Michelin Key: What travellers can expect from Michelin Guide's new hotel rating arriving in 2024
Michelin Key is a new system by the Michelin Guide that will honour exceptional hotels around the world. Launching in 2024, Japan will be the first Asian country to receive Michelin Keys for its top hotels.
In the same way that the Michelin star distinguishes outstanding restaurants, the Michelin Key will be a reliable indication for travellers of truly exceptional hotels. (Photo: Michelin Key)
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Every gourmand looks to the renowned Michelin Guide for its ratings of the world’s best restaurants, of which it awards one to three stars. Now, 123 years after the acclaimed Red Guide’s founding in 1900, it has cast its discerning eye towards hotels, recently sharing that it would start awarding the prestigious Michelin Key in early 2024 to recognise the world’s most exceptional accommodations.
At a Nov 15 press conference in Tokyo’s historic Okura hotel, International Director Gwendal Poullennec announced that Japan will be the first Asian country to receive Michelin Keys for its top hotels.
These are the key takeaways.
MICHELIN KEY HOTELS WIL BE ASSESSED FOLLOWING FIVE CRITERIA
The current Michelin Guide hotel selection (free-to-view on its website and app) lists about 5,300 properties in 120 countries spanning the UK, to Bora Bora in French Polynesia in a broad range of prices and styles. For Singapore, it suggests 26 hotels ranging from the minimally-styled 34-room boutique property Lloyd’s Inn to Singapore’s opulent grand dame, Raffles Hotel.
Michelin Key selection is based on five criteria. Each hotel must contribute to the local experience; offer excellent interior design and architecture; display an authentic, individual character; provide consistent quality service and offer value for money in terms of price and experience. Special attention is given to properties that offer high-quality food experiences.
“In the same way that the Michelin star distinguishes restaurants at the top of their game, the Michelin Key is a clear and reliable indication for travellers of truly exceptional hotels,” said Poullennec.
IT AIMS TO UNEARTH HIDDEN GEMS
“We look at properties with an open mind,” said Poullennec. This means the Michelin selection team will consider exceptional accommodations that might be off the beaten path, not part of any hotel groups or don’t conform to typical international hotel standards.
A good example, shared Poullennec, are Japan’s traditional ryokans, which would fall short of conventional western standards because most don’t offer TVs, multiple powerpoints and lighting options and have guests sleeping on the floor.
“And you’re not likely to get a pillow menu,” said Poullennec, laughing. “But you have incredible service. You see real, local design. You might be in a historic building. It’s an experience you can get nowhere else,” he added.
There will be no quota nor any price threshold applied to Michelin Key hotels. The only requirement is that they offer a singular experience that makes them destinations unto themselves. This means, hypothetically, that a S$200 per night yurt and a S$2000 per night luxury villa could be equally eligible to receive Michelin Keys.
“There is not one way to the Michelin Key just as there is today not one way to the Michelin star,” said Poullennec. “If you look at all restaurants at the three-star level, for example, there are no two that use the same products, techniques or offer the same taste. They all combine it differently.”
WHY JAPAN WILL BE THE FIRST IN ASIA TO RECEIVE MICHELIN KEYS
Poullennec described Michelin Guide’s Japanese debut in 2007 as a “game changer” and “a truly global reference for dining” for both the guide and for Japanese food culture worldwide. Little wonder – Japan’s inaugural Guide awarded Tokyo with the greatest number of three-starred restaurants in the world, beating out even Paris. Today, about 400 starred restaurants (out of almost 3,500) hail from Japan, “a highly significant proportion”, according to Poullennec.
Similar to its restaurants, Japan’s hotels – which span intimate, centuries-old ryokans to lavish, ultra-modern luxury hotels – are poised to set new benchmarks in hospitality. Significantly, unlike the current three Michelin Guide restaurant selections in Japan (covering Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, Nara), Japan’s Michelin Key hotels can come from anywhere in the country.
IT WILL OFFER A USER-FOCUSED EXPERIENCE
According to the Michelin Guide team’s user surveys, modern travellers face the unique problem of too much information when planning trips. They typically spend an average of 10 hours on 10 different platforms, with ultimately “no guarantee of success”, said Poullennec. “There was no real player in the field benefiting from [travel] professionals, a worldwide network and the power of the community,” he added.
