Starting 1 January 2026, the Dutch government will increase the VAT rate on overnight accommodation and associated facilities from 9% to 21%. If your property operates in the Netherlands, this change affects how you price, invoice, and report revenue from these services.

 

The Mews team is on track to meet the government deadline, so that you can manage the VAT update in Mews Operations to remain compliant with local tax regulations.

 

You can refer to the Handling tax rate changes article to guide your rate and product updates.

 

This article explains what the Mews system updates automatically, and which actions you need to take.

 

The Mews system does not automatically update:

• Tax rates on products and services linked to accommodation, for example, early check-in, upgrades, no-shows.
• Bookable services like day use and late check-out.
• Corrections linked to accommodation.
• Standalone services still taxed at 9%, such as food and beverage.
• Gross rates already configured in your pricing environment.

 

In this article you can learn about the following:

• What services does the VAT rate change affect
• How will the Mews system handle the change
• What will you need to do to handle the VAT rate change
  • How to prepare for the VAT rate change
• How to handle the impact of the VAT rate change on your corporate bookings for Gross vs Net pricing
• How to configure bills to support VAT claims after the tax changes
• The VAT rate change checklist for Dutch properties

 

What services does the VAT rate change affect

From 1 January 2026, the VAT rate for overnight accommodation and its associated facilities increases from 9% to 21%.

This change affects:

• Accommodation services
• Related services such as:
  • Gas, electricity, and water
  • Facilities for laundry and drying clothes
  • Sanitary facilities, namely use of shower or toilet
  • Parking facilities in combination with accommodation

This change does not affect services that are not part of accommodation, which remain at 21% namely,   

• camping gas supply
• Wi-Fi services for a separate fee

The following must also remain at 9%:

• other separately charged facilities like, breakfast
• access to swimming pool, spa, or amusement park

 

How will the Mews system handle the change

The Mews system will handle that part of the VAT rate change which will reduce your manual work. The Mews team will migrate existing bookings starting 11 November 2025, with a nightly process to handle new 2026 bookings. The final migration for open bookings and product rates will complete on 1 January 2026.

On 1 Jan 2026, the Mews system will automatically:

• Update all accommodation rates with 9% VAT to 21% for nights starting 1 January 2026.
• Apply the change to open bills with accommodation items that cover 1 January 2026.
• Update the tax rate codes used for accommodation. The system will automatically replace the 9% tax code with the 21% code.

 

What will you need to do to handle VAT rate change

Check if you use gross or net pricing in your accounting configuration. In gross pricing, Mews maintains the total price and adjusts the VAT component. Learn how to verify this in your accounting configuration.

You are responsible for updating:

• All bookable services with 9% VAT related to accommodation.
• Products like day-use rooms, early check-in, late check-out, and accommodation corrections.
• Manual pricing adjustments for net-based corporate bookings, where VAT changes may reduce net revenue. Refer below for details.

 

How to prepare for the VAT rate change

The Mews team starts migrating all applicable reservations and updating the tax rate codes on or after 11 November 2025.

You must do the following to prepare for the change,

1. Check if your property uses gross or net pricing. Learn how to verify this in your accounting configuration.
2. If you use gross pricing, adjust your 2026 base room prices to account for the new 21% VAT. For example, if your 2025 gross rate is €109 (100 + 9% VAT), update your 2026 gross price to €121, i.e. 100 + 21% VAT, to avoid revenue loss for net-priced corporate rates.
3. Coordinate with your revenue management system or manually update your 2026 base rates.
4. Update the base prices of affected products with fixed prices. Learn how in the How to create a product in Mews Operations article.
5. Mews recommends to not duplicate rates for 21% VAT. Creating new rates adds significant configuration overhead.

On or after 11 November 2025

 You need to:

1. Verify that your integrations support the updated tax rate codes.
2. Reach out to your integration partners for updates.

On 1 January 2026

1. Log in as an administrator in Mews Operations. Note: You must have the Admin role and permissions to make changes to tax settings.
2. Go to your Rates section and:
   1. Open each base rate that applies to accommodation.
   2. Verify that rates for stays starting 1 January 2026 have 21% VAT.
3. Go to your Products section and:
   1. Identify products that relate to accommodation (early check-in, upgrades, etc.).
   2. Update their tax rates from 9% to 21%.
4. Go to your Bookable services section and:
   1. Confirm that only services connected to accommodation have the VAT update.
   2. Do not make any changes to standalone services like bike rental or meeting rooms.

 

How to handle the impact of the VAT rate change on your corporate bookings for Gross vs Net pricing   

If your rate agreement for corporate bookings is net pricing, and you update only the gross price in Mews Operations, the VAT rate change will reduce your revenue.

For example, if your Corporate rate is €100 net:

• Under 9% VAT, the gross price is €109, and
• After the VAT change, the same gross price of €109 becomes €86.11 net.

To maintain the net value of the booking, you must manually increase the gross price to €121, so the new net rate remains €100.

How to configure bills to support VAT claims after the tax changes

You can configure your bills to display both the VAT rate and the accounting category classification. This bill format allows guests to easily process their VAT claims.

To display VAT totals by classifications in bills:

1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu > Settings > Property > Finance > Accounting configuration.
2. Click Billing management.
3. Click the Split VAT summary by classification slider switch.
4. Click Save.

This configures bills to support VAT claims by displaying classifications as well as VAT rates. You can learn more about handling accounting category changes in the How to handle accounting category changes in Mews Operations help article.

The VAT rate change checklist for Dutch properties

1. Keep bills open to allow the Mews team to migrate the VAT rates.
2. Test your integrations for compatibility with the new VAT codes.
3. Adjust 2026 base prices to account for the VAT increase.
4. On 1 January 2026, update VAT on accommodation-related services and products.
5. Review rates on 1 January 2026 to confirm all affected items use 21%.
6. Communicate pricing implications with your business partners as needed.