Dutch hotel room rates more than recovered from pandemic; Amsterdam tops €200 per night

The Dutch hotel sector has pretty much recovered from the coronavirus pandemic. Occupancy rates have continued to grow, and room rates are now well above the 2019 level. Hotels in the Amsterdam and Schiphol region continue to perform above expectations, with room rates topping 200 euros per night last year, according to the annual HOSTA report by the hotel and tourism agency Horwath HTL.

“The hotels in the Amsterdam & Schiphol region were hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis in 2020 and only showed minimal recovery in 2021,” Horwath HTL said. But since then, the hotel market in the region has outmatched expectations.

Hotel room prices in the Amsterdam & Schiphol region increased enormously from their 95 euros per night low point in 2021 to 205 euros per night in 2023. “As a result, the average room price is approximately 35.7 percent above the 2019 level.” The occupancy rate for Amsterdam hotels almost doubled from 31.4 percent in 2021 to 62.3 percent in 2022 and grew strongly to 77.6 percent in 2023. That is still 7.7 percent below the level of 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.

Horwath HTL expects the region’s recovery to continue and for Amsterdam & Schiphol hotels to achieve an occupancy rate of around 78 percent and a room rate of 206 euros by the end of this year. “The turnover per available room could reach 160 euros, well above the 2019 level.”

Nationwide, the occupancy rate of Dutch hotels rose to 74.8 percent. “That is 10 percent above the 65.8 percent of 2022 and only 3 percent below the record occupancy for 2019 of 78.2 percent,” Horwath HTL said. “The average room rate showed an even stronger increase in 2023 and kept pace with the increase in inflation.” Last year, Dutch hotel rooms cost an average of 166 euros per night, well above 2019’s 120 euros per night.

The higher occupancy rate and room rate resulted in the turnover per available hotel room increasing from 88 euros in 2019 to 124 euros in 2023, an increase of over 141 percent.

On the downside, operating costs have increased enormously due to inflation and higher wages. The increase in energy costs decreased in the past year but is expected to rise again in the coming years. “The profitability of Dutch hotels is therefore still under pressure. Expressed as a percentage of turnover, the operating result in 2023 is approximately 35.3%. In 2019, this was still 41.3%.”

Hotel rooms will likely become even more expensive as the Dutch government is planning to increase the VAT rate on hotel rooms from 9 to 21 percent in 2026. ABN Amro urged the government to reconsider this plan, saying it won’t raise nearly as much as the government thinks it will and will have a devastating effect on the hotel and tourism industries.