More restrictive measures for new hotel development in Amsterdam

The municipal government announced that Amsterdam will in principle no longer be issuing permits for new hotels regardless of the location of the hotel in the city. This new hotel cap is more restrictive than the hotel cap the city initially introduced in its overnight stay policy of 2017 (Overnachtingsbeleid). With the municipality's new measures the "no-unless" policy under which permits for new hotel projects were granted under specific conditions for specific areas, disappears.

New-for-old arrangements

The only exception to the new measure are the so called: 'new-for-old arrangements'. Under this exception a new hotel may only be built in case another hotel closes, given that the total number of beds does not increase. The replacement hotel must be qualitatively better in areas such as modernisation and sustainability and the replacement hotel must have four stars under the European Hotel Classification system.

The aim of the hotel cap is to limit annual overnight stays in the city to a maximum of 20 million in line with its 2017 "Tourism in balance" regulation. In addition to this new hotel cap, the municipality has also announced that the amount of river cruises that are allowed to dock in the city of Amsterdam will be halved as per 2028, to a maximum of 1150.

More information?

May you wish to receive more information or may you have any questions regarding the impact the new measures by the municipal government will have on your business, please contact us.