resort, Clayoquot Wilderness Lodge, ULUM Moab). It’s where you’ll find farm hotels where guests eat locally and live slowly (Los Poblanos, Blackberry Farm). It’s where architectural masterpieces match their style to the continent’s sublime deserts (Paradero Todos Santos, Amangiri) and pristine forests (Stillpoint Lodge, Wickaninnish Inn, Casa Chablé).The coasts are where you'll find many of the Three Key hotels (our highest distinction), but you'll find One and Two Keys scattered everywhere throughout the continent. See the Bottleworks Hotel in Indianapolis or the Bradford House in Oklahoma City for exceptional experiences in the center of the United States, or the Central Hotel Boutique in Chihuahua City for accommodations in less-traveled Mexico.
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Canada
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Mexico
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in the United States
Europe: Keys In Castles, Keys in Technicolor
The continent with the most Key releases to date is the continent with the most historic hotels in the world. You won’t find a meticulously restored hotel in a 1,000-year-old castle anywhere but here (Castello di Reschio). Nor can you go anywhere else in the world for a hotel in a palace once frequented by both the Archbishops of Salzburg and Audrey Hepburn (Rosewood Hotel Schloss Fuschl).But in other places on the continent, design personality flourishes over historic majesty. Just look to the little hotels of Paris (La Fantaisie, Providence), Mallorca (Hotel Can Ferrereta, Nobis Hotel Palma), and the smaller British villages (the Swan Southwold). This is also the continent with the most Key-packed cities in the world. London has the most Key hotels in the world at 43, followed closely by Paris’ 39.
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Austria
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in France
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Germany
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Italy
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Spain
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Switzerland
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in the UK & Ireland
Asia: Keys that Leave the Building Behind
Keys have been released in only two countries in Asia so far. Even so, it’s already the continent with some of the most unique hotel forms in its Keys. Forget regular hotel buildings, in Japan, there’s a hotel where rooms look like private caves built into the cliffside with giant circle windows facing the sea (Izumo Hotel The Cliff). There's a hotel built into a TV tower (the Tower Hotel Nagoya). And there's more than one hotel by minimalist master Tadao Ando (Benesse House, SETOUCHI RETREAT). In Thailand? There’s a hotel with rooms built exclusively from vintage rail cars (InterContinental Khao Yai Resort).The two countries deliver too on some of the more typical forms associated with regional hospitality. In Tokyo and Bangkok, ultra-luxury skyscraper hotels (Rosewood Bangkok, Bvlgari Hotel Tokyo) tower over the capital cities. Throughout Japan, today’s modern ryokan combine traditional attractions — kaiseki dinners and onsen baths — with 21st-century personalities (Zaborin, Beniya Mukayu).
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Japan
The Full List of MICHELIN Keys in Thailand
Hero Image: Paradero Todos Santos in Mexico, a luxurious all-suite boutique hotel in a highly disciplined Brutalist style.
