Does anything change this year in the rules for passing on energy costs to guests? The short answer is that there is no single moment when everything changes at once. Rules on measuring and billing energy are established in broad strokes at European level, but each country implements them at its own pace through national laws, decrees and guidelines from regulatory authorities. As a landlord, this mainly means that changes can appear in one country without being widely reported, and that "this year" can therefore mean something different in one country than in another.
This does not only affect large holiday parks. A landlord with a single holiday home, a B&B with two rooms, or someone who only rents out a charging station on their property all fall under the same broader movement: regulators and lawmakers are increasingly checking whether guests and tenants actually see what they consume, instead of paying a fixed amount that is disconnected from their behaviour. If you currently work with a fixed electricity charge, it is wise to keep track of whether that is attracting attention in your country.
Why you pick up signals that something is changing
Trade publications, industry associations and installation companies regularly report on developments in energy legislation, often following an evaluation of an existing European directive or an announcement from a ministry. These reports rarely focus specifically on short-term rentals, making it difficult for an entrepreneur to assess whether it applies to him. So you hear something, without it immediately being clear whether it concerns your type of property, your country, or your billing method.
What happens at EU level and what happens at national level
At European level, frameworks are established that provide direction: for example, that residents and users of a building must gain insight into their actual consumption, where this is technically feasible. Such frameworks are reviewed periodically and sometimes adjusted. What actually changes for your situation depends on how your country translates that framework into concrete rules: who they apply to, from which moment, and with what exceptions. This national translation process is precisely where most confusion arises, also because it is not always obvious for short-term rentals through platforms whether the same rules apply as for a regular tenant.
What is and is not established at this moment
At the time of writing, there are no concrete changes known to apply to all member states at once from a fixed date. What is established is that national regulators and supervisory authorities review the rules around measuring and billing from time to time, usually following an evaluation of an earlier directive. When this becomes concrete for your country, the competent supervisory authority or responsible ministry will make this known through official channels, not through a separate message in a trade publication. As long as such an official announcement does not exist, it is wise to see announcements as a signal and not as an established fact.
What this means for your own situation
The practical question is not whether something is changing somewhere, but whether it affects your country, your type of rental and your billing method. This varies greatly between a fixed price per night, a meter reading that you note yourself, and a system that measures actual consumption per guest. If you are unsure whether your current billing method aligns with what is common, you can see in a few questions roughly where you stand.That is not a legal judgment of your situation, but a first direction to continue searching from.
For the underlying rules by topic and by country, it is convenient to have one place where that is clearly laid out, instead of having to collect loose messages. In the knowledge base with topics organized by situation you will find per theme the short answer and the source in the official text, so that you can verify yourself where a statement comes from.
Where you can look it up without having to guess
Because this kind of information is quickly misrepresented when it passes from hand to hand, it is worth going back to the source as soon as you hear something about "new rules". On the page that explains where our information comes from you can see how we link sources to explanations in plain language, so that you can see the difference between an announcement and an actual change. For the question of whether something applies specifically to your property or your country, a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority remains the appropriate party; we measure and process payments, and do not ourselves make any statement about what you may pass on in your situation.
If after all this you still have concrete questions about how billing works in practice, the most frequently asked questions are clearly listed together on the page with answers to questions that other landlords have already asked.
If you would like to know whether your current way of billing electricity is in line with what is customary, then the free quick-scan is an easy first step, as is a quiet moment to read through the other topics in the knowledge base.