Are these the 133 best hotels in Britain?
‘Hotel managers the world over must be quaking in their boots,’ wrote Country Life’s travel editor, Rosie Paterson, earlier this year over the news that Michelin announced that they would be extending their famous restaurant star rating system to hotels.
Now, the first batch of winners — who get ‘keys’, rather than stars — has been released, and some of Britain’s most wonderful places are on the list following the inspectors’ assessment of ‘about 5,000 hotels in more than 120 territories.’
133 hotels in Britain and Ireland have made the Michelin Key list: 72 of them with one key, 37 with two keys and 14 with three keys:
The 14 Michelin Three Key hotels in Britain and Ireland
- Adare Manor
- Ballyfin Demesne
- The Newt in Somerset
- Lucknam Park
- Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, A Belmond Hotel, Oxfordshire
- Bulgari Hotel London
- Claridge’s
- Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane
- Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
- Raffles London at The OWO
- The Connaught
- The Peninsula London
- The Savoy
- The Gleneagles Hotel
Adare Manor in Ireland is opulent almost beyond belief.
Not many get the full three keys — and that’s exactly as it should be. The guide books —released by the French tyre company — who originally produced them in order to encourage people to drive around the Continent looking for unmissable experiences — have long been regarded as a byword for excellence.
They’ve also brought enormous pressure to the top end of the industry. So much so, in fact, that they’ve become the bane of many top-end restauranteurs’ existence, and high-profile chefs including Jean-Christophe Novelli and Sebastian Bras have explicitly asked to be removed from the guide, citing the pressure that they bring. When Tom Kerridge came on to the Country Life podcast earlier this. year, he even questioned the fact that fine dining was rewarded above ‘Fish and chips on Brighton beach can be every bit as magical as a Michelin three-star restaurant,’ he said.
The same could of course be said for hotels: a charming B&B by the sea, or a remote mountainside retreat, may not have the flash of a five-star in the metropolis, but can be an exquisite experience all the same. ‘Though most of the hotels on this list are more than worthy of recognition, the majority will already be known to people,’ says Rosie. ‘It would great to finally see some more independently-owned, boutique and smaller hotels — that don’t necessarily have big PR efforts behind them — win awards.’
You can see the full listings at Michelin’s website, guide.michelin.com.
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