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VAT update - Netherlands 2026

  • August 8, 2025
  • 17 replies
  • 1092 views
VAT update - Netherlands 2026
coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

This article has been updated on 7th November 2025


– Dutch version below 👇 –

Hello,  

We’d like to share with you details of how Mews will handle the 2026 Netherlands tax update. The VAT increase in the Netherlands from 9% to 21% is now confirmed. We will update Mews accordingly and have a process in place to migrate affected reservations to the new rate to ensure compliance from 1 January 2026. Please see this article for details of the migration process.

It is not presently possible to reflect different taxes in the system for the same rate. What that means is that, until the change is implemented in the program, the default VAT for stay occurring in 2026 will remain 9%

That does not mean that it is impossible for you to prepare, and we wanted to share with you several steps to ensure the smoothest transition possible. 

 

STEP 1: Verify your Pricing environment 

 

That is not a setting that can be changed, but the following explanation will only make sense if you are in gross environment. You can check your environment by consulting  your Mews Accounting configuration (see The accounting configuration in Mews Operations: An overview of the settings

Why does your Pricing environment matter?  

In gross pricing, any tax shift on an existing reservation will be absorbed in the already arranged price to ensure that the confirmed price communicated to the customer, which is tax inclusive, does not shift.  

In practice, that means that if you confirm a 109€ room, and the VAT increases to 21%, instead of 100€ net and 9€ VAT, you now have 90.08€ net and 18.92€ VAT still giving the total of 109€ you confirmed to your customer. 

 

STEP 2: How to reflect the change, before the change is reflected in Mews? 

 

There are 2 aspects to this question that we will cover : the reservation price and the VAT amount. 

  1. The Reservation Price: 

In order for you to confirm correct gross prices to your customer, you need to already load prices in Mews to reflect the increase on the Gross price. 

  1.  Rooms: 
    If you are using Dynamic pricing via a Revenue Management integration, you can instruct your partner to send prices to Mews for nights of January onwards that reflects what the new gross rate would be after adjustment to the new VAT rate. This will not change the tax rates on those nights but the total price to ensure that correct 2026 gross prices are being quoted to customers and to allow easier adjustment when the new VAT rate is applied. 

    If you do not use a Revenue Management System, we would suggest you change the base price of your base room rates to the 2026 value then, if need be, you can override in bulk the 2025 prices. Changing the base price of a base rate will not influence any date price you have already overwritten. (see Managing the pricing details of a rate in Mews Operations

  1. Products:
    Products with Fixed price can be overridden much like base rates. (see Configuring the pricing details of a product) In the same vein, we do recommend changing the product base price, then overriding the 2025 dates for the currently offered price. 

    If you offer products with Relative price based on Gross pricing, as those will not change with the background VAT update, they should work as expected. 

    If you offer products with Relative price based on Net pricing, and the element(s) that product is based on is subject to the VAT increase, for example if your City tax is based on your accommodation net amount, there is nothing we can do at present to mitigate the fact that those product, or the City tax amount will be incorrect until the tax update occurs. In that case, we would suggest adding a disclaimer to your confirmation emails, informing the customer that the City tax amount may vary due to scheduled tax revision.  

  1. The VAT amount 

Mews will update the existing values of VAT on accommodation items to be shifted to the new VAT rate without impacting gross prices. 

In order for that to work for your property, it is of the utmost importance that any transaction on which the change needs to be reflected be left in a mutable state. The only way to do so is to ensure that you do not close any of those elements on bills or invoices as doing so would render us incapable of modifying their VAT. 

If you are afraid of human mistakes, or want to ensure the system blocks you from doing that, please note that the Bill closing field in your accounting configuration if set on “Only with consumed items” would block any user in your property from closing unconsumed revenue and, in consequence, any elements for the future. 

 

Why are we not advising you to create new rates? 

We are aware that the 21% tax rate already exists in your systems and that you could easily create new rates with the 21% tax rate today

Doing such a change is a lot of work and needs to consider the duplication of every single rate, duplication of restrictions, creation of new restrictions, duplication of product rules, duplication of mapping... and we do not believe that solution to be accessible to most properties due to the time investment it would necessitate. 

Therefore,  we do believe that it is not possible to consider the creation of new rates as a viable option for general guidance on this matter. 

