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The First MICHELIN Key Hotels in the UK & Ireland

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3 months ago

October 1, 2024

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The First MICHELIN Key Hotels in the UK & Ireland

On 1st October 2024, The MICHELIN Guide revealed the brand new One, Two and Three Key distinctions for the most outstanding hotels in the UK and Ireland.

This announcement comes four years into a comprehensive refresh of our hotel selection. The MICHELIN Guide now includes over 5,000 hotels across the world – and not a single one is simply a room for the night. These are places that significantly add to your experience as a traveller, each vetted by our hotel experts and judged excellent in five categories: architecture and interior design; quality and consistency of service; overall personality and character; value for the price; and a significant contribution to the guest experience in a particular setting.

Which brings us back to the Keys. The culmination of countless hours of evaluation by our MICHELIN Guide Inspectors, the Key hotels below represent the highlights of our broader selection. Like the MICHELIN Stars for restaurants, the MICHELIN Keys are our most outstanding hotels.

In total, the 2024 MICHELIN Guide hotel selection for Great Britain and Ireland includes 14 Three Key hotels, 37 Two Key hotels and 72 One Key hotels. Head below to discover all the new awards.

Want to know more about The MICHELIN Key? Here’s everything you need to know.

The Balmoral – Edinburgh, Scotland

Highlights of the UK and Ireland 2024 Hotel Key List

Jump straight to the list or take a deeper dive into select Key hotels.

On this page, you’ll find all of our Key distinctions, sorted by number of Keys and their location within the UK and Ireland. Click on any hotel to go straight to the hotel page and learn more about the special qualities of each property. Alternatively, you can read any number of in-depth pieces about the aspects of the special craft that make up a Key hotel over on our magazine page. Scroll down for more insights into the British and Irish hotel Key of 2024.

The Savoy – London, England

The Three Key Club Across the UK and Republic of Ireland

14 properties earned our our highest hotel honour in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the exclusive Three Key distinction. Of these, one makes its home in the Scottish countryside (The Gleneagles Hotel), two in 19th-century country estates (Adare Manor and Ballyfin Demesne) in the Republic of Ireland, three in the English countryside (Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Lucknam Park and the Newt in Somerset), and the rest across some of the most impressive addresses in London. Among the latter, even first-time visitors will recognise some of these most iconic British names, including Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Savoy.

Take a deeper dive into our Three Key hotels in London

The Twenty Two – London, England

London Has It All: 44 Keys of Every Variety

You’ll find nearly a third of the hotels on this list in London, including eight Three Key hotels and dozens in the One and Two Key categories. You can expect a range of styles that includes sheer opulence (Bvlgari Hotel London, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park), Georgian and Victorian inspiration (Flemings Mayfair, COMO The Halkin, The Langham), and more than a few designs from superlative hoteliers Tim and Kit Kemp (Knightsbridge Hotel, Charlotte Street Hotel, Ham Yard Hotel).

There’s no real way to sum up the scene here in London. This is one of the best cities in the world for both variety and creativity of hotels. The selections in the list below prove it.

Artist Residence Oxfordshire – Oxford, England

Big Splendour Outside the Big Cities

London, Edinburgh and Dublin all make their presence known in this first release of Key hotels in the UK and Ireland. But the appeal of the countryside, the seaside, and smaller towns and villages is undeniable, too. It may come as a surprise, but it’s in these farther-flung destinations that we often find the most eccentric and irreverent hotel designs. See Key hotels like the Artist Residence Oxfordshire or The Swan Southwold for proof of concept.

In the Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, you’ll find a collection of countryside Key hotels that tend towards the stately, typified by historic spots like Cashel Palace and Dromoland Castle.