Travellers can browse Michelin Guides’ hotel selection on its website and app, then also seamlessly book hotels at the best available rate. They can also connect with the 16,500 restaurants selected by Michelin inspectors, and a handy geolocation tool allows users to find nearby recommended restaurants. Significantly, the Guide also offers a free 24/7 concierge service – staffed by humans – who can advise users at each stage of travel planning, from initial ideation to more specific requests, like wheelchair-accessible luxury properties in Kyoto, for example.
After each stay, guests are invited to fill out a detailed questionnaire. If several negative reviews of a property are received, the Michelin selection team meets and decides collectively whether to remove the hotel. The list of hotels is constantly being refreshed and updated – approximately 500 hotels were removed and 500 added to the selection in 2022 alone.
WHY YOU SHOULD TRUST THE EXPERTS BEHIND THE RATINGS
The Michelin team’s legendary inspectors, as Poullennec humorously put it, famously “operate in the shadows”. These comprise 25 nationalities deployed in over 45 countries and are full-time Michelin employees so there’s no conflict of interest. Its inspectors are specialists in both local and international design and architecture, service norms, and worldwide hospitality cultures. Poullennec remained tight-lipped about revealing too much, but shared: “We have a former hotel manager, a former chef, a former sommelier.”
As with assessing the Guide’s restaurants, Michelin’s hotel inspectors stick to a strict methodology. Each hotel is thoroughly researched and its multifaceted qualities – like the care taken with the design and the character of a place – stringently evaluated. Integrity is key – preserving their anonymity is sacrosanct and inspectors behave like any guest, paying all bills in full.
The decision to award a Key will always be “a team decision, never a one-man-show,” added Poullennec, who says different inspectors are typically sent to evaluate the same properties to eliminate individual biases. To do this effectively, “we will go as many times as needed,” he saed. “It’s not a set amount because we are not an algorithm.”
THE SEA (AND SKY) IS THE LIMIT
Intriguingly, Poullennec suggests the Guide’s hotel (and Key) selection could, moving forward, potentially include non-traditional accommodations like yachts (or presumably even airborne vessels).
“What’s important is that it offers a singular experience and gives access to local life,” he said. One might also speculate that similar to its star ratings, the Guide may eventually differentiate its Keys, as well as recognise exceptionally “green” accommodations the way it does with its annual Green Star award, which honours restaurants with industry-leading sustainability practices.
A TASTE OF TOKYO AND KYOTO'S BEST HOTELS
Our stay with three Japanese accommodations featured in the Michelin Guide’s hotel selection.
The Capitol Hotel Tokyu
One of Tokyo’s original grand hotels, this sleek 251-key property located on the edge of the Imperial Palace was entirely rebuilt by Japanese star-chitect Kengo Kuma. Each spacious guestroom (sized from 45 sq m) offers sweeping city or garden views and feels innately ordered thanks to its modern Japanese aesthetic, while shoji paper screens and sliding partitions can be moved to configure the space as you like.
The Tokyo Edition, Toranomon
Uber-hotelier Ian Shrager’s Tokyo outpost – also designed by Kuma – may be more at home here than most other Western hotel brands because of the subtle Japanese sensibility that informs all Edition properties. It possesses that coveted brand of ineffable cool – evident from the signature furry throw tossed oh-so-casually across guest room beds to the veritable jungle of potted palms that greet you on arrival at the blonde-wood-panelled lobby. The bar at the latter – with its bespoke cocktails and plush seating nooks with spectacular close-up views of the illuminated Tokyo Tower – is perfect for a nightcap.
The Mitsui Kyoto
One imagines the former inhabitants of the imposing Nijo Castle across the street would have felt perfectly at home in this exquisite property built on the estate of Japan’s powerful Mitsui family. Guests enter through a 300-year-old gate into the hotel, which unexpectedly opens up to reveal a stunning, tranquil courtyard space containing an expansive cloud-reflecting pool and seasonal garden.
Designed by a team of Japanese architects and designers led by Andre Fu, it’s the only luxury hotel in the city centre with its own onsen. Each pristine guest room (a modern interpretation of the traditional Japanese tearoom) is a study in attention to detail, like the beautiful stone soaking tubs, petite hand-crafted wooden stools in the foyer for putting on shoes easily and a set of the softest Japanese-made pyjamas that you’ll be loath to leave behind at check-out.