If you have any further questions, you can submit a support ticket in Mews Operations using the Mews Digital Assistant.   


___________________

Hallo, 

Via dit bericht informeren wij u over de aanpak van Mews rondom de aankomende BTW-verhoging in Nederland van 9% naar 21% per 1 januari 2026. Omdat deze wijziging nog moet worden goedgekeurd door de Tweede en Eerste Kamer, kunnen wij deze in Mews nog niet doorvoeren, maar treffen wij alvast de nodige voorbereidingen. 

Op dit moment ondersteunt Mews niet de mogelijkheid om meerdere BTW-tarieven te koppelen aan hetzelfde tarief. Daarom blijft het standaard BTW-tarief voor verblijven in 2026 voorlopig op 9% staan. Wij verwachten dat de aanpassing pas op de ingangsdatum zal worden doorgevoerd. 

Dit betekent echter niet dat u zich niet alvast kunt voorbereiden. Hieronder vindt u enkele stappen om de overgang soepel te laten verlopen. 

 

Stap 1: Controleer uw prijsomgeving 
 

U kunt deze instelling niet zelf aanpassen. De onderstaande uitleg is alleen van toepassing als u in een bruto-omgeving werkt. Controleer dit via uw Mews Accounting-configuratie. (zie De accountingconfiguratie in Mews Operations: een overzicht van de instellingen). 

Waarom is dit belangrijk?  

In een bruto-omgeving blijft het totaalbedrag voor de gast gelijk, ook bij een BTW-wijziging. De verdeling tussen netto- en BTW-bedrag verandert automatisch. Bijvoorbeeld: een kamerprijs van €109 blijft €109 voor de gast, maar gaat van €100 netto + €9 BTW naar €90,08 netto + €18,92 BTW. 

 

Stap 2: Hoe kunt u de wijziging vooraf weergeven? 
 

Er zijn twee onderdelen: de prijs van de reservering en het BTW-bedrag. 

1. De prijs van de reservering: 

  •  Kamers: 
    Als u dynamische prijsstelling gebruikt via een Revenue Management-integratie, kunt u uw partner verzoeken om vanaf januari prijzen aan Mews door te geven die het nieuwe bruto tarief weergeven, inclusief de verwachte BTW-aanpassing. Het belastingtarief voor die nachten blijft ongewijzigd; alleen de totaalprijs wordt aangepast. Zo zien gasten de juiste bruto prijzen voor 2026 en verloopt de toekomstige aanpassing eenvoudiger zodra het nieuwe BTW-tarief officieel wordt goedgekeurd. 

    Werkt u zonder Revenue Management Systeem? Pas dan handmatig de basisprijzen van uw kamerarrangementen aan voor 2026. Indien nodig kunt u prijzen voor 2025 in bulk overschrijven. Het aanpassen van de basisprijs van een tarief heeft geen invloed op datums waarvan de prijs al eerder is overschreven (zie De prijsgegevens van een tarief bewerken in Mews Operations). 

  • Producten:
    Producten met een vaste prijs kunnen, net als basistarieven, worden overschreven (zie Het configureren van de prijsdetails van een product). In diezelfde lijn raden wij aan om de basisprijs van het product aan te passen en vervolgens voor de data in 2025 de huidige prijs te overschrijven. 

    Wanneer je producten aanbiedt met een relatieve prijs op basis van bruto prijzen, worden deze niet beïnvloed door de btw-wijziging die op de achtergrond plaats zal vinden en zouden ze naar verwachting correct blijven functioneren. 

    Als je producten aanbiedt met een relatieve prijs gebaseerd op netto prijzen, en het element waarop dat product is gebaseerd onderhevig is aan de btw-verhoging, bijvoorbeeld als je toeristenbelasting gebaseerd is op het netto bedrag van je accommodatie, kunnen wij op dit moment niets doen om te voorkomen dat die producten of het bedrag van de toeristenbelasting onjuist zijn totdat de btw-wijziging plaatsvindt. In dat geval raden wij aan een disclaimer toe te voegen aan je bevestigingsmails, waarin je de gast informeert dat het bedrag van de toeristenbelasting kan variëren vanwege de aankomende belastingwijziging. 

