Industry playbook
Hotels, lodges & guest houses
How hotels and lodges automate room billing, OTA accounts and GST with hisabkitab
Imagine a 30-room business hotel in a highway or pilgrimage town with a small in-house restaurant. Bookings come from walk-ins, corporate tie-ups and online travel agencies, room tariffs vary by season and room type, and the owner runs the property with a small front-office team.
See hisabkitab for Hotels, lodges & guest houses →
The challenges
The accounting side of running rooms
GST that depends on the tariff
After the September 2025 changes, room tariffs up to ₹7,500 per night attract 5% GST without input credit, and higher tariffs attract 18% with credit. A property with both kinds of rooms, or seasonal tariffs that cross the line, must get the rate right on every bill.
OTA payouts and commissions
Online travel agencies collect from guests, deduct commission and remit the balance later, sometimes in batches. Without a ledger per OTA, the hotel cannot tell which bookings are paid and how much commission it really gave away.
Corporate credit and GST invoices
Corporate guests want invoices with their company GSTIN and pay on monthly credit. Missing GSTINs mean reissued invoices, and unpaid corporate bills quietly age past 60 days.
Advances and cancellations
Advance deposits for weddings, group bookings and peak dates come in weeks ahead. Tracking which advances were adjusted, refunded or forfeited on cancellation is often done on paper and argued about later.
Rooms vs restaurant performance
Revenue and costs of rooms, restaurant and banquets are mixed in one P&L, so the owner cannot tell which part of the property actually makes money or where costs are rising.
A day in the life
A day before vs after hisabkitab
Before
Front office writes check-in and check-out in a register and prepares the bill at departure.
OTA payouts are accepted without matching them booking by booking.
Corporate dues are chased when the owner remembers.
Room and restaurant costs are booked into the same expense heads.
With hisabkitab
Room bills carry room number, stay dates and booking source as fields, with the right GST rate per tariff.
Each OTA has its own ledger; payouts and commissions are matched against bookings.
Corporate invoices auto-fill company details from GSTIN, and ageing shows who is overdue.
On Advance, rooms, restaurant and banquets run as cost centres, so each has its own profitability view.
Solutions
How hisabkitab solves it
Tariff-based GST
Room types as items + Custom Field (Item Level) for tariff band
Set up each room type with its tariff band, HSN/SAC and GST rate. Bills apply the right rate, and the GST Report separates 5% and 18% supplies for the return.
Stay details on the bill
Custom Field (Transaction level)
Capture room number, check-in, check-out, guests and booking source on every bill, so any stay can be searched later.
OTA reconciliation
OTA ledgers + OCR Bank Statement Import (Advance)
Bill OTA bookings to each OTA's ledger, record commission as an expense, and match payouts from the bank statement with AI-assisted import.
Corporate credit
Auto-fill from GSTIN + Customer Ageing + Auto-payment reminder
Type the company's GSTIN to fill legal name and address; ageing and automatic reminders keep corporate dues moving.
Advances and cancellations
Receipt vouchers + Customer ledger
Record advances as receipts against the guest or company ledger and adjust them on the final bill or on cancellation, so every rupee is accounted for.
Department profitability
Cost centres (Advance)
Tag income and expenses to Rooms, Restaurant and Banquets, and compare their performance month by month.
Inside the software
Built for your books
Custom formula example
Room charge = Nights × Tariff per night. Example: 3 nights × ₹3,200 = ₹9,600 for a deluxe room, taxed at the rate applicable to its tariff.
4-level grouping
Items: Rooms → Deluxe → Double occupancy → Tariff band ≤ ₹7,500. Customers: Source (OTA / Corporate / Walk-in) → Company or OTA → City → Guest ledger.
Reports you’ll use
Customer Ageing Report · Party-wise Sales Report · Cash/Bank Report · Trading P&L · GST Report · Invoice-wise Sale Report
Compliance notes
Accommodation with a value up to ₹7,500 per unit per day now attracts 5% GST without input tax credit, while higher tariffs attract 18% with credit; confirm the current position and how it applies to your restaurant. Corporate guests need their GSTIN on the invoice to claim credit. Some OTA bookings for smaller properties may be taxed through the operator, so check the operator's terms with your CA.
Recommended plan
The plan that fits
Boost
₹4,999/year, exclusive of 18% GST (or ₹9,999 for 3 years)
Item and transaction custom fields for room types and stay details, Recurring Invoice for long-stay corporate guests, and Auto-WhatsApp on Boost fit a single property. Multi-property groups, or hotels wanting department cost centres or AI bank-statement matching for OTA payouts, should choose Advance.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
How do I bill rooms with different GST rates?
Set up each room type with its tariff band and the matching GST rate. When the front office bills a stay, the correct rate applies automatically, and the GST Report separates 5% and 18% supplies. Review room types whenever you change tariffs for a season.
Can I track what each OTA owes me?
Yes. Bill OTA-sourced stays to each OTA's own ledger and record commission as an expense. When a payout arrives, match it to the bookings it covers. On Advance, AI-assisted bank statement import speeds up that matching considerably. Unpaid bookings stand out immediately in each OTA's ledger.
Can corporate guests get a proper GST invoice?
Yes. Enter the company's GSTIN and hisabkitab fills the legal name and address from the GST database. The invoice carries the guest, stay dates and room number, and corporate dues show in ageing reports with automatic reminders before they slip past your credit terms.
How do I handle advance deposits?
Record each advance as a receipt against the guest or company ledger. On check-out, the final bill adjusts the advance automatically through the ledger. If a booking is cancelled, refund or forfeiture is recorded against the same ledger, so nothing gets lost between shifts.
Can I see whether the restaurant makes money separately from rooms?
Yes, on Advance. Use cost centres to tag income and expenses to Rooms, Restaurant and Banquets. You then see each department's performance separately, which helps decide pricing, staffing and whether to invest more in the restaurant or the rooms. Seasonal swings show up clearly too.
Every stay billed right, every payout matched
Book a demo and we will set up your room types with tariff-based GST, OTA ledgers and cost centres for rooms and restaurant.
