Amsterdam Wants a 20% Tourist Tax by 2031 — What It Means for Visitors
The city already charges more than anywhere else in the EU. Its new government wants to go further.
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Amsterdam's new coalition, made up of PRO (formerly GroenLinks-PvdA) and D66, announced plans in August 2026 to raise the city's tourist tax step by step from today's 12.5% to 20% by 2031. The tax is charged on the room price of every overnight stay, and was already the highest in the EU when it went up to 12.5% in 2024.
The reasoning is numbers. The city set itself a ceiling of 20 million overnight stays a year; in 2025 it recorded 23.7 million. Stacked on top of the national VAT on accommodation, which rose from 9% to 21%, the plan would put the total tax on a hotel night at around 41% by the end of the decade.
It isn't the only lever being pulled. Since 1 April 2026, holiday rentals in eight neighbourhoods — most of the canal belt, the Jordaan, Nieuwmarkt and the old centre, plus De Pijp — are limited to 15 nights a year instead of 30, and a citywide "hotel bed stop" freezes the number of hotel beds at its current level.
For visitors, the practical effect is simple: a night in central Amsterdam will keep getting more expensive, year by year. The streets themselves are free — as in TravelHub's own sunny walk past the Beurs van Berlage below.