Airbnb and city tax in Belgium: who collects the tourist tax, Airbnb or you?

Short answer: no, Airbnb does not collect city tax for you in Belgium. Airbnb keeps an official list of the countries and regions where it collects tourist tax itself and pays it to the authorities. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal are on it; Belgium is not (as of October 2026). Booking.com does not pay the tax on your behalf either. So you charge it, collect it and declare it to your municipality yourself, including for bookings through the platforms.

That surprises many hosts who rented out abroad before, or who have had a guest say: "but I already paid taxes on Airbnb?" Below: where that misunderstanding comes from, how to charge city tax correctly on every channel, and how to avoid collecting it twice or not at all.

Why doesn't Airbnb collect tourist tax in Belgium?

In Belgium, tourist tax is a municipal tax. Each city or municipality decides whether to levy it, how much, per person or per room, and how often you file. Ghent charges differently from Antwerp, Bruges differently from Brussels. Where Airbnb does collect the tax itself, it has usually made an arrangement with a country or city. For Belgium, the official list in the Airbnb Help Center has nothing.

The result: the municipality looks at you as the operator. In an audit you are liable for the full amount, not the platform. Any tax you forgot to collect comes out of your own pocket.

How much to charge per night depends on your municipality. Rates and rules for Ghent and Antwerp are in our article on handling tourist tax in your B&B. For other municipalities, the regulation is on your city's website.

Charging city tax on Airbnb: two ways

1. Build it into your nightly rate. The simplest route: raise your price so the tax is included. The guest sees one amount; you keep the tax separate in your books and pay it on. Downside: with a per-person tax (as in Ghent and Antwerp), a fixed mark-up stops being correct as soon as an extra guest is added, and Airbnb charges its service fee on that part too.

2. Use Airbnb's tax tool. Airbnb has a tool that lets you add a tax to your listing yourself. You find it under Listings → your listing → Listing editor → Settings → Taxes → Add a tax. You choose a fixed amount per night, per guest, per guest per night, or a percentage. The amount is added on top of the guest's price, and Airbnb pays it out to you separately from your regular payout. Keep in mind:

• You need an accommodation tax registration number, and according to Airbnb the tool is not available in every region. Check whether it shows up for you.
• Even then, Airbnb does not pay the tax on. You file the return and pay the municipality.

More in the Airbnb Help Center under adding taxes to a listing.

And on Booking.com?

On Booking.com you set city tax in the extranet, under Property → VAT/Tax/Charges. You choose whether the tax is included in your rate or excluded.

• Included: the guest pays the tax as part of the price. According to Booking.com's partner help, it does not charge commission on local taxes such as city tax.
• Excluded: the guest sees that a tax will be added. Per-person charges set to "excluded" are collected by you, for example on arrival or through your own payment link.

Either way, filing the tax stays with you. See also the difference between Airbnb and Booking.com for your B&B.

The biggest trap: collecting twice, or not at all

With several channels, it usually goes wrong in one of two ways:

1. Collecting twice. The tax is already in your Airbnb price, and you ask for it again on arrival. That earns you a deservedly angry review.
2. Not collecting. You set the tax to "excluded" on Booking.com but forget to charge it on arrival. Then you pay the municipality from your own margin.

The fix is one fixed rule per channel that you write down: is the tax included, is it added via the platform, or do you charge it yourself? And one overview per filing period of the number of taxable nights, regardless of which channel the booking came through.

How BedFlow PMS handles it

In BedFlow PMS you set up tourist tax once, under Settings → Taxes, with your municipality's amount and calculation (for example per person per night). Your own website, bookings, quotes and invoices all use that one amount. On the invoice the tax appears as a separate line at 0% VAT, because city tax is not accommodation. If the tax is already included in your price, you switch that on and BedFlow still splits the amount correctly on the invoice. The details are in the guide on VAT and tourist tax.

Because your Airbnb and Booking.com bookings live in the same system, you get one list of all nights for your tax return per period, instead of putting three exports side by side.

In short

• Airbnb does not collect or pay Belgian city tax for you. Neither does Booking.com.
• The municipality sets the rate; you are responsible for collecting and declaring it.
• On Airbnb, build the tax into your price or add it with the tax tool if it is available to you.
• On Booking.com, choose between included and excluded in the extranet.
• Fix one rule per channel, so you never collect twice or too little.

Want to manage tourist tax for every channel from one place? Have a look at pricing or try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days at bedflow.eu.