Last year, when World’s 50 Best issued its first global ranking of hotels, only two properties in the U.S. made the cut: the Equinox and Aman New York hotels, both in Manhattan.
Now Michelin has arrived stateside, in its second-ever presentation of “keys” — a new system from the eponymous tiremaker that’s doling out one, two or three key emblems, like its restaurant stars but to the world’s worthiest hotels.
Out of more than 1,000 luxury hotels across the country, 11 were awarded three keys. The winners were all in California and New York, from Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur to Single Thread Inn in Healdsburg and the Whitby Hotel in Midtown. Aman New York, echoing its position on World’s 50 Best, was also included; Equinox, meanwhile, received no keys at all.
Importantly, keys were only distributed to hotels in seven primary markets across the U.S. where the Michelin Guide also reviews restaurants: New York City, Atlanta, California, Chicago, Colorado, Florida, and Washington, D.C. Michelin says next year’s ceremony will expand to include more of the U.S.
One key denotes a “special” stay, two make it “exceptional” and three reflect hotels that are “extraordinary.”
Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guide, has described the criteria for these awards in highly subjective terms. Earlier this month he told Bloomberg that these most exceptional properties will be judged based off “the experience” alone. Rather than requiring them to adhere to certain definitions — like having a spa, pool or minimum staff-to-guest ratios — the hotel experience “has to be memorable and singular in a way that will give people a feel for local character,” he explained. At the awards ceremony, he built upon that sentiment. “We’re not a checklist of amenities,” he said.
This is still an improvement over other ranking systems, which rely on already-published articles by outside media or complimentary stays to produce their results; by contrast, Michelin has committed to independently paying for its hotel reviewers to stay at each property. In an interview after the ceremony, Poullennec went further, adding that multiple inspectors stay at each hotel, sometimes multiple times, before assigning keys.
“We have boots on the grounds, inspectors working the field in every country, leaving no stone unturned and also looking for discoveries, new openings, in order to be fully up to date in their recommendation,” Poullennec said in remarks during the key presentation at the Museum of Art and Design on Columbus Circle.
To some hoteliers, Michelin’s recognition holds outsize importance. In background conversations leading up to the event, owners of several new independent hotels in major cities held hope that earning multiple keys could help them compete with better-established luxury brands such as Aman, Rosewood or Ritz-Carlton. That may be the case for the boutique London-based Firmdale Hotels, whose two New York hotels, the Whitby and the Crosy Street Hotel, both earned three keys.
Others in more remote locations expected that any honor could help them lure talent — places like Twin Farms in Barnard, Vermont, or Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, for example. Unfortunately the prospect will have to wait.
It’s not that Michelin is the only designation that consumers can use to parse quality hotels. Walk into many of the key-awarded hotels, and you might see a Forbes’ five-star plaque — that honor was given to some 80 luxury hotels in the U.S. in 2023, and American travel magazines dole out similar recognitions each year. But Michelin’s reputation spans much of the globe, in a way that the others do not.
“Our users say that when they are looking for places to stay, they will spend on average 10 hours on 10 different platforms to do so,” Poullennec said at the ceremony. “They’re at a loss. There is a demand for real recommendations and independent ones, that you can trust and go beyond brand labels, and that apply from one country to another — a global reference.”
Still, there are many skeptics. Michelin’s entry into the hotel market comes at a time when the company is looking for new revenue streams and attracting criticism for expanding its Michelin Dining Guides in a way that prioritizes destinations with big marketing budgets, even when they don’t have the restaurant quality to back it up.
The Atlanta Michelin Guide, for instance was sponsored by the local tourism board in a deal worth $1 million, but no restaurant in the city earned more than a single star. Its inclusion as one of the first destination in the hotel keys presentation will come as a surprise to luxury hotel afficcionados; the city is not widely known as a hub for luxury hotels, and only three hotels in the city were included, each with one key.
Pouillennec tells Bloomberg the overlap is because restaurant critics need places to sleep; that made it logistically feasible to prioritize these places. Although, as he told Bloomberg earlier in Paris, they’re not excluding the possibility of sponsored hotel guides in the future.
Also leading to skepticism about the awards is Michelin’s acquisition of Tablet Hotels, which took place in 2018 for an undisclosed sum; it’s a curated booking platform for luxury and boutique hotels that features some 6,000 hotels globally and around 950 properties in the U.S.
The technology gives Michelin a place where it can facilitate bookings for its recommended hotels, earn commissions from them, and also collect feedback from guests about their stays. As a result, some hoteliers have wondered whether Michelin has prioritized Tablet properties in its inspections; the company says reviews are completely independent and carried out by full-time employees, but adds that every hotel it recognizes is immediately bookable on its website.
“Nothing matters more than the independence of our recommendations,” Poullennec said.