2. Het BTW-bedrag: 

Zodra de verhoging definitief van toepassing is, zal Mews de BTW-waarden automatisch aanpassen zonder dat dit effect heeft op de bruto prijzen (naar verwachting zal dit plaats vinden op 1 januari 2026).

Hiervoor moeten alle betrokken transacties bewerkbaar blijven. Sluit daarom geen facturen of rekeningen voor toekomstige verblijven waarop de wijziging van toepassing is.

Wilt u menselijke fouten voorkomen, zet dan in uw accountingconfiguratie het veld ‘Rekeningen sluiten’ op “Alleen bij  verbruikte items” (zie De accountingconfiguratie in Mews Operations: een overzicht van de instellingen). 

Waarom raden wij niet aan om nieuwe tarieven aan te maken? 

Alhoewel het mogelijk is een tarief aan te maken met een BTW percentage van 21%, adviseren wij dit  voorlopig nog niet te doen.

  • De BTW wijziging is namelijk nog niet officieel en het terugdraaien ervan is complex en tijdrovend. 

  • Als je dit toch doet en de tariefverhoging niet wordt goedgekeurd, kunnen wij je niet helpen om die bestaande reserveringen terug te zetten naar het 9%-btw-tarief. 

  • Het doorvoeren van zo’n wijziging is een intensief proces waarbij elk tarief, alle restricties, productregels en mappings opnieuw moeten worden gedupliceerd of aangemaakt. Wij zijn van mening dat deze aanpak voor de meeste accommodaties niet haalbaar is vanwege de grote tijdsinvestering die hiervoor nodig is. 

 

Gezien bovenstaande punten vinden we dat het aanmaken van nieuwe tarieven niet als een haalbare optie kan worden beschouwd voor deze kwestie. 

Mocht u vragen hebben, gebruik dan in Mews Operations de Mews Digital Assistant om een supportticket in te dienen.

Met vriendelijke groet, 
Het Mews Team 

17 Replies

  • Apprentice
  • August 20, 2025

Dear Mews

Thanks for sending this over.

If I understand correctly, Mews will handle the VAT update by shifting existing values to the new 21% rate without affecting gross prices. That means we should  sell our 2026 rates as gross prices including the future 21% VAT, even though the system will temporarily reflect 9% until the change is applied on January 1st.

Could you clarify how Mews will execute this update on January 1st? Will it be an automatic adjustment, or do we need to reach out to you or take any action on our side?

 


coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

Dear Mews

Thanks for sending this over.

If I understand correctly, Mews will handle the VAT update by shifting existing values to the new 21% rate without affecting gross prices. That means we should  sell our 2026 rates as gross prices including the future 21% VAT, even though the system will temporarily reflect 9% until the change is applied on January 1st.

Could you clarify how Mews will execute this update on January 1st? Will it be an automatic adjustment, or do we need to reach out to you or take any action on our side?

 

Hi Ricardo, 

Thank you for your reply. 

I think you got the overall idea of it right if your property is in a gross environment.

Usually, for anything regarding accommodation taxes, which this update is about, Mews handles it unilaterally, which means we do the migration for all the properties on the date the tax enters in effect (scheduled for 1 January 2026 at the moment). If that process is the one applied for this update (which will be confirmed at a later stage) then that means that in the early morning of January 1st, 2026 Mews will migrate all existing nights that are 

  • still mutable
  • for a stay in 2026 or after

to the new 21% vat rate without you needing to reach out to us.

Please note that this will be confirmed officially at a later stage.


  • Apprentice
  • August 30, 2025

Hi Coline

One last question on this VAT Topic:

Mews will adjust the net rate internally while keeping the gross rate the same. Will that gross include the city tax?  How will this affect the city tax? Will it also be adjusted?

For example, if a guest pays €100 on Booking.com (including 12.5% city tax and 9% VAT), and Mews reduces the net rate, does that mean the city tax will also decrease? If so, wouldn’t that create an open negative balance for every guest who has already paid €100 through Booking.com?

Will Mews ensure that the new net rate + new city tax still add up to the same gross rate? 

Thanks a lot for clarifying!

 


Sanne
Guru
Forum|alt.badge.img+2
  • Guru
  • September 1, 2025

@Ricardo valid question on the city tax, I am commenting so I can easily follow this topic. 


coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

 

Hi Coline

One last question on this VAT Topic:

Mews will adjust the net rate internally while keeping the gross rate the same. Will that gross include the city tax?  How will this affect the city tax? Will it also be adjusted?

