What accommodation standards do we have to meet for posted workers in Europe?

Why is there no single European standard?

Directive (EU) 2018/957 added two new items to the list of terms and conditions that follow the host country rather than the sending employer: allowances for workers away from home, and the conditions of workers' accommodation where the employer provides it. The Directive does not define what adequate accommodation means. Each Member State does that itself, and the Commission's own implementation report confirms the split, with some Member States legislating accommodation conditions in detail and others leaving them untouched.

The practical consequence is simple. Accommodation for a posted crew is judged by the standards of the country the crew is working in, not the country that hired them, and not the country the booking was made from.

What are the actual numbers, country by country?

France is the shortest rule to quote. Article R. 4228-27 of the Code du travail sets a minimum of 6 square metres and 15 cubic metres of habitable space per person, with any part of the room under 1.90 metres in height excluded from the calculation. The room must have permanent ventilation, an opening to the outside with a blackout device, a temperature that can be held at 18 degrees, a maximum of six people per room, at least 80 centimetres between beds, and no bunk beds. Article R. 4228-26 bans housing workers in premises used for industrial or commercial purposes at all.

Germany is stricter on space. ASR A4.4, the technical rule for workplaces published by the BAuA, requires at least 8 square metres of usable floor area per occupant, counting a proportional share of the living and sanitary areas, of which at least 6 square metres must fall to the sleeping area for up to six occupants. Above six and up to a maximum of eight occupants the figures rise to 8.75 and 6.75 square metres. Room modules take no more than four beds, rooms inside buildings no more than eight, bunks no more than two high, and every occupant needs their own bed with mattress and pillow, a seat, table space and a lockable cupboard, behind a door that locks from the inside.

The Netherlands works through certification rather than a single legal minimum. The SNF norm for housing labour migrants sets 12 square metres of usable living area per person on a location zoned for residential use, including 3.5 square metres of sleeping space, and 10 square metres on a location zoned for lodging or recreation, rising to 15 square metres for hotel and guesthouse type locations and for new build permitted after 1 July 2025. From 1 October 2026 the 15 square metre minimum, plus single occupancy bedrooms unless the occupants ask to share, applies to every location newly registered with SNF.

Belgium sits in the qualitative camp. The federal employment service states that where the type of activity, the number of workers or the remoteness of the site requires it, easily accessible rest or accommodation facilities must be provided, and that fixed accommodation needs sufficient sanitary facilities, a dining room and a relaxation room, furnished with beds, wardrobes, tables and chairs in proportion to the number of workers.

Is a declaration also required?

Often, yes, and this is the part that gets missed. In France an employer established abroad that posts workers must still declare collective accommodation, and the SIPSI posting declaration itself has to state the accommodation arrangements under Articles R. 1263-5 and R. 1263-6. The accommodation is therefore visible to the inspectorate from the first day of the posting, not only if someone complains.

What does this change about how you source?

A brief that says "eight beds close to site, twelve weeks" is not a specification any more. Two apartments that look identical on a booking platform can sit on opposite sides of a legal line, and the listing will never tell you which. In our own booking data to August 2026 the median party size is three people while the largest single booking was 117, and the median stay is 19 nights: small parties absorb these rules easily, large mobilisations are where an undersized unit turns into an improvement order with a deadline attached.

Three things worth putting in writing before a booking is confirmed:

• Square metres per person and the occupancy of each bedroom, stated as numbers in the brief, measured against the standard of the country the crew will work in.
• Confirmation that the unit is residential or lodging stock, not commercial premises, and in the Netherlands whether the location is SNF registered and under which category.
• Who declares the accommodation, and the date the declaration is filed, kept with the posting file.

The pool of stock that clears these tests is smaller than the pool that shows up in a search, and it is getting smaller: the European Commission's Affordable Housing Act proposal of 9 September 2026 gives authorities a common framework for restricting short term rentals in areas under housing stress, aimed at commercial scale hosts rather than people letting their own home. That is exactly the supply that crews are usually booked into. Sourcing against a written space and occupancy standard, through owners and operators who can evidence it, is the version of this that keeps working.