Passing energy costs on to guests: settling consumption without arguments

In July you never notice. In November you do. The same holiday home, the same nightly rate, but a guest who spends four days indoors with the heating at twenty-two degrees, the sauna on and an electric car plugged in. The night brought in exactly what it did in summer. The energy bill did not.

That is the moment every operator asks the same question: do I pass this on, and how? There are three workable answers. None of them is right by definition — it depends on your type of property and your type of guest. What always goes wrong is improvising the answer after the guest has already left.

Model 1: all included, and your rate covers it

The simplest approach: energy sits inside your nightly rate, you say nothing about it, and you raise your winter rate so the numbers work. For a B&B with rooms this is almost always the right model. Guests sleep, have breakfast and are out during the day; the difference in consumption between two guests is small enough to absorb in your margin.

The condition is that you actually build that margin in. If your winter price equals your summer price, "included" is simply a loss you cannot see. Once a year, divide your energy bill by the nights you sold and you get the real cost per night, which belongs visibly in your rate structure. How to structure that per season is in setting next year's rates.

The risk of this model is with large properties and groups. A holiday home for ten people in January can burn more in one week than in two summer months combined, and that no longer fits in a margin.

Model 2: a flat fee per night or per stay

A fixed amount on top of the rate: an energy surcharge per night during the winter period, say, or a fixed heating fee per stay. In practice this is the model that works best for holiday homes, because it is predictable for both sides.

What makes a flat fee work:

• It is in the price at booking time, not in a statement afterwards. The guest knows up front what the stay costs, and that is exactly where arguments come from.
• It is explainable. An amount per night between October and April, or a fixed amount if the sauna is used, is something everybody understands.
• It works on every channel. Booking.com, Airbnb and Expedia can display a mandatory surcharge; they cannot display a meter-based settlement.

What makes a flat fee weak: by definition it is either too high or too low. A couple who heat carefully subsidise the group that opens every window with the heating on. So set your fee at the average, not at the worst case, or you lose bookings to the careful guest who sees your surcharge and looks elsewhere.

Model 3: settling on meter readings

The fairest model, and the most labour-intensive. You note the meter reading on arrival and on departure, multiply the difference by a rate per kWh or cubic metre agreed in advance, and settle that. It makes sense for large properties, for long stays, and for anything with a sauna, hot tub or charging point.

If you choose this, do it completely. Doing it halfway is where it goes wrong:

1. Put the rate in your terms and conditions, as a number. Not "consumption will be charged", but "electricity is settled at X euro per kWh, based on the meter readings on arrival and departure". An amount that only becomes known after the stay is hard to defend. How to phrase that is in drawing up your terms.
2. Repeat it in your booking confirmation. That is the document guests actually read. What else belongs in it is in this overview.
3. Record the opening reading with a photo, together with the guest. A dated photo of the meter is the difference between a statement and a your-word-against-mine.
4. Settle on your own supply contract, not on a round number. You are passing on a cost; taking a margin on energy feels to a guest like an extra profit line, and you will read about it in your reviews.
5. Use a deposit when the amount is only known afterwards. A forgotten final settlement from a departed guest is rarely collected. How to set that up properly is in asking guests for a deposit.

The VAT part, short but important

Energy you pass on as part of the stay is not a separate sale of energy: it is an ancillary service to your accommodation and as a rule follows the same VAT rate as the night itself. In Belgium accommodation has been at twelve percent since 1 March 2026 — the background is in VAT on accommodation.

Practically that means two things. Your energy surcharge belongs as a separate line on the same invoice as the accommodation, at the same rate, not as a loose invoice afterwards. And if you are unsure about your own situation, this is exactly the kind of question your accountant exists for — certainly if you also invoice companies.

What you can do today

You do not have to switch models immediately. Do the sum first: take last winter's energy bill, divide it by the nights you sold in that same period, and put the result next to your nightly rate. For most B&Bs the number is reassuring and model 1 with a correct winter rate is enough. For larger holiday homes that number is a shock, and then you know straight away which model you need.

In BedFlow PMS you add an energy surcharge as a fixed product on the booking, per night or per stay, or add a consumption line with its own amount at check-out. That line lands on the guest invoice automatically at the right VAT rate, and a mandatory surcharge can go out to your channels. Deposits and extras live in the same screen; the setup is in the documentation.

In short

• Work out your energy cost per night sold once a year. Without that figure you are choosing blind.
• Rooms with daily turnover: energy included, with a higher winter rate. Simple and enough.
• Larger holiday homes: a flat fee per night or per stay, visible at booking, set at the average rather than the worst case.
• Meter readings only for large properties, long stays or a sauna, hot tub and charging point — and then with the rate up front, a photo of the meter and a deposit.
• Anything not in both your terms and your confirmation will not get paid afterwards.
• Energy with accommodation follows the accommodation rate and belongs as a line on the same invoice, not as a loose one.

Want surcharges, deposits and consumption in one system and on the right invoice line? Try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days, no card details. What it costs afterwards is simply on the pricing page.