A major new feature from next year. The century-old Michelin Guide will distinguish hotels as it does restaurants. After the stars for the kitchen, these will be keys which will be awarded to the best hotels. The future rankings will be revealed in the first half of 2024 but the format and exact date remain to be defined.
“The guide was created to give travelers keys to discovery and enlighten their choices at a time when there was a lack of information,” recalls Gwendal Poullennec, the boss of this guide created in 1900 by the brothers André and Édouard Michelin, for motorists. “Today, conversely, they find themselves faced with a mass of information. Our users spend an average of 10 hours on screens to prepare for a trip and consult more than 10 platforms, a real obstacle course,” he explains.
A team of “mystery shopper” inspectors
To respond to this demand and “establish a real reference of trust in the hotel industry, which is the counterpart of what the Michelin Guide is in the world of gastronomy”, the Michelin teams are working with those of Tablet Hotel (specialized American site purchased by the guide in 2018) to constitute a first selection, which currently includes 5,300 hotels in 120 countries.
It will serve as the basis for the future ranking, which, as with the famous macaroons which cover 45 countries, is based on a team of “mystery shopper” inspectors whose decisions are informed by customer feedback and are the result of a collective decision. These inspectors, former professionals in the sector, come from 25 different nationalities, all generations combined, explains Gwendal Poullennec.
What will be the criteria for the prize list? “We will consider the destination, the way in which the hotels are anchored in the place where they are located, their uniqueness, the architecture, the decoration, the quality of the welcome and the service, the fact that the price level is consistent with the quality of service…”, explains the manager. The guide claims 47 million visitors per year to the site and 6 million subscribers on social networks. A use which has largely supplanted the paper guide.