Where to stay in Antwerp for business or work?

You are sending yourself, a colleague or a whole crew to Antwerp. The city is spread out, and where you sleep decides how each working day starts.

In this guide:

• corporate housing vs hotel
• Antwerp Expo parking
• temporary housing for relocating employees
• Brussels Airport to Antwerp
• how to get to Port of Antwerp
• contractor accommodation in Belgium
• Limosa declaration
• Amsterdam to Antwerp by train

Where to stay in Antwerp for business: which area fits your work?

The best place to stay in Antwerp for business is the area nearest your daily destination. Antwerp has two main stations, a ring road, a large port and venues spread across the south. A base that suits a city-centre meeting can be a poor choice for a week at Antwerp Expo or a shutdown on the Left Bank.

Start from the place you will go to most often, then pick the area around it. The table below uses straight-line distances from the Hoost building at VIIde-Olympiadelaan 19 in Antwerp South. Road distances are given only where they are measured.

Where you work, and the distance from Antwerp South

If your days are in the centre, stay near Centraal or in the old town. If you travel to other cities by train most days, Centraal or Berchem saves a change. If your work is at Expo, the hospitals, the stadium or across the Kennedytunnel, the south side is the practical choice. It also keeps you near the ring without driving through the centre. If your work moves between sites, pick the base nearest the site you visit most, not the one that looks central on the map.

Business accommodation near Antwerp Expo, the port and the hospitals

Business accommodation near Antwerp Expo, the hospitals and the south side of the port is easiest to find in Antwerp South. These places sit within a few kilometres of each other, on the side of the city where the ring meets the Kennedytunnel.

Antwerp Expo

Exhibitors usually stay for build-up, the fair and breakdown, which makes a short apartment stay a good fit. Antwerp Expo says you can reach it from Antwerpen-Centraal by tram 2 or tram 6. Both lines also stop near the Hoost building. The Expo page lists the official access and parking options, including P+R Olympiade. Our guide to parking and trams at Antwerp Expo covers the details.

The port, the Left Bank and Doel

The Hoost building is on the south side of the ring, next to the Kennedytunnel, which is about 3.2 km by road. That is quick for the Left Bank and for employers in Hoboken and Wilrijk. It is not in the port: Deurganckdok is about 20.7 km by road, and Doel and BASF are about 30 km. Read the routes from Antwerp South to the port and Doel before you choose.

Crews from abroad have more to arrange than a bed. The guide on where shutdown crews stay near the port covers what crews need. The guide on the Belgian declaration for posted workers explains the paperwork, including the accommodation address.

The hospitals

Visiting doctors, nurses on placement and medical sales teams often work at more than one site. ZAS Middelheim is about 2.1 km from the building, ZAS Augustinus and ZAS Paola about 2.3 km, and UZA about 3.4 km. For project accommodation in Antwerp near several of these sites, the south side avoids a daily trip through the centre.

Hotel or apartment for a business trip to Antwerp?

A hotel suits a business trip to Antwerp of one or two nights with daily housekeeping and a restaurant downstairs. An apartment suits a stay of a week or more, when a kitchen, a real desk and a washing machine change daily life. The deciding factors are length of stay, team size and how much you work from your room.

At Hoost, every apartment has a kitchen, a dedicated workspace with Wi-Fi and Ethernet, bed linen and towels. A shared washing machine and dryer are in the building. Cleaning is done per booking, and extra cleaning on longer stays can be arranged roughly every two weeks. There is no daily housekeeping. The full comparison is in corporate housing or a hotel for a work stay.

Accommodation for a team in Antwerp

Accommodation for a team in Antwerp works best when everyone sleeps in one building and has a private bedroom. Hotels can place a team on different floors or in different hotels. A small building keeps the team together, with one contact and one invoice.

The Hoost building has four apartments, one per floor. One has a bedroom for up to 2 guests; three have two bedrooms for up to 4 guests each. That gives up to 7 people their own bedroom, or up to 14 guests if people share. Every bedroom has a double bed.

Typical setups:

• A pair of engineers: one two-bedroom apartment, one bedroom each, one shared kitchen and workspace.
• A crew of 6: three two-bedroom apartments, with a private bedroom for everyone.
• A team of 7: the whole building, with the one-bedroom apartment for the team lead.

Tip

Send the number of people, the dates and whether everyone needs a private bedroom. Hoost replies with the setup that fits and one proposal for the company.

Arriving in Antwerp for work: train, plane or car

Most business travellers arrive in Antwerp by train at Antwerpen-Centraal or Antwerpen-Berchem, or by car on the ring. The EuroCity between Brussels and Rotterdam stops at both Antwerp stations, says SNCB Europe’s EuroCity page. From Centraal, trams 2 and 6 run to the south side, and both stop near the building.

Flying in? The guide on getting from Brussels Airport to Antwerp covers trains and arrival. Coming from the Netherlands? Read how to travel from Amsterdam or Rotterdam by train.

By car, the Hoost building is outside the low-emission zone, about 1.4 km from the ring junction Antwerpen-Zuid. Driving into the centre inside the ring does enter the LEZ. Vlaanderen.be lists the rules for each vehicle type, including foreign cars. There is no parking on site. P+R Olympiade, about 0.2 km away, has a low daily rate set by the city, and there is paid parking nearby. A car is useful for crews heading to the Left Bank, while trams cover the city.

When a business trip in Antwerp becomes a relocation

A business trip in Antwerp sometimes turns into months: a new hire waiting for a lease, or a project that keeps growing. A furnished stay then bridges the gap until a permanent home is ready. Hoost takes stays from 2 nights up to 6 months per booking, and longer stays continue with a new booking.

One limit matters for relocations: you cannot register your address (domicile) at Hoost. Employees who must register in Antwerp need another address for that. The guide on finding a first home for staff who move to Antwerp explains the order of steps. For the stay itself, see temporary housing in Antwerp.

When Hoost is not the right choice

Hoost is not the right choice if you want daily housekeeping, a reception desk or breakfast included. It does not suit stays over 6 months in one booking or anyone who must register their address. It is also wrong if you need parking on site, a meeting room or a base in the historic centre.

In those cases a hotel near Centraal or a longer lease is the better fit. For everyone else on the south side of the city, read more about Antwerp South and Middelheim Park or send your dates and team size.