Selling hospitality products in Poland: a practical guide for European manufacturers

According to Statistics Poland (GUS), 10,354 tourist accommodation establishments with 10 or more bed places were operating in Poland on 31 July 2024. Of these, 4,089 were hotel establishments, including 2,583 hotels. About three quarters of all establishments were therefore not hotels: guesthouses, private rooms, holiday centres, hostels and other types.

In 2024 these establishments hosted 38.8 million tourists and provided 97.6 million overnight stays. Foreign tourists numbered 7.9 million, or 20.3% of the total. Małopolska — the region of Kraków and Zakopane — ranked second by total tourists (6.1 million) and first by foreign tourists (2.0 million).

One detail matters for suppliers: GUS counts only establishments with at least 10 bed places. Smaller apartments and rooms, which also buy equipment and consumables, are not included in these figures.

In an owner-run property, the person who decides on a purchase is often the same person who deals with guest complaints and service calls. That shapes the questions, and they tend to come in a predictable order.

Price alone rarely closes the conversation. A product without a clear answer on installation, service and running cost is hard to sell, however good it is.

Polish law requires the Polish language in trade with consumers and in matters governed by labour law. This covers, among other things, product names, offers, warranty terms, invoices, instructions and product information (Act on the Polish Language of 7 October 1999, articles 7 and 7a).

For a hotel supplier this matters twice: guests are consumers and hotel staff are employees. In practice, plan for instructions, labels and safety information in Polish before a product goes into use.

Poland is part of the EU single market, so goods shipped from another EU country are not subject to customs duties. For B2B sales, the seller does not charge VAT when the goods are sent to a customer in another EU country who has a valid EU VAT number; the customer accounts for VAT in their own country (reverse charge).

Products covered by EU harmonisation rules carry the CE marking, which is valid throughout the European Economic Area. Before invoicing, check the buyer's VAT number in the European Commission's VIES system.

There are several ways to reach Polish properties. They are not mutually exclusive, and the right one depends on the product.

You do not need a Polish subsidiary or a distributor to test the market. A first step can be a trial purchase, a first delivery for one property or — where the decision depends on performance in practice — a pilot in an operating property.

What matters is to start where a buyer can see the product working and a technical partner can answer the service question. Distribution can follow when results and commercial terms justify it.

Horeca Pilot is a B2B commercial partner for the Polish HoReCa market, run by TEL-SERVICE, a technical company founded in 1997 in the Podhale region. We buy products for the properties we work with and for specific installations, offer proven products to further B2B customers and, when the decision requires it, test selected solutions in real use.

We do not guarantee sales or market entry. We give a serious assessment and a straight answer.