Hotel 1928 — the Waco, Texas, luxury hotel owned by Chip and Joanna Gaines — has been awarded one of the highest honors in the hospitality industry: A Michelin Key.
“A recognition of our history, design, and the experience found within these walls. Hotel 1928 has been awarded one MICHELIN Key,” the official Hotel 1928 Instagram page captioned its announcement post. “Thank you to @michelinguide, our team, and our guests for being part of the story.”
Michelin Key
According to the Michelin website, “The MICHELIN Star recognizes the most outstanding restaurants in the world, the MICHELIN Key does the same for outstanding hotels. Here’s everything you need to know about the distinction.”
The Michelin Guide recognized its first hotel in the 1920s, with hotels in Europe and Asia being part of the recommendation list ever since.
“But just six years ago, we began a comprehensive refresh of our hotel selection, with a mission to provide a complete travel resource,” the site explains. “After selecting thousands of hotels worldwide, it is our privilege to specially highlight the crème de la crème of our selection. All MICHELIN Guide hotels excel in design, architecture, service and personality — the MICHELIN Key denotes the most outstanding experiences in our selection.”
In order to earn a Michelin Key, a hotel must exhibit “excellence in architecture and interior design, quality and consistency of service, overall personality and character, value for the price, and a significant contribution to the neighborhood or setting.”
‘Fixer Upper: The Hotel’
After leaving HGTV and launching their own network, Magnolia Network, the couple purchased a former temple and transformed it into a boutique hotel.
Opened in 2023, the 33-room hotel was a multi-year restoration project in the heart of Waco.
“When Chip and Joanna Gaines partnered with AJ Capital Partners to transform this piece of history into a one-of-a-kind boutique hotel, the desire was to leave as much of the original detail intact as possible,” the website explains. “While these efforts required more intention and time, it was important not just for the downtown and city, but also for the people who would stay and celebrate within its walls for the next century. If we rush forward without remembering where we have been, it could be questioned whether progress has really been made.”
The “Shark Tank” stars brought fans along with their spinoff series, “Fixer Upper: The Hotel.”
“It’s the largest, most complicated size project we’ve ever done in our whole career,” Chip said in a teaser clip. “Three floors, 53,000 square feet. 33 guest rooms. Two restaurants, a library, a rooftop terrace
Joanna told USA Today in November 2023, “It’s also been our intention to restore this space as an ode to Waco, both to serve our local community and as an opportunity to open the doors to visitors who may not know anything about our town, but who, when they’re here, can walk the halls and gain an understanding of how rich and resilient our history is. We poured a lot of heart and time into telling the story of our town and finding ways to make guests feel that sense of warmth and belonging that you get from the place you’re from, so it’s our hope that everyone who steps inside the hotel would feel that, and that they’d feel right at home.”
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Former HGTV Stars Honored With One of the Highest Awards in the Industry