The guide gives out the keys according to the stars. Gwendal Poullennec, the international director of the Michelin Guides, was franceinfo’s eco guest on Friday October 6th.
Founded in 1900, the Michelin Guide has been honoring the best restaurants for over a century. In 2024, the guide will also recognize hotels by awarding them a “Michelin Key”.
Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the Michelin Guides, was Franceinfo’s eco guest to explain this new feature.
franceinfo: Can you explain this approach to us?
Gwendal Poullennec: Our teams have selected more than 5,000 hotels around the world for excellence, not only for their service, but also for their architecture, their interior design and the fact that they are destinations in their own right. That is, these are addresses where we want to offer you a local experience, they are not “resorts”. And one last point is particularly important to them when making their selection: finding addresses that are unique, that have a soul, a special feature that creates unforgettable memories.
It won’t be like the stars, there will be one Michelin key and not two or three. What are the criteria for receiving your key?
The Michelin keys, which recognize the most exceptional hotel addresses, will be announced in early 2024. And in fact, this is exactly the counterpart to Michelin guide stars in restaurants. It is the crème de la crème of gastronomy that is recognized by these stars, and this also applies to hotels. The Michelin key will be a special symbol identifying the most exceptional addresses in our selection.
What price range are we talking about?
This is very different because, as in the catering industry, we have prestigious addresses with a great tradition, but also creative addresses and very affordable addresses. In Asia, for example, we have street food addresses. In Spain there are tapas bars or simple bistros. And it’s the same in hotels. This means you can definitely have palaces, but also boutique hotels, ryokan in Japan or small, much more accessible accommodation in our beautiful regions.
Who will make this selection?
It is one and the same team that makes the selection of restaurants. They are all professionals who work full time for Michelin. They work anonymously and pay their bill, so we have no bias and all decisions in the Michelin Guide, whether awarding an exceptional restaurant or a remarkable address, are team decisions. .
And then how does it happen?
As in the restaurant, where the customer, the restaurateur, after consulting addresses, has the opportunity to make an online reservation, in the hotel industry the Michelin Guide not only offers you the opportunity to offer you choice, to inspire you, to desire to make Book the hotel directly on the platform to be accompanied throughout your trip. And even after your stay, the Michelin Guide would be happy to hear your opinion.
What is your business model?
In the hotel industry we will apply market standards, that is, a commission on reservations made through our platform, in the range of 10 to 15%. However, it is important to remember that our selection is completely independent, meaning that our selection team has no connection to the team that builds the partnerships with hotels. All hotels are treated equally and it is up to the hotels to make their sales available online on the Michelin internet platform if they wish.
