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This study aims to examine the effectiveness of branding through franchising and hotel membership affiliations in Europe, where the chain penetration rate is still relatively low, albeit growing slowly, and where hotels are limited by historical preservation codes and building restrictions.

Although branding through affiliations has been a successful strategy in North America for decades, little is known of this strategy in Europe, where the fragmented hospitality industry comprises small and medium‐sized independent enterprises which are being subjected to increasing competitive pressure from large global chains. This exploratory study, using a purposive sample, examines the factors that European independent hotels consider before committing to a third‐party brand and whether they perceive their decision to have improved their overall performance.

It is revealed that these hoteliers perceive that they had significantly improved their overall market position situation without losing a large part of their uniqueness, independence and management control. Notwithstanding, some of the hoteliers were not satisfied with every aspect of their brand selection and it was concluded that the degree of success would be highly contingent on careful selection of the appropriate kind of branding tool option for each situation.

The main issues have been identified for hoteliers to consider when selecting a brand affiliation as well as the key components for the branding companies to include in their offers. Recommendations are provided for both.

Decision‐making criteria are provided for hoteliers in the form of a checklist to use including benefits and risks and other considerations, as well as a checklist of key success factors of leading hotel branding companies.

The aim of this paper to shed light on the strategies adopted by chefs and to identify the most successful in terms of Michelin rating and profitability.

In‐depth exploratory interviews with 20 great chefs located in France, Belgium, the UK and Switzerland having gained two or three Michelin stars over the last ten years.

Chefs use three different strategies for revenue‐generation: core business, full diversification and partial diversification. The reasoning behind the choice of strategy varies between two‐ and three‐star restaurants. The first strategy seems to lead to higher Michelin star ratings, and strategy, the second seems superior in terms of profitability. The third strategy yields inferior results, but is less risky.

The observations are constrained to “recently successful” restaurants, and hence may not be applicable to longer‐standing restaurants.

Concentrating on the core business leads to higher star rating, but lower profitability. Full diversification increases profitability but can jeopardize Michelin rating. The middle‐of‐the‐road approach seems inferior in any case.

To this day, little research has been conducted on the way in which great chefs having two or three stars in the famed Michelin Red Guide run their businesses. In particular, very little is known about their revenue‐generating strategies: what options are available and which revenue models are the “best”. This paper is exploratory in nature and aims to inform further research about luxury restaurants.

This study aims to explore how haute cuisine excellence is and can be self-represented on the websites of three-star restaurants and juxtaposed onto the websites of external authoritative food guides.

In total, 26 French Michelin three-star restaurant websites and their reviews in the prominent Michelin and Gault and Millau dining guides were examined. This data was then processed using lexicometric software.

Five semantic universes emerged, showing that restaurants and dining guides do not emphasize the same elements of culinary excellence. While restaurant websites emphasize the charismatic leadership role of the chef through family history, professional recognition and vicarious learning, the two iconic guides are far from rating the criteria they claim to: For the Michelin Guide, criteria other than cuisine appear central. Conversely, Gault and Millau, far from its nouvelle cuisine principles advocating democratization at lower cost, insists on fine products.

It remains essential for restaurants to use a repertoire of cultural components and symbols, capitalize on the charismatic and architectural roles of their chef and showcase fine products that are representative of classical cuisine. Storytelling and dynamic narrative add-ons, regularly updated on large-audience social media, appear central to increasing restaurants’ perceived value, communicating innovation and attesting to their singularity and uniqueness.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to overlap the lexical perspectives of three-star restaurants and iconic guides’ websites.