Am I allowed to pass on energy costs to my guests?

In most cases, you can

Yes, a landlord of a holiday home, B&B, apartment or similar short-term accommodation may in most cases charge guests for the electricity they consume. According to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, it is permitted to supply energy to users without being an official energy supplier yourself, as long as it concerns small-scale supply to people who stay on your own premises or in your own property — think of a holiday park, a chalet or a standalone charging station. The ACM focuses particularly on the position of the end user: they must know what they consume and what they pay for, and must not end up in a situation where they have no visibility into price or quantity.

For long-term rental of residential property, this is different: specific rules apply to service charges, including costs for gas, water and electricity, and these rules are assessed by the Rental Commission. That regulation was written for the regular rental market — a tenant with a rental contract for an indefinite or longer term — and not specifically for the short-term rental that this platform targets. For a guest staying a few nights in a holiday home, that framework is therefore not automatically applicable, but it does give an indication of how the rental sector views the passing on of utilities: transparent, traceable to actual consumption, and not as hidden profit.

Basis: ACM and Rental Commission as frameworks

This interpretation follows from the information of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets on energy and supply, which describes the scope for parties that supply energy without being a supplier, and from the information of the Rental Commission on service charges and utilities, which shows how this subject is assessed within the regular rental market. For a ruling on a specific situation, this article refers to the full texts of both authorities.