Hospitality

Bookkeeping for hotels, lodges, and inns.

Lodging books have moving parts most bookkeepers never see. Booking platform payouts, transient occupancy tax, a season that pays for the whole year, and deposits that are not revenue yet.

What Makes Lodging Clients Different

Four things that make lodging clients unique.

  • Booking platform payouts. Revenue from Expedia, Booking.com, Airbnb, VRBO, Cloudbeds and others arrives minus their fees, so the deposit received does not match the starting revenue. Left alone, your books understate both revenue and expenses.
  • Transient occupancy tax. It is handled separately from sales and use tax, which means two filings and two schedules to keep track of.
  • Seasonality. A few strong months carry the slow ones. That only works if you can see it coming, which means reports that arrive while the season is still running.
  • Deposits. Unearned revenue is not recognized until after the guest checks out, which keeps income statements from being inflated prematurely.

What We Handle

Everything in our standard monthly bookkeeping, plus the lodging-specific work.

  • Reconciling booking platform payouts against room revenue
  • Transient occupancy tax preparation and filing
  • Sales and use tax preparation and electronic filing
  • Payroll, including 1099 and W-2 preparation
  • Monthly categorization and reconciliation
  • Accounts payable and accounts receivable
  • Monthly reports you get while the season is still running
  • Clean-up and catch-up for books that have drifted or fallen behind

Pricing

Lodging work is priced off the same structure as everything else, based on transaction volume and which services you need.

The pricing page lists every service and what it costs. If your property has something unusual in it, the fastest answer is a short call.

See full pricing Free Consultation
Booking Platform Payouts

A $200 booking does not arrive as $200.

The platform takes its commission before the payout leaves. What lands in the bank is not what was earned, and recording only the deposit understates revenue and hides the expense.

Revenue is $200. The commission is a $30 expense. Both belong in the books.

  • $200

    Guest pays

  • $30

    Platform keeps

  • $170

    Deposited

Run a property and need the books handled?

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation. We'll listen to your situation and tell you honestly what makes sense and what doesn't.