For example, if a guest pays €100 on Booking.com (including 12.5% city tax and 9% VAT), and Mews reduces the net rate, does that mean the city tax will also decrease? If so, wouldn’t that create an open negative balance for every guest who has already paid €100 through Booking.com?

Will Mews ensure that the new net rate + new city tax still add up to the same gross rate? 

Thanks a lot for clarifying!

 

Hi Ricardo, 

Sorry for my late reply.

That is indeed one of the things we cannot mitigate at present and is mentioned in the excerpt below

If you offer products with Relative price based on Net pricing, and the element(s) that product is based on is subject to the VAT increase, for example if your City tax is based on your accommodation net amount, there is nothing we can do at present to mitigate the fact that those product, or the City tax amount will be incorrect until the tax update occurs. In that case, we would suggest adding a disclaimer to your confirmation emails, informing the customer that the City tax amount may vary due to scheduled tax revision.  

Normally, as City tax is not due until you arrive at the hotel, one solution here would be to not charge the city tax at confirmation, though I can understand that this is a bit tricky, or simply not the preferred operational situation.

Like our first article suggests, I would instead advise adding a disclaimer to all your confirmations that, due to the upcoming tax update, the City tax mentioned on the confirmation is subject to change.

In your example, I don’t imagine too many customers would complain given the new total will be lower.

If you receive a payment from booking, and need to adjust the total to match, then you will probably need one of two things

  • an additional service product used to balance the total amount which would then be added manually (that product should have the “has overridable price” option on)
  • a relative product of the bookable service which would also need to be added manually (value should be 1.137311341432010000% of the Gross night amount)

those products can only be added after the update has taken place, and are not part of our guidance, as it is up to each property to decide what should be done for those differences. We also don’t know yet if the City tax will be changed for 2026 which would influence heavily this answer.


mauritsbots
Superstar Guru
Forum|alt.badge.img+3
  • Superstar Guru
  • October 8, 2025

@nstockman ​@mauritsbots 


mauritsbots
Superstar Guru
Forum|alt.badge.img+3
  • Superstar Guru
  • November 3, 2025

Is there any news on this subject, as i am hearing different stories now (including a scenario where daily updates will be run from November 10th onwards)?? ​@coline.poussiere 


coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

Hi Maurits!

Is there any news on this subject, as i am hearing different stories now (including a scenario where daily updates will be run from November 10th onwards)?? ​@coline.poussiere 

I believe there was indeed a recent update that is explained in the article How to prepare for the VAT rate change in the Netherlands starting 1 January 2026 where it is explained that we will run nightly “jobs” to update existing reservation to the new tax rate (from 9% to 21%)

This update was made possible by recent work performed on the system by our technical team and was not part of the guidance provided back in August as it still, at the time, needed to undergo development and testing.

Let me know if the article leaves you with any doubt or question.

 


mauritsbots
Superstar Guru
Forum|alt.badge.img+3
  • Superstar Guru
  • November 3, 2025

@coline.poussiere is this just for rates then? ​@nstockman 


nstockman
  • Master Apprentice
  • November 3, 2025

@coline.poussiere is this just for rates then? ​@nstockman 

@coline.poussiere what with accommodation adjustments (for example breakfast included as per Mews best practice) and dependent products based on a percentage?


coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

Hi ​@mauritsbots ​@nstockman 

In this case, it is correct that Mews would not be migrating the products.

The reason behind it is that, in the case of the update for the Netherlands in January 2026, it is not the whole 9% VAT bracket being migrated but only some elements.

What that means is that there might be some Products with VAT 9% that need to go to VAT 21% (IE a breakfast adjustment as per Mews best practice) and other products with VAT 9% that must remain with VAT 9% (IE the breakfast product). Because of this, only the property would know which products would need to be migrated and which one wouldn’t need to, which is why Mews never migrates products between tax rates unless it is the whole tax rate migrating.

As explained in Handling tax rate changes in Mews Operations, when migrating product not based solely on their VAT rate but also on the type of goods/service they represent, this needs to be done by the property via the VAT update tool on the day of the VAT update.

