Rent arrears of 22.7 million lead to eviction of W Hotel

The fancy W Hotel on Amsterdam's Spuistraat is to be evacuated due to a rent arrears of as much as €22.7 million. The operators of the W Hotel, Palace Hotel Operational B.V. and B&F Palace Amsterdam B.V. were ordered in a judgment by the Amsterdam subdistrict court to eviction condemned (ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:1903). The arrears are not only quite substantial, but also cover a long period of time. In fact, the judgment shows that the arrears occurred in the period from March 2023 to February 2026. Nevertheless, the judgment does not lead to the permanent closure of the hotel.

Eviction of business premises due to undisputed payment arrears

In the judgment, which is less than three pages long, the Amsterdam subdistrict court ruled that the operators of the W Hotel had seriously failed to fulfill their obligations. They have not disputed the significant payment arrears they allowed to accumulate over the course of nearly three years. Nor did they dispute that the owner of the property on Spuistraat, urgent interest has in its eviction claim. Therefore, the landlord's claims in the summary proceedings are granted. The court said:

“W Hotel has not disputed the payment arrears. Because of these arrears, including rent arrears of more than 22 months, W Hotel has seriously defaulted on its obligations and dissolution of the lease is justified. It is likely that such dissolution will be granted in a case on the merits. In anticipation of that, the eviction claim is therefore granted.”

Eviction of operational hotel in downtown Amsterdam within 15 days (?)

The verdict includes the order for the operators of the W Hotel to have vacated it within 15 days of service of the verdict. However, this is a fully operational hotel in the center of Amsterdam. It does not appear from the judgment that this claimed (rather short) deadline was defended. The background to this can be inferred from media reports. For example, reports real estate trade journal PropertyNL that the operators have reached agreements with the property owner to have the operation taken over by a new party. In addition, the hotel will remain fully operational during the transfer.