MENA Michelin Keys 2026: 23 Gained, 3 Lost
The Middle East & North Africa gained 23 Michelin Keys in the 2026 selection and lost 3. Every hotel that lost a Key was verified against its own MICHELIN Guide page.
Across The Middle East & North Africa, 23 hotels gained a MICHELIN Key or moved up a tier in the 2026 selection and three lost ground. The region's nine markets ended the year with 116 Key hotels against 99. That is growth of 17.2 percent, against 15.3 percent worldwide.
United Arab Emirates accounted for seven of the region's 26 moves.
Chart: hotels in The Middle East & North Africa whose MICHELIN Key standing changed between the 2025 and 2026 selections. Source: MICHELIN Guide 2026 Key selection, released 18 September 2026. Every loss shown was re-checked on that hotel's own MICHELIN Guide page.
The scoreboard
| Movement | Hotels |
|---|---|
| New Keys awarded | 20 |
| Upgraded a tier | 3 |
| Dropped a tier | 0 |
| Key removed | 3 |
| Key hotels, 2025 → 2026 | 99 → 116 (+17) |
Market by market
| Country or territory | Key hotels 2025 | Key hotels 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morocco | 28 | 31 | +3 |
| United Arab Emirates | 21 | 27 | +6 |
| Turkey | 25 | 24 | -1 |
| Egypt | 9 | 13 | +4 |
| Qatar | 10 | 11 | +1 |
| Bahrain | 1 | 3 | +2 |
| Oman | 3 | 3 | +0 |
| Cyprus | 2 | 3 | +1 |
| Tunisia | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| The Middle East & North Africa | 99 | 116 | +17 |
Every hotel that gained
| Hotel | Where | Country | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay | Manama | Bahrain | no Key | Two Keys |
| The Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Wadi Desert | Ras Al Khaimah | United Arab Emirates | no Key | Two Keys |
| The Merchant House | Manama | Bahrain | no Key | One Key |
| Amara - Sea Your Only View | Limassol | Cyprus | no Key | One Key |
| Amyth of Nicosia | Nicosia | Cyprus | no Key | One Key |
| Casa Cook El Gouna | El Gouna | Egypt | no Key | One Key |
| Dusit Thani LakeView Cairo | Cairo | Egypt | no Key | One Key |
| Rixos Montaza Alexandria | Alexandria | Egypt | no Key | One Key |
| The Oberoi Beach Resort, Sahl Hasheesh | Hurghada | Egypt | no Key | One Key |
| Four Seasons Hotel Rabat at Kasr Al Bahr | Rabat | Morocco | no Key | One Key |
| Riad Mayfez Suites & Spa | Fes | Morocco | no Key | One Key |
| Waldorf Astoria Rabat Salé | Rabat | Morocco | no Key | One Key |
| Zulal Wellness Resort | Ar Ru'ays | Qatar | no Key | One Key |
| The Mora Sahara Tozeur | Tozeur | Tunisia | no Key | One Key |
| Alavya | Alacati | Turkey | no Key | One Key |
| Anantara Mina Ras Al Khaimah Resort | Ras Al-Khaimah | United Arab Emirates | no Key | One Key |
| Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Al Sahel Villa Resort | Sir Bani Yas Island | United Arab Emirates | no Key | One Key |
| Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach | Palm Jumeirah | United Arab Emirates | no Key | One Key |
| Mandarin Oriental Downtown | Dubai | United Arab Emirates | no Key | One Key |
| The Biltmore Villas | Dubai | United Arab Emirates | no Key | One Key |
| Six Senses Zighy Bay, Oman | Dibba | Oman | One Key | Two Keys |
| Rosewood Doha | Doha | Qatar | One Key | Two Keys |
| The Lana - Dorchester Collection | Dubai | United Arab Emirates | One Key | Two Keys |
Every hotel that lost ground
| Hotel | Where | Country | 2025 | 2026 | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M Boutique Hotel | Paphos | Cyprus | One Key | no Key | Key removed |
| Hezen Cave Hotel | Urgup | Turkey | One Key | no Key | Key removed |
| Six Senses Kocatas Mansions | Istanbul | Turkey | One Key | no Key | Key removed |
Notable results
The gains were led by United Arab Emirates (7), Egypt (4) and Morocco (3). Five of them reached Two Keys or better: Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay in Manama, The Ritz-Carlton Ras Al Khaimah, Al Wadi Desert in Ras Al Khaimah, Six Senses Zighy Bay, Oman in Dibba and Rosewood Doha in Doha. Promotions are scarcer than new entries — only 86 hotels worldwide moved up a tier — and the region took Six Senses Zighy Bay, Oman, Rosewood Doha and The Lana - Dorchester Collection. The heaviest single fall was M Boutique Hotel in Paphos, Cyprus, from One Key to no Key.
The shape of the region's Key list
| Tier | Hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Three Keys | 4 |
| Two Keys | 25 |
| One Key | 87 |
| All Key hotels | 116 |
Three-Key hotels are 3.4 percent of the region's list, against 5.47 percent worldwide. The region holds about 4.1 percent of the world's Key hotels. Four of its 9 markets hold three or fewer Key hotels each — Bahrain, Oman, Tunisia and Cyprus — so a single award or removal moves a national total noticeably.
| City or area | Key hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Marrakech | 16 |
| Dubai | 13 |
| Istanbul | 10 |
| Doha | 10 |
| Abu Dhabi | 7 |
| Cairo | 5 |
Neighbouring markets
The larger markets around this region are covered separately, each with its own full list of gains and losses: Saudi Arabia and Greece. Saudi Arabia is the closest comparison for most of the hotels above, and the worldwide summary sets all of them against the global totals.
How the region compares
MICHELIN's second Key selection named 2,832 hotels worldwide on 18 September 2026, against 2,457 a
year earlier. Growth was uneven by tier: One-Key hotels rose 16.0 percent and Two-Key hotels 14.9
percent, while Three-Key hotels rose only 8.4 percent, from 143 to 155.
| Worldwide | The Middle East & North Africa | |
|---|---|---|
| Gained or improved a Key | 568 | 23 |
| Lost a Key or dropped a tier | 114 | 3 |
| Key hotels, 2025 | 2,457 | 99 |
| Key hotels, 2026 | 2,832 | 116 |
The additions were announced. The 114 downward moves were not, which is why they are listed in
full above. The complete worldwide breakdown, including how every loss was verified, is set out in
our analysis of the 2026 selection.
About these figures
The 2025 and 2026 selections were read hotel by hotel from the MICHELIN Guide's own country
listings, and every downward move worldwide was then re-checked against that hotel's individual
page on the Guide before being published. A hotel missing from a country listing has not
necessarily lost anything — several that plainly still hold Keys never appear in those listings —
so only a hotel the Guide still lists, now without a Key, is counted as having lost one. Hotels
whose Guide page has been removed entirely are marked "Left the Guide" rather than counted as
downgrades.
MICHELIN introduced the Key in 2024 as the hotel counterpart to its restaurant Star, awarding One,
Two or Three Keys across a selection of more than 9,000 hotels in over 100 countries on
architecture, design, service, character, consistency and value. Price is not a criterion. The
criteria are set out in the Guide's explainer; the full 2026 list is published here.
Author
2026/09/19
