How to prepare for the 2026 Germany VAT change in Mews Operations

Legal EnvironmentsMews Operations

On January 1, 2026, Germany will reduce the VAT rate for food products from 19% to 7%. This change applies to all accommodation providers in Germany that sell food and beverage products, including packaged items such as breakfast packages.

 

As Mews Operations currently does not support mixed-VAT package products, you need to replace your package products with individual products. 

 

To ensure full compliance with the new VAT change, you must:

  • completely split all your package products that currently include your food and drink products, and
  • create new separate products, one for Food and one for Drinks. 
ⓘ
Note:  When creating new separate products, you must ensure that:
  • You set up these newly created products for consumption only on or after January 1, 2026.
  • The sum of the gross prices of your new separate products equals the gross price of your original package. You must perform this check manually in the system, as this is a property pricing policy.

 

This article explains the following:

How to prepare for the VAT rate change

To prepare for the VAT rate change you must first ensure that you can update product tax rates on 1 January 2026. For this you need to make sure you do not close future revenue. Tip: You can adjust your Accounting configuration to prevent bill closing with future revenue.

What you need to do before January 1, 2026

This is only for products that include both food and drinks. 

For packaged products that contain both Food (7% VAT from 2026) and Drinks (19% VAT), you must prepare separate items in advance.

 

Step 1: Create two new products
  • One product for Food (with the current 2025 VAT)
  • One product for Drinks (with the current 2025 VAT)

To create a product, 

In Mews Operations, go to the main menu menu arrow right  > Settings > Services > Stay/ Accommodation, based on your settings > Products > Create product. You can refer to the How to create a product in Mews Operations help article for more information.

Note: When filling in the Pricing details of the product, you need to make sure that within the Charging section, the Frequency and Timing is the same as the original package product.

 

You must ensure that the sum of the gross prices of your individual products equals the gross price of your original package.

For example:

  • Breakfast package price: €18
    • Breakfast Food: €11.50
    • Breakfast Drinks: €6.50 
      Total: €18

After you create the new products make sure to submit your new product mapping to the Mews team via the Microsoft Form attached in the email communication from Mews.

Note: Please make sure to submit a separate form for each package/ bundle to submit mapping information.

 

You need to include your:

  • Property name
  • Product IDs
  • Product names. Note: You need to include Product names to ensure accuracy.

 

Step 3: Update your product rules
  • Set the old packaged product with “Cancel” as the Rule action,
  • Set the new products with “Add” as the Rule action.

This ensures that the system cancels old package products from any future reservations and adds the new ones.

You can refer to the How to package products with accommodation using product rules in Mews Operations help article for more information.

Step 4: Update your channel manager mappings (optional)

This step is only necessary if your set up meets both the following conditions:

  • Your old package product(s) are a part of your channel manager product and/ or rate mapping, and 
  • You have the Exclude price from offer option checked in Options tab of your product settings.
    • To review your product settings, in Mews Operations, go to the main menu menu arrow right  > Services > Stay / Accommodation, as per your settings > Products > Click on the appropriate product > edit-24  Edit > Click Options tab. 

Edit products

Note: Update your channel manager mapping to make sure all the rates mapped to the old package products are mapped to the 2 new separated products instead.

This step ensures all newly received reservations from your channel manager partner enter the system with the correct product and pricing.

Step 5: Contact Mews Support

Ask Mews Support to update all existing reservations to replace the old packaged product with the two new products. Note: To contact Support, you can submit a support ticket in Mews Operations with the Mews Digital Assistant.

Once Mews Support completes the update:

  • All your existing reservations will have the packaged product correctly split into Food and Drinks products
  • All your future reservations will also use the separated products based on your updated product rules

This ensures your property is fully prepared for the VAT changes on January 1, 2026.

What you need to do on January 1, 2026

Update VAT for all products affected by 2026 VAT change

Use the edit-24  Update tax rates option on the Products page, to update all products affected by the VAT change. 

Important: You can update only products that are not closed on a bill or invoice with this option.

  1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu Menu arrow right > Settings > Services.
  2. Select the service with products you want to update the tax rate for.
  3. Click Products Edit-24  Update tax rates icon.

 

Update tax rates

 

  • Products: Select all your products using the tax rate you need to update. 
  • Tax rate: Select the new tax rate for the products selected above.
  • Apply rate change to open product postings: Check this box to apply the tax change to all open and unconsumed bill items.
  • Consumed after: Select the date and time to apply the rate change only to products your guests consume after this date. Note: Select the date that the tax change comes into effect, at midnight, for example, select January 1st at 0:00 as the new tax change applies from this date.

This ensures all new reservations receive the correct products and VAT rates.  

 

If you have questions or need assistance, you can submit a support ticket in Mews Operations with the Mews Digital Assistant. 

Was this article helpful?
00



Feedback