South & Central Asia Michelin Keys 2026: 20 Gained, 1 Lost
South & Central Asia gained 20 Michelin Keys in the 2026 selection and lost 1. Every hotel that lost a Key was verified against its own MICHELIN Guide page.
Across South & Central Asia, 20 hotels gained a MICHELIN Key or moved up a tier in the 2026 selection and one lost ground. The region's eight markets ended the year with 48 Key hotels against 34. That is growth of 41.2 percent, against 15.3 percent worldwide.
Maldives accounted for six of the region's 21 moves. Soneva Secret (Maldives) and JOALI BEING (Maldives) reached the top tier, which MICHELIN added only twelve hotels to, net, worldwide.
Chart: hotels in South & Central Asia 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 | 5 |
| Dropped a tier | 0 |
| Key removed | 1 |
| Key hotels, 2025 → 2026 | 34 → 48 (+14) |
Market by market
| Country or territory | Key hotels 2025 | Key hotels 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maldives | 12 | 15 | +3 |
| Sri Lanka | 10 | 12 | +2 |
| Georgia | 7 | 6 | -1 |
| Bhutan | 3 | 5 | +2 |
| Kazakhstan | 0 | 5 | +5 |
| Nepal | 2 | 3 | +1 |
| Mongolia | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| Armenia | 0 | 1 | +1 |
| South & Central Asia | 34 | 48 | +14 |
Every hotel that gained
| Hotel | Where | Country | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soneva Secret | Dhipparufushi Island | Maldives | no Key | Three Keys |
| The Nautilus Maldives | Thiladhoo | Maldives | no Key | Two Keys |
| Seven Visions Resort & Places, The Dvin | Yerevan | Armenia | no Key | One Key |
| Zhiwaling Ascent | Thimphu | Bhutan | no Key | One Key |
| Zhiwaling Heritage | Paro | Bhutan | no Key | One Key |
| Tenir Eco Hotel, Shymbulak Mountain Resort | Almaty | Kazakhstan | no Key | One Key |
| The Ritz-Carlton, Almaty | Almaty | Kazakhstan | no Key | One Key |
| The Ritz-Carlton, Astana | Astana | Kazakhstan | no Key | One Key |
| The St. Regis Astana | Astana | Kazakhstan | no Key | One Key |
| The Veil Hotel | Astana | Kazakhstan | no Key | One Key |
| Veligandu Maldives Resort Island | Rasdhoo | Maldives | no Key | One Key |
| Ayan Zalaat | Ulaanbaatar | Mongolia | no Key | One Key |
| Shinta Mani Mustang | Jomsom | Nepal | no Key | One Key |
| Casa Tikiri - Boutique Hotel | Ahangama | Sri Lanka | no Key | One Key |
| Sola Boutique Hotel | Ahangama | Sri Lanka | no Key | One Key |
| JOALI BEING | Bodufushi Island | Maldives | Two Keys | Three Keys |
| One&Only Reethi Rah, Maldives | North Male Atoll | Maldives | One Key | Two Keys |
| The Ritz-Carlton, Fari Islands | Fari Islands | Maldives | One Key | Two Keys |
| Malabar Hill | Weligama Bay | Sri Lanka | One Key | Two Keys |
| Santani Wellness Resort & Spa | Kandy | Sri Lanka | One Key | Two Keys |
Every hotel that lost ground
| Hotel | Where | Country | 2025 | 2026 | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lopota Lake Resort & Spa | Napareuli | Georgia | One Key | no Key | Key removed |
Notable results
The gains were led by Maldives (6), Kazakhstan (5) and Sri Lanka (4). Seven of them reached Two Keys or better: Soneva Secret in Dhipparufushi Island, The Nautilus Maldives in Thiladhoo, JOALI BEING in Bodufushi Island and One&Only Reethi Rah, Maldives in North Male Atoll. Promotions are scarcer than new entries — only 86 hotels worldwide moved up a tier — and the region took JOALI BEING, One&Only Reethi Rah, Maldives, The Ritz-Carlton, Fari Islands and Malabar Hill plus 1 more. The heaviest single fall was Lopota Lake Resort & Spa in Napareuli, Georgia, from One Key to no Key.
The shape of the region's Key list
| Tier | Hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Three Keys | 5 |
| Two Keys | 10 |
| One Key | 33 |
| All Key hotels | 48 |
Three-Key hotels are 10.4 percent of the region's list, against 5.47 percent worldwide. The region holds about 1.7 percent of the world's Key hotels. Three of its 8 markets hold three or fewer Key hotels each — Nepal, Mongolia and Armenia — so a single award or removal moves a national total noticeably.
| City or area | Key hotels 2026 |
|---|---|
| Tbilisi | 4 |
| Ahangama | 3 |
| Astana | 3 |
| Galle | 2 |
| Paro | 2 |
| Weligama Bay | 2 |
Neighbouring markets
The larger markets around this region are covered separately, each with its own full list of gains and losses: India and Japan. India 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 & Central Asia | |
|---|---|---|
| Gained or improved a Key | 568 | 20 |
| Lost a Key or dropped a tier | 114 | 1 |
| Key hotels, 2025 | 2,457 | 34 |
| Key hotels, 2026 | 2,832 | 48 |
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
