You may not know what Michelin keys are. They are the hotel equivalent of Michelin stars with pretty much the same philosophy: Anonymous inspections by professionals who pay their own way; three keys are the hotel equivalent of three stars for restaurants; and so on.

Until recently the keys were announced in the same way as the stars with local ceremonies. But a week ago, in a break with tradition, Michelin announced ratings for thousands of hotels around the world.

Among them were some Indian hotels. As the idea behind the keys is to recognise excellence at all price points, there were some surprises but there was also widespread agreement over the two hotels that won three keys.

Both are palace hotels run by the Taj group: Hyderabad’s Falaknuma and Udaipur’s legendary Lake Palace. And both deserve their three keys.

The palace hotel is a peculiarly Indian phenomenon. There are chateau hotels in Europe but few of them were built by ruling princes. Many of the Indian princes who built hotels ran kingdoms that were the size of European countries. And because there was no single architectural style that the maharajas and nawabs followed, the palaces represent a merging of Indian and western influences that makes them unique.

The idea of turning palaces into hotels was originally Dr Karan Singh’s. He was always an unusual maharaja. His........

© hindustantimes