Hotels charging more for breakfast, less for rooms due to higher VAT rate

Dutch hotels are looking for ways to soften the blow of the higher VAT on overnight stays, which will increase from 9 to 21 percent on 1 January 2026. Many hotels are making their rooms a bit cheaper, but increasing the price for breakfast or for using the pool or sauna by the same amount. The VAT rate for these extras will remain 9 percent, NOS reports.

If a customer pays an all-inclusive price for a hotel room with breakfast and use of the facilities, it is up to the hotel to declare to the Tax Authority which portion of that price was for the room and which portion was for the extras. And the more the hotelier charges for the extras instead of the hotel room, the less VAT they have to charge, and the less steep the price increase for the customer.

Hotel chain Fletcher will critically examine how it can manage the different VAT rates, CEO Rob Hermans told NOS. “For package deals, we will shift revenue from overnight stays to, for example, food and drink.” The chain will look at everything with a low VAT rate, he said. “For example, wellness services, but also the bottle of water in the room. That bottle was free and will now be 1 euro, which can then be deducted from the room rate.”

Diana Huls of Hotel Klein Zwitserland in Slenaken, Limburg, said the same: “We’re trying to be creative by creating packages with as many 9 percent products as possible,” she told NOS. She pointed out that her hotel is a stone’s throw from the border with Belgium and less than 10 kilometers away from Germany, where the VAT on overnight stays is 6 and 7 percent, respectively. “If you don’t get creative and pass on the VAT increase, the guest’s choice is quickly made.”

Marijke Vuik of the hospitality trade association Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) called it “natural” that hoteliers are looking for ways around the VAT hike. “Margins are under pressure, so it’s only logical that businesses are now carefully considering how they can mitigate this.” The hotel industry fears that the number of bookings will drop significantly if it passes the VAT increase entirely onto customers.

The KHN warned its members to be cautious with their creative solutions. “Constructions where the ratio between stay and breakfast is completely out of whack are doomed to failure. The Tax Authority will look at the economic value, for example, by comparing prices via platforms or by making a (historical) comparison with room rates without breakfast.”

The Tax Authority told the broadcasters that hotels must be able to demonstrate that the deviating price is reasonable.