Jetsetter Approved™
Since 2015, fewer than 3% of applicant properties have earned the right to display this mark. What they share is not perfection — it is irreplaceability.
The Philosophy
Forbes assigns stars. Michelin awards them. We do neither. The Jetsetter Approved™ mark is not a score, a ranking, or a rating. It is a declaration — made by a panel of eleven editors, former diplomats, architects, restaurateurs, and travellers of extraordinary experience — that this property offers something no algorithm can measure.
We do not audit checklists. We send people. They stay. They eat. They speak to the owners. They return. And then the committee convenes.
“The committee has rejected properties that would have scored perfectly on any rubric. And approved places that, by conventional standards, should not qualify. We trust judgement.”
The Certification System
A property may earn one mark or several. The rarest earn all nine. Each mark is awarded independently, renewed annually, and can be revoked without notice.
Awarded only to properties that have demonstrated sustained, unrepeatable excellence across all nine dimensions over a minimum of three consecutive years. To hold The Grand Mark™ is to have no peer. It is reconsidered every January. It has been revoked four times in our history.
Awarded to properties where the built environment transcends function — where space, material, and light create an emotional condition that cannot be replicated. The committee asks one question: would an architect weep?
Recognised where the human element is indistinguishable from magic — where staff anticipate before being asked, where discretion is absolute, and where every guest feels simultaneously alone and perfectly attended to.
Awarded where the pursuit of wellbeing is treated as a serious philosophy rather than an amenity. Spa programmes, healing environments, and restorative approaches that are genuinely transformative.
Not Michelin. Not a guide. Awarded where the dining experience is inseparable from the soul of the place — where the chef understands that the table is the most intimate room in the building.
Awarded where the programming and curated moments create encounters guests describe as unrepeatable. Access to the inaccessible. The thing that only happens here, and only once.
The ultimate luxury. Awarded where true solitude is guaranteed — where guest identities are protected as a matter of institutional honour, and where exclusivity is genuine, not performed.
Recognised where a property is not merely located in a culture but is genuinely of it — where guests access the authentic rituals, knowledge, and relationships of a place through introductions no other operator could make.
Awarded only where luxury and environmental responsibility are genuinely inseparable — not where sustainability is a marketing claim, but where the property demonstrably sustains, restores, and protects what it inhabits.
“Forbes assigns stars. Michelin counts covers. We ask only one question: would you return? And then we ask why.”
A 14th-century estate maintained by the same family for twenty-two generations. The Benedettis do not advertise, do not use booking platforms, and do not host more than six guests at any time. The Grand Mark™ was awarded in 2019 and has been renewed every year since.
How We Judge
Does the architecture speak with honesty about what this place is? Do the materials belong? Is there nowhere you would rather be?
The quality of the people — their knowledge, their warmth, their instinct. Service is not procedure. It is the expression of a philosophy.
Could this property exist anywhere else? If the answer is yes, it does not qualify. The mark requires irreplaceability that is absolute.
Did the committee leave changed? Not impressed — changed. There is a difference between a property that is excellent and one that asks something of you.
Excellence on one visit is insufficient. The mark requires consistency — not uniformity, but the sustained delivery of what a property promises.