Where to stay in Amsterdam

Amsterdam's tourist tax is 12.5 per cent of the room rate, the highest in Europe, and since 1 January 2026 VAT on a night's stay has gone from 9 to 21 per cent. The tax is usually charged separately, on arrival, so the price on the site is not the price you pay — which is why many people sleep fifteen minutes away by train.

Five choices and what each really means

The difference is the night, not the distance — trains run often and late

GuideHaarlem, fifteen minutes by train — worth it as a base?Haarlem →

The tax that changes the sums

The city levies the tax on the room rate excluding VAT. On a room costing a hundred before tax, that adds 21 for VAT and 12.5 for the tax — a third on top of the base rate, and usually only the VAT is already in the figure the booking site shows. The tax is municipal, so Haarlem and Zaandam charge their own, not Amsterdam's.

When sleeping out of town pays

Haarlem is a real town with its own square, church and market rather than a suburb — fifteen minutes by train from Centraal, with services running frequently and late. Zaandam is eleven minutes and cheaper, but less interesting in itself. The sums go like this: the room and the tax are paid per night, the train per person per day. If the nightly difference in the room rate is larger than return tickets for everyone in the room, Haarlem pays; if not, the train eats the saving.

Hidden gemsWhat is in your neighbourhood that no guide lists:Amsterdam behind the gates: courtyards and an attic church →

What not to choose

• A room above a bar in De Wallen. The quarter works until morning and closing the window does not fix it.
• An airport hotel for the price. Schiphol is fifteen minutes by train from the centre, but there is no town around it — dinner is the hotel restaurant.
• A flat with no registration number on the listing. Amsterdam allows holiday lets only with that number and for a capped number of nights a year; a listing without it is illegal, and a let like that has no protection at all.