Northern Europe Michelin Keys 2026: 17 Gained, 0 Lost
Northern Europe gained 17 Michelin Keys in the 2026 selection and lost 0. Every hotel that lost a Key was verified against its own MICHELIN Guide page.
Across Northern Europe, 17 hotels gained a MICHELIN Key or moved up a tier in the 2026 selection and none lost ground. The region's seven markets ended the year with 81 Key hotels against 66. Worldwide, 114 hotels lost a Key or dropped a tier. That is growth of 22.7 percent, against 15.3 percent worldwide.
Belgium accounted for four of the region's 17 moves.
Chart: hotels in Northern Europe 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 | 15 |
| Upgraded a tier | 2 |
| Dropped a tier | 0 |
| Key removed | 0 |
| Key hotels, 2025 → 2026 | 66 → 81 (+15) |
Market by market
| Country or territory | Key hotels 2025 | Key hotels 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 15 | 19 | +4 |
| Netherlands | 17 | 18 | +1 |
| Belgium | 15 | 18 | +3 |
| Norway | 12 | 16 | +4 |
| Iceland | 5 | 5 | +0 |
| Finland | 1 | 3 | +2 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 2 | +1 |
| Northern Europe | 66 | 81 | +15 |
Every hotel that gained
| Hotel | Where | Country | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cobergher Hotel | Kortrijk | Belgium | no Key | Two Keys |
| Villa Pétrusse | Luxembourg City | Luxembourg | no Key | Two Keys |
| Faubourg 21 | Brussels | Belgium | no Key | One Key |
| La Réserve Knokke-Heist | Knokke-Heist | Belgium | no Key | One Key |
| Skyra Retreat | Rovaniemi | Finland | no Key | One Key |
| Waldorf Astoria Helsinki | Helsinki | Finland | no Key | One Key |
| Glenlo Abbey Hotel | Galway City | Ireland | no Key | One Key |
| Marlfield House Hotel | Gorey | Ireland | no Key | One Key |
| The Fitzwilliam Hotel Dublin | Dublin | Ireland | no Key | One Key |
| The Leinster | Dublin | Ireland | no Key | One Key |
| De Durgerdam | Amsterdam | Netherlands | no Key | One Key |
| Beckerwyc House | Bekkjarvik | Norway | no Key | One Key |
| LILLØY LINDENBERG | Askøy | Norway | no Key | One Key |
| Nusfjord Village | Nusfjord | Norway | no Key | One Key |
| Sommerro | Oslo | Norway | no Key | One Key |
| Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels | Brussels | Belgium | One Key | Two Keys |
| The Retreat at Blue Lagoon Iceland | Grindavik | Iceland | One Key | Two Keys |
Every hotel that lost ground
No hotel in this region lost a Key or dropped a tier in the 2026 selection.
Notable results
The gains were led by Belgium (4), Ireland (4) and Norway (4). Four of them reached Two Keys or better: Cobergher Hotel in Kortrijk, Villa Pétrusse in Luxembourg City, Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels in Brussels and The Retreat at Blue Lagoon Iceland in Grindavik. Promotions are scarcer than new entries — only 86 hotels worldwide moved up a tier — and the region took Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels and The Retreat at Blue Lagoon Iceland.
The shape of the region's Key list
| Tier | Hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Three Keys | 3 |
| Two Keys | 18 |
| One Key | 60 |
| All Key hotels | 81 |
Three-Key hotels are 3.7 percent of the region's list, against 5.47 percent worldwide. The region holds about 2.8 percent of the world's Key hotels. Two of its 7 markets hold three or fewer Key hotels each — Finland and Luxembourg — so a single award or removal moves a national total noticeably.
| City or area | Key hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Amsterdam | 10 |
| Dublin | 5 |
| Bruges | 4 |
| Brussels | 4 |
| Oslo | 3 |
| Antwerp | 3 |
Neighbouring markets
The larger markets around this region are covered separately, each with its own full list of gains and losses: United Kingdom, Germany and France. United Kingdom 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 | Northern Europe | |
|---|---|---|
| Gained or improved a Key | 568 | 17 |
| Lost a Key or dropped a tier | 114 | 0 |
| Key hotels, 2025 | 2,457 | 66 |
| Key hotels, 2026 | 2,832 | 81 |
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
