Michelin Key: The Guesthouse ranks among the best hotels in Vienna
For more than a century, the Michelin Guide has awarded stars to the world’s finest restaurants. Since 2024, hotels have had their own distinction: the Michelin Key. The Guesthouse Vienna has been awarded a Key by the Michelin inspectors and is now officially among Austria’s best hotels.
We are genuinely proud of that. At the same time, we remain exactly what we have always been: a boutique hotel with 39 rooms in the 1st district, where arriving should feel a little like coming home.
What is the Michelin Key?
The Michelin Key is to hotels what the Michelin Star is to restaurants: one of the most respected awards in hospitality. In autumn 2024, the Guide presented its first global hotel selection, with around 2,500 Key hotels worldwide, from Tokyo to New York. Austria was included from the beginning, and Vienna is particularly well represented.
As with the stars, hotels cannot apply. Inspectors arrive anonymously, stay as ordinary guests and judge what they actually experience, not what a brochure promises.
Five criteria, one standard
The Michelin Guide assesses hotels around the world using the same five criteria. Reading them, we had to smile a little – they sound remarkably close to what we have always tried to create here:
- Architecture and interior design: The Guesthouse Vienna was designed by Sir Terence Conran and Conran & Partners – with quiet elegance, pieces from the Carl Auböck workshop, seating by Wittmann and photography by Wolfgang Zac.
- Quality and consistency of service: With just 39 rooms, we are small enough to know our guests. A pillow menu, Jura espresso machine with our own house roast, and Austrian wines in the minibar are not extras here, but standard in every room and suite.
- Personality and authenticity: Our own classic car outside the door, Guesthouse honey from an Austrian beekeeper, and a team that prefers to think for itself rather than recite lines.
- Value for money: A remarkable stay does not need to be ostentatious. The Guide looks for substance – and so do we.
- The hotel as a gateway to the city: The Albertina opposite, the State Opera around the corner, St Stephen’s Cathedral five minutes away. Vienna could hardly be closer.
Michelin Keys in Austria
In October 2025, the Michelin Guide published its latest selection of hotels in Austria. Only 65 hotels received Keys, from grand hotels to family-run houses.
We find ourselves in impressive company: Hotel Sacher Vienna, Rosewood Schloss Fuschl near Salzburg, Grand Tirolia Kitzbühel, Family Nature Resort Moar Gut in Großarl, Hotel Schloss Seefels on Lake Wörthersee, Falkensteiner Schlosshotel Velden – and The Guesthouse Vienna.
We are one of the smaller hotels on the list, which makes the recognition all the more meaningful to us. It proves that you do not need a marble lobby to belong among Austria’s best hotels. You need character, craftsmanship and people who love being hosts.
What the Michelin Key means for your stay
Honestly? Nothing new. And that is exactly the point. The Key has not changed the hotel; it confirms what our guests have experienced since 2013: à la carte breakfast in the Brasserie, views of the State Opera from our Deluxe Rooms, a dog bed at no extra charge, and rooms where you can invite friends in as if you were at home.
An award like this is not a reason to reinvent ourselves. It is a reason to keep our standards every day. After all, the inspectors may return at any time – unannounced.
Book your Michelin Key stay in Vienna
Come and experience what the Key stands for. The best way to book is directly through our website, where you will always find the best available rate and can add any special wishes straight away.
If you have questions, call +43 1 512 13 20 or write to office@theguesthouse.at.
As everyone knows, a key opens doors. Ours opens the door to one of Austria’s most personal hotels.