Much like explained for rates, for a GROSS environment, for fixed products, you can already adjust the gross price of the products to reflect the new correct gross prices, though the net will stay incorrect until you update the tax rate on the day of the change. 

Note: even if the Update tax tool includes a date range, please note that using it also updates the VAT rate used by default on the product.


nstockman
  • Master Apprentice
  • November 4, 2025

Hi ​@mauritsbots ​@nstockman 

In this case, it is correct that Mews would not be migrating the products.

The reason behind it is that, in the case of the update for the Netherlands in January 2026, it is not the whole 9% VAT bracket being migrated but only some elements.

What that means is that there might be some Products with VAT 9% that need to go to VAT 21% (IE a breakfast adjustment as per Mews best practice) and other products with VAT 9% that must remain with VAT 9% (IE the breakfast product). Because of this, only the property would know which products would need to be migrated and which one wouldn’t need to, which is why Mews never migrates products between tax rates unless it is the whole tax rate migrating.

As explained in Handling tax rate changes in Mews Operations, when migrating product not based solely on their VAT rate but also on the type of goods/service they represent, this needs to be done by the property via the VAT update tool on the day of the VAT update.

Much like explained for rates, for a GROSS environment, for fixed products, you can already adjust the gross price of the products to reflect the new correct gross prices, though the net will stay incorrect until you update the tax rate on the day of the change. 

Note: even if the Update tax tool includes a date range, please note that using it also updates the VAT rate used by default on the product.

@coline.poussiere Just so I have this clear: there is a date filter on the VAT update function, but it actually does nothing?


coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

@coline.poussiere Just so I have this clear: there is a date filter on the VAT update function, but it actually does nothing?

Hi Nicolas, 

I’ve been made aware that you have had calls with my team in between but I just wanted to record the answer here

 

The date filter on that tool does the following action

“Select the date and time to apply the rate change only to products your guests consume after this date.”

What it means in practice is that this tool does 2 things

  • Update all products consumed after the date mentioned
  • Update the product default VAT on the product

 

What would happen is that directly after you migrate the products all would look right, but then, the next reservation to enter with that product, the VAT would be the updated one (21%) even if that reservation was for 2025.


  • Apprentice
  • November 19, 2025

Hi ​@coline.poussiere

Regarding this matter, we were trying to create packages with breakfast included. However, since we don’t want guests to see the breakdown of the allocation, we would need it to be treated as a single package. With the different VAT rates, this is no longer possible? 


Robin Gustavsson
Senior Guru
Forum|alt.badge.img+2

Hello 👋

Unrelated to the Netherlands, but in Germany there will also be VAT updates in 2026.
Breakfast food and breakfast beverages will be subject to different VAT rates.

Is Mews working on a solution for German customers to handle this in an efficient way?
Our current setup uses a single breakfast product added via product rules.
With the VAT update, we will be required to add two separate products. However, updating the existing product rules will affect existing reservations and increase their total price.

@coline.poussiere do you have any advice or information on how we can solve this?


coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

Hello 👋

Unrelated to the Netherlands, but in Germany there will also be VAT updates in 2026.
Breakfast food and breakfast beverages will be subject to different VAT rates.

Is Mews working on a solution for German customers to handle this in an efficient way?
Our current setup uses a single breakfast product added via product rules.
With the VAT update, we will be required to add two separate products. However, updating the existing product rules will affect existing reservations and increase their total price.

@coline.poussiere do you have any advice or information on how we can solve this?

Hi Robin, 

Sorry for my delayed answer.

For Germany you should have received a communication this week to explain the process.

As well, most information is explained in the article How to prepare for the 2026 Germany VAT change in Mews Operations to address the issue of breakfast


coline.poussiere
Mews Employee
Forum|alt.badge.img+1

Hi ​@coline.poussiere

Regarding this matter, we were trying to create packages with breakfast included. However, since we don’t want guests to see the breakdown of the allocation, we would need it to be treated as a single package. With the different VAT rates, this is no longer possible? 

Hi Raquel, 

Sorry for the delay in my response

It is still possible for the package to show one line for room and breakfast on the bill however, the VAT summary on the bill will indeed need to separate those due to legal requirement.

 

If that didn’t answer your question, we’ll probably need more detailed information that should be given here, so I advise you open a ticket with our support team.