South America Michelin Keys 2026: 21 Gained, 3 Lost
South America gained 21 Michelin Keys in the 2026 selection and lost 3. Every hotel that lost a Key was verified against its own MICHELIN Guide page.
Across South America, 21 hotels gained a MICHELIN Key or moved up a tier in the 2026 selection and three lost ground. The region's six markets ended the year with 89 Key hotels against 78. That is growth of 14.1 percent, against 15.3 percent worldwide.
Chile accounted for seven of the region's 24 moves.
Chart: hotels in South America 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 | 14 |
| Upgraded a tier | 7 |
| Dropped a tier | 0 |
| Key removed | 3 |
| Key hotels, 2025 → 2026 | 78 → 89 (+11) |
Market by market
| Country or territory | Key hotels 2025 | Key hotels 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 20 | 22 | +2 |
| Chile | 16 | 20 | +4 |
| Argentina | 15 | 16 | +1 |
| Peru | 14 | 15 | +1 |
| Colombia | 9 | 11 | +2 |
| Uruguay | 4 | 5 | +1 |
| South America | 78 | 89 | +11 |
Every hotel that gained
| Hotel | Where | Country | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BE Jardin Escondido by Coppola | Buenos Aires | Argentina | no Key | One Key |
| Hotel Unique | Sao Paulo | Brazil | no Key | One Key |
| Tivoli São Paulo Mofarrej | Sao Paulo | Brazil | no Key | One Key |
| Hotel AWA | Puerto Varas | Chile | no Key | One Key |
| Hotel Casa Real - Viña Santa Rita | Santiago | Chile | no Key | One Key |
| Mandarin Oriental Santiago | Santiago | Chile | no Key | One Key |
| andBeyond Vira Vira | Pucón | Chile | no Key | One Key |
| Cinco Quintas Hotel Boutique | Centro Historico | Colombia | no Key | One Key |
| Four Seasons Cartagena | Cartagena | Colombia | no Key | One Key |
| Four Seasons Hotel Bogotá | Bogota | Colombia | no Key | One Key |
| Four Seasons Hotel Casa Medina Bogota | Bogota | Colombia | no Key | One Key |
| Antigua Casona San Blas | Cusco | Peru | no Key | One Key |
| fausto | Lima | Peru | no Key | One Key |
| LUZ Culinary Wine Lodge | Jose Ignacio | Uruguay | no Key | One Key |
| Alvear Palace Hotel | Buenos Aires | Argentina | One Key | Two Keys |
| Estancia Cristina | El Calafate | Argentina | One Key | Two Keys |
| Awasi Santa Catarina | Santa Catarina | Brazil | One Key | Two Keys |
| CasaMolle | Vicuña | Chile | One Key | Two Keys |
| Explora Rapa Nui | Easter Island | Chile | One Key | Two Keys |
| Tierra Atacama Hotel & Spa | San Pedro de Atacama | Chile | One Key | Two Keys |
| Hotel Casa San Agustin | Cartagena | Colombia | One Key | Two Keys |
Every hotel that lost ground
| Hotel | Where | Country | 2025 | 2026 | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casona del Colegio | Centro Historico | Colombia | One Key | no Key | Key removed |
| Hotel Quadrifolio | Cartagena | Colombia | One Key | no Key | Key removed |
| Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel | Machu Picchu | Peru | One Key | no Key | Key removed |
Notable results
The gains were led by Chile (7), Colombia (5) and Argentina (3). Seven of them reached Two Keys or better: Alvear Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires, Estancia Cristina in El Calafate, Awasi Santa Catarina in Santa Catarina and CasaMolle in Vicuña. Promotions are scarcer than new entries — only 86 hotels worldwide moved up a tier — and the region took Alvear Palace Hotel, Estancia Cristina, Awasi Santa Catarina and CasaMolle plus 3 more. The heaviest single fall was Casona del Colegio in Centro Historico, Colombia, from One Key to no Key.
The shape of the region's Key list
| Tier | Hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Three Keys | 5 |
| Two Keys | 26 |
| One Key | 58 |
| All Key hotels | 89 |
Three-Key hotels are 5.6 percent of the region's list, against 5.47 percent worldwide. The region holds about 3.1 percent of the world's Key hotels.
| City or area | Key hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Sao Paulo | 7 |
| Buenos Aires | 5 |
| Santiago | 5 |
| Cusco | 4 |
| Lima | 4 |
| San Pedro de Atacama | 4 |
Neighbouring markets
The larger markets around this region are covered separately, each with its own full list of gains and losses: Mexico, Costa Rica and Portugal. Mexico 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 | South America | |
|---|---|---|
| Gained or improved a Key | 568 | 21 |
| Lost a Key or dropped a tier | 114 | 3 |
| Key hotels, 2025 | 2,457 | 78 |
| Key hotels, 2026 | 2,832 | 89 |
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
