Brussels hotels protest against doubling of VAT

Hotels in Brussels have warned that the federal government’s doubling of VAT to 12% will hit the already-beleaguered sector hard.

“If the situation doesn’t improve soon, several hotels risk facing serious financial difficulties before the end of the year,” said Rodolphe Van Weyenbergh, secretary-general of the Brussels Hotel Association (BHA).

According to the BHA, the VAT increase is undermining the appeal of a sector “that is already under pressure”.

Other factors causing worry are inflation and rising operating costs.

“This creates a dangerous cocktail, all while the Brussels market is struggling with demand that’s too weak to support the sector’s further development,” Van Weyenbergh said.

“There are too few customers and too few booked overnight stays.”

Van Weyenbergh said that Brussels hotels had experienced a "mixed" summer. In July, hotels recorded an average occupancy rate of 75%, representing an increase of 1.2 percentage points compared with last year.

In August, traditionally a "quiet month", occupancy was 69% - an increase of 1.6 percentage points.

“But July 2025 was a very weak month, and the figures for August also remain disappointing,” said Van Weyenbergh, who noted that the period between September and November in particular is the peak season for Brussels hotels.

“The city is, in fact, heavily reliant on business tourism.”

There are also factors at the regional level that the BHA said added strain, such as "the continuous increase in property tax" and "the rise in the regional accommodation tax from €4 to €5 per night".

“Either we pass on the increased costs to our prices, at the risk of losing even more customers, or we absorb them ourselves at the risk of jeopardising our profitability,” Van Weyenbergh said.

So far hotels have done the latter, the BHA said, with both smaller and large, international hotels suffering serious losses.

“We have reached a level of pressure that is no longer sustainable,” said BHA chairman Willem Van der Zee.

“It’s an illusion to think that tourists pay for all the increases in the tax burden. Ultimately, it’s the hoteliers that foot the bill. This situation is unsustainable in the medium and long term.”

The BHA also points out that the sector has already had to weather successive crises since the pandemic.

“Time and again, the sector has agreed to reduce its margins in order to safeguard its operations, but that room for manoeuvre has now been exhausted,” the association warned.

“This is all the more worrying because Brussels has invested heavily in recent years to attract more visitors, overnight stays and major international events.”

Weakening the hotel sector’s capacity at a time when the region is seeking to enhance its appeal “would be a damaging paradox for the Brussels economy as a whole”, Van der Zee said.