In all, 124 hotels in the U.S. were recognized with keys. Here is the full list of winners divided by market:
Three Keys
New York City
New York City
Crosby Street Hotel
The Whitby Hotel
Aman New York
Casa Cipriani New York
California
The Beverly Hills Hotel, Dorchester Collection
Post Ranch Inn, Big Sur
SingleThread Inn, Healdsburg
Hotel Bel-Air, Dorchester Collection, Los Angeles
Auberge du Soleil, Auberge Resorts Collection, Rutherford
Meadowood Napa Valley, St. Helena
Canyon Ranch Woodside, Woodside
Two Keys
New York City
The Fifth Avenue Hotel
The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel
The Mark Hotel
Hotel Barrière Fouquet’s New York
Nine Orchard
Pendry Manhattan West
California
L’Ermitage Beverly Hills
The Maybourne Beverly Hills
The Peninsula Beverly Hills
Ventana Big Sur, an Alila Resort
Bernardus Lodge & Spa, Carmel Valley
The Stavrand, Guerneville
Montage Healdsburg
The Madrona, Healdsburg
Montage Laguna Beach
Rosewood Miramar Beach, Montecito
Milliken Creek Inn & Spa, Napa
Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco at Embarcadero
The Battery, San Francisco
Cavallo Point Lodge, Sausalito
Pendry West Hollywood
Chateau Marmont, West Hollywood
North Block, Yountville
Bardessono, Yountville
Chicago
Pendry Chicago
The Langham
The Peninsula Chicago
Florida
Mayfair House Hotel & Garden, Miami
The Setai Miami Beach
Faena Hotel Miami Beach
Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club, Miami Beach
Washington, D.C.
Rosewood Washington, D.C.
The Jefferson
One Key
New York City
1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn
Ace Hotel Brooklyn
Wythe Hotel, Brooklyn
1 Hotel Central Park
Baccarat Hotel & Residences
Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park
Ritz-Carlton New York, NoMad
The Beekman – A Thompson Hotel
The Bowery Hotel
The Greenwich Hotel
The Hotel Chelsea
The Lowell
The Ludlow Hotel
The Mercer
The Peninsula New York
The Wall Street Hotel
Warren Street Hotel
Atlanta
Stonehurst Place Atlanta
The Candler Hotel Atlanta
Hotel Clermont
California
Four Seasons Resort Napa Valley, Calistoga
Harbor House Inn, Elk
Downtown LA Proper Hotel
Soho Warehouse DTLA, Los Angeles
The Aster, Los Angeles
The Paramour Estate, Los Angeles
The Prospect Hollywood, Los Angeles
Stanly Ranch, Auberge Resorts Collection, Napa
Pendry Newport Beach
Dive Palm Springs
Holiday House Palm Springs
La Serena Villas, Palm Springs
Sparrows Lodge, Palm Springs
Rancho Caymus Inn, Rutherford
1 Hotel San Francisco
Hotel Drisco, San Francisco
Hotel San Luis Obispo
San Luis Creek Lodge, San Luis Obispo
El Encanto, A Belmond Hotel, Santa Barbara
Casa Del Mar, Santa Monica
Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, Santa Monica
Santa Monica Proper Hotel
Shutters on the Beach, Santa Monica
The Georgian, Santa Monica
The Sea Ranch Lodge, Sea Ranch West
Chamberlain West Hollywood
Hotel 850 SVB, West Hollywood
Palihouse West Hollywood
Soho House Holloway, West Hollywood
Sunset Tower Hotel, West Hollywood
The Charlie, West Hollywood
Chicago
Chicago Athletic Association
Nobu Hotel Chicago
The Gwen, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Michigan Avenue Chicago
Viceroy Chicago
Waldorf Astoria Chicago
Colorado
Hotel Jerome, Auberge Resorts Collection, Aspen
The Little Nell, Aspen
Mollie Aspen
Clayton Hotel & Members Club, Denver
Four Seasons Denver
The Crawford Hotel, Denver
Sonnenalp Hotel, Vail
Four Seasons Vail
Florida
Mandarin Oriental Miami
Mr. C Miami – Coconut Grove
1 Hotel South Beach, Miami Beach
Esmé Miami Beach
Hotel Greystone – Adults Only, Miami Beach
The Betsy – South Beach, Miami Beach
Ette Hotel, Orlando
Lake Nona Wave Hotel, Orlando
The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes
Palihouse Hyde Park Village, Tampa
The Tampa Edition
Washington, D.C.
Eaton D.C.
Pendry Washington D.C. – The Wharf
Riggs Washington D.C.
The Dupont Circle Hotel
The Hay-Adams Hotel
Nikki Ekstein, Bloomberg , 2024-04-25 12:03:06
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