Methodology
How we compile The 100 Best
The 100 Best Hotels in Spain 2026 is an editorial selection by Nomadiq. It is not limited to one type of hotel — it includes houses with five rooms and hotels with more than four hundred: what decides who gets in, and at which rank, is the score. Each hotel gets a score from 0 to 100 — awards, 70%; character, 30% — and the list ranks them from highest to lowest.
Awards (70%)
We count Michelin Keys, Forbes Travel Guide, Condé Nast Traveler (Gold List, Hot List and Readers' Choice) and Guía Repsol. Each source is weighted by how demanding it is — Michelin Keys the most — and each level within a source has its own weight: three Keys are worth twice as much as one. Each award counts once, at its highest level, with at most 3 per source.
Paid awards and awards without a verifiable public source, such as World Luxury Awards or Haute Grandeur, do not count. The World Travel Awards and membership of fee-based hotel associations or brands (Small Luxury Hotels, Design Hotels) do not count either.
Award age
An award loses 10% of its value for each year that passes: one from five years ago counts half, and one from ten years ago no longer counts. Current Michelin Keys count with the year of the current guide.
Character (30%)
The editorial team scores five criteria from 1 to 10, with a written rubric for each level: architecture (25%), historical significance (20%), design innovation (20%), ties to local culture (15%) and uniqueness of the experience (20%).
The “Nomadiq score” on each hotel page, from 7 to 10, is this same total score on a different scale.
Checked data
On 26 October 2026 we checked the data on all 100 hotel pages against the Michelin Guide, the hotels' official websites and OpenStreetMap, and corrected whatever did not match.
Review
The selection is reviewed in six-monthly cycles.
Independence
No hotel pays to be on the list or for its position. Some hotel pages include an affiliate link to Booking.com: if you book through it, Nomadiq may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That link plays no part in the score.