The Michelin Group had an opportunity. Despite generating more than 30% of the Group’s earned media, the Michelin Guide’s revenues were low - a rounding error on the P&L, with sponsors questioning the value of Michelin Star events leading to low retention. The Group was also grappling with ways to get closer to consumers but daunted by the prospects of supporting B2C transactions and fostering consumer relationships. 

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But in late 2018, Michelin had acquired Tablet Hotels, a boutique online travel agency and its team of B2C and digital experts, with excellent taste to boot. With 4X brand awareness and 8X website visitation vs Tablet, the Michelin Guide brand presented a monumental B2C opportunity for customer acquisition and e-commerce growth. And the biggest and most scalable income was to come from commissions from hotel bookings ($100+ per booking) which far surpassed that of restaurant reservations (~$1). 

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The plan: to transform the Michelin Guide from a fine dining reference to the most beloved global travel platform for discerning consumers, one that was multi-channel, in multiple languages, and with impeccable real-time recommendations, live high-end customer support, and flawless e-commerce.

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The first step was to formalize Tablet’s hotel selection criteria, ensuring it was a strong parallel to the Michelin Guide restaurant criteria and could withstand criticism by hoteliers, consumers, and especially the press who often think of themselves as competitors to the Guide. Our hotel selection team collaborated with the restaurant selection leads to fine-tune the criteria, and then embarked on a “convergence” process whereby we evaluated the >12,000 hotels that had been listed in various country guides, identifying ~1,200 deemed strong enough to add to the newly joint Tablet + Michelin Guide selection of ~6,000 extraordinary hotels.

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The criteria for hotel selection:

• Excellence in interior design and architecture

• Individuality, reflecting personality and authenticity

• Quality and consistency in service, comfort, and maintenance

• A destination unto itself: the hotel contributes to the local experience

• Delivering an extraordinary experience for its price

 

The new selection launched in October 2020, with the debut of the new Michelin Guide app, still sub-branded as Tablet. In November 2021, the hotel selection became viewable on the Michelin Guide global website with links back to Tablet to book. Finally, fully Guide-branded hotel booking functionality launched on the Guide’s website in April 2023, setting the stage for the transformation of the Michelin Guide brand from a sponsor-driven events operation to a B2C brand.