It was a total surprise for staff at the Mining Exchange Hotel in downtown Colorado Springs. 

Last month, they learned they had been awarded a Michelin “Key” by the prestigious French travel guide. The Mining Exchange, along with the Broadmoor resort, were the only new Colorado hotels added to the list.

“We knew they were in town looking at restaurants (and) potential hotels, but we didn’t know they stayed,” said Mining Exchange Sales and Marketing Director Amy Handlin. “So, when we found out, we were floored.”

The announcement came just days after Denver’s Milpero restaurant landed the only new Michelin Star rating in Colorado. Indeed, while Michelin has been awarding “star” ratings to restaurants for a century, the “key” rating for hotels began just two years ago. Like with stars, Michelin offers between one and three keys in its hotel guide. Colorado now has one two-key hotel and 15 one-key properties. Here’s the full list:

Two Keys

• Dunton Hot Springs — Dolores

One Key

Aspen

Colorado Springs

• The Broadmoor
• The Mining Exchange

Denver

Fort Collins

• The Armstrong Hotel
• The Elizabeth Hotel, Autograph Collection

Telluride

• Lumière by Dunton
• Madeline Hotel & Residences, Auberge Collection

Vail

• Four Seasons Vail
• Sonnenalp Hotel

In its write-up for The Broadmoor, Michelin called the iconic resort “as posh as ever” with its 700 guest rooms spread across the sprawling property.  

“All are elegantly designed, European in style (not a hint of Old West rusticism), furnished with rich antiques and chandeliers, many bathrooms with soaking tubs and separate showers,” the guide says.

As for the Mining Exchange — open since 2012 in what was originally a stock exchange for miners to trade in their gold and silver — Michelin notes that steel vaults from that original purpose remain on every floor to this day.

“The lobby leans into Victorian grandeur with gold-toned furnishings that acknowledge the city’s mining past, an antique Franz Wirth piano, and a marble fireplace,” the guide reads. 

Mining Exchange front desk host Spencer Jackson described the Michelin award as an affirming morale boost for the staff.

“You can go to hotels and they can have all these great amenities, but I’m a firm believer that our amenity is us,” Jackson said of his coworkers. “We are the greatest amenity in the hotel.”

2026 marked the first year the Michelin Guide covered all of Colorado, after initially considering only Denver, Boulder, Aspen and Vail starting in 2023. That statewide expansion came after the Colorado Tourism Office agreed to pay Michelin $100,000 annually. Restaurants and hotels are not told when the guide’s anonymous inspectors may stop by.