The Michelin Key: Here's What It Means and Why Silk-Stocking Travelers Will Look for It

Even though the global health crisis caused major problems for hotels and restaurants, most have made a comeback. It is estimated that there are over 700,000 establishments worldwide that do not require their guests to pay a cleaning fee or do the laundry themselves before they leave.

Michelin (yes, the tire company) has been recommending restaurants and hotels for quite some time. It even has a free app called the Michelin Guide that allows users to explore the brand's entire selection of places to eat and sleep that its inspectors have vetted.

As you may already know, the places that offer an unforgettable experience food- and drinks-wise receive one, two, or three Michelin stars. It's a tradition that started in 1900. Originally, it was meant to give travelers tips about where to stop for a meal and to help the auto industry gain momentum. It was a smart initiative – with more travelers on the road, more cars are being used. In turn, more tires need to be bought. It's a win-win for everyone.

Over the years, however, the Michelin Guide became an important booklet for restaurants and well-off globetrotters. To this day, it's an incredible honor to have at least one star. It's one of the best confirmations your place of business can receive, showing that it has everything a refined or thirsty-for-new-experiences road-tripper might want.

The brand transformed a marketing initiative into an invisible sanctioning body. That's what the Michelin Guide is in the 21st century. Affluent travelers will look forward to a Michelin-starred experience because they trust the process: you don't get to keep your rating if the quality of the service drops.

The next step forward

But the French entity wants to make sure that your traveling experience will be as great as humanly possible, and it is expanding its rating system by creating a new award – the Michelin Key.

That will be awarded to hospitality establishments that go above and beyond to provide impeccable service. It'll also be given to hotels that enable travelers to spend their money on a guaranteed-to-be-great experience, leaving no room for buyer's remorse.

The red symbol will most likely become synonymous with the Michelin star soon because not many hotels worldwide will get it.

The company will start evaluating hotels based on three criteria that come on top of existing differentiating factors.

Locations considered to become recipients of "The Key" must allow travelers to discover boutique accommodations that offer much more than a room for a night. That translates into chained-brand hotels not having the best shot at getting the award. If the accommodation offer is standardized across multiple countries with no regard for local heritage, then it's clearly not going to make the cut. You're not paying top dollar for the McDonald's experience, although fast-food has become quite expensive nowadays as well.

As expected, no great hotel will be good enough for Michelin's Key if they don't have an impressive restaurant with great menu options. The brand says eligible hotels will have to "precede or extend a gastronomic outing with a memorable hotel stay." As such, everything must be in sync and leave the guests with a memorable experience.

Interestingly enough, the last criterion is related to the booking platform. A Key-worthy establishment will have to allow its customers to choose, book, and comment on their stay on a single independent platform. That's probably because the Michelin app has such a feature embbeded into it. However, we suspect it's more about securing access to reviews that have not been moderated excessively. The owner(s) of the evaluated establishment shouldn't have control over what customers have to say about their experience.

We would have added having AC chargers on site as a criterion, even though it's not something that necessarily enhances someone's stay. Fortunately, brands like Marriott and Hilton are taking care of this and have set a trend more hotels should follow.

Only the best

As expressed previously, Michelin is already recommending over 5,000 hotels through its dedicated mobile app. However, it has not given out any specific awards yet.

The establishments that are currently available on the app must meet the following requirements:

• A destination unto itself: the hotel contributes to the local experience;
• Excellence in architecture and interior design;
• Quality and regularity of service, comfort, and maintenance;
• Singularity that reflects the personality of the establishment, its unique character;
• Consistency between the quality of the experience and the price paid.

If hotels want to show off "The Key" and be part of this exclusive category of accommodations, they'll have to meet the three exigent criteria mentioned earlier.

Michelin says that it has noticed a "hyper standardization" in the accommodation sector and wants to help people interested in experiencing something genuinely new or different to find precisely what they're looking for.

The experienced and anonymous inspectors are already out and about. The first distinctions will be awarded in the first half of 2024. We will let you know which hotels receive this new award as soon as the list is made public.