You’ve heard of the Michelin Guide but are you familiar with the Michelin Key List? Launched in 2024 to highlight the “most outstanding hotels in the United States” the Michelin keys list highlights the very best hotels around the world as noted by the Michelin Guide inspectors. This years list covers more than 300 key hotels, presented with one to three keys. In the 2025 Michelin Key Hotels in the U.S. listing, 37 new Key additions and upgrades were noted in the United States. No new Three Keys join the United States selection, but three new Two-Key hotels make the list; 2025 sees a trend towards bold, rich design in every corner of the country.
The United States retains 16 Three-Key hotels in 2025, with the majority in New York (Aman New York, Casa Cipriani, Crosby Street Hotel, The Whitby Hotel) and California (Post Ranch Inn, The Beverly Hills Hotel, SingleThread Inn, Hotel Bel-Air, Canyon Ranch Woodside, Auberge du Soleil, Meadowood Napa Valley) and one each in Arizona (Canyon Ranch Tucson), Florida (Little Palm Island Resort & Spa), Hawaii (Kona Village), Montana (Sage Lodge) and Utah (Amangiri). Though Chicago did not place any hotels that were awarded Three Keys this year we did have 7 hotels that were designated Two key and One key.
Two Key Hotels
Pendry Chicago: Only in Chicago can a hotelier reasonably hope to set up shop in a masterwork like the 1929 Art Deco Carbide & Carbon Building, with its stately dark stone and immaculate gold trim. It’s a perfect fit for Pendry, the urban luxury-boutique cousin to the Montage resorts; Pendry Chicago combines contemporary boutique-hotel good looks with upscale comforts and impressive views of the distinctive Loop cityscape. Beds come dressed in Fili D’Oro linens, bathrooms clad in marble with custom-made bath products, and rooms come supplied with modern necessities like Bluetooth speakers and espresso machines, plus the ageless temptation of a well-stocked bar.
The Langham, Chicago: Today, though, Chicago’s best hotels are more than worthy of its status as a world-class city. A hotel like the Langham, Chicago, then, is a sign of the times, and a remarkably complete package as well: contemporary design, state-of-the-art comforts, thoughtful, professional service, and a link to the city’s urban history, embodied in its location formerly known as IBM Plaza, the last work of the modernist master architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe.
The Peninsula Chicago: In the middle of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile of department stores and designer boutiques is the Peninsula Hotel, only the third in America. The Peninsula Chicago brings Far East style and hospitality to the heartland for a level of refinement previously unseen. The lobby is spacious and grand, located five floors up, above a retail concourse—another detail that’s more Far East than Midwest. Rooms are elegant as well, with flat-screen televisions, broadband internet, and messages thoughtfully delivered via a near-silent fax machine hidden in a desk drawer.
One Key Hotels
The Gwen, a Luxury Collection Hotel: The Gwen doesn’t just echo the aesthetics of Twenties and Thirties Chicago, it’s an authentic piece of history — its façade comes from the 1929 McGraw-Hill building, and it’s named for the sculptor Gwen Lux, whose work still adorns it today. Inside it’s a thoroughly contemporary boutique-style luxury hotel, with Art Deco accents and 21st-century comforts. There’s an open-air rooftop bar (complete with firepits) and a weekend “Tipsy Tea” served in the hotel’s lounge; an ideal prelude to an afternoon in what might be one of Chicago’s finest shopping districts.
Viceroy Chicago: The Viceroy hotels exist at the intersection of luxury-hotel extravagance and boutique-hotel tastefulness, and the brand-new Viceroy Chicago is no different. The building, a gently undulating glass tower, is pure luxe modernity, but the lower floors blend effortlessly into Chicago’s Gold Coast, thanks to the meticulously preserved façade of the 1920s-vintage Cedar Hotel, which was reassembled brick by brick once the tower was complete. The view commands the bulk of your attention, thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows, but these rooms are full of subtle stylistic charms.
Chicago Athletic Association: this Venetian Gothic landmark, previously a private club for the city’s (male) movers and shakers, dates back to the final decade of the 19th century. But now, after a renovation by architects Hartshorne Plunkard and an interior redesign by hospitality wizards Roman and Williams, the Chicago Athletic Association, part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, is a thoroughly up-to-date boutique hotel, in that retro-modern, luxury-boutique sort of way.It doesn’t hurt that you’re looking straight out over Millennium Park, but there’s plenty worth looking at indoors as well. It’s not just any old building, but a beautiful old building.
Waldorf Astoria Chicago: the Waldorf Astoria Chicago feels like a remarkably grand hotel and is currently one of very few hotels in the United States to carry the handcrafted European Vi-Spring bed, adorned in suitably fine linens. One look at the huge English courtyard, or the museum-like marble lobby, and it’s clear that this is a full-scale luxury hotel all the way — especially since all this black, white, and polish gives off a dazzling Art Deco vibe.
You can check out the full 2025 Michelin Keys list HERE. Have you stayed at any of these notable hotels?
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