De L’Europe keeps its place as the best hotel in the Benelux

Hotel De L’Europe has again been ranked the finest hotel in the Benelux, retaining three keys in Michelin’s 2026 hotel guide. It remains the only property in the Netherlands, Belgium or Luxembourg to hold the top grade.

Michelin’s keys work much as its stars do for restaurants, which are awarded for the Netherlands on 5 October. The top tier is deliberately thin: just 155 hotels worldwide hold three keys.

Two keys go to 657 hotels, among them four more in Amsterdam and Chateau Neercanne outside Maastricht. Twelve Dutch hotels hold one key, with De Durgerdam, also in Amsterdam, joining this year.

The guide’s influence is commercial as well as reputational. De L’Europe’s director says Japanese visitors consult it routinely, and that the hotel sees the effect of its American standing directly in its bookings.

Michelin’s inspectors also describe a shift in how people travel. The old split between business and leisure is dissolving, with guests increasingly doing both on the same trip, laptop in hand.

They report rising demand for comfort in unlikely settings, from tented rooms to caravans in remote country, and for private accommodation, whether a hotel of five rooms or a villa taken whole.

Source: De Telegraaf