Hotel Invoice Template for Group and Company Bookings

Hotels produce three different documents for a stay, and they aren't interchangeable:

• Guest folio. The running account for a room during the stay. Charges are posted to it as they happen and payments are taken against it.
• Hotel receipt. Proof that a stay has been paid for. At check-out, a settled folio with a zero balance usually serves as the receipt. The hotel receipt template covers that case.
• Hotel invoice. A request for payment sent to someone who will pay after the stay, on terms you've agreed with them. It names who is billed, carries an invoice number, an invoice date, payment terms and a due date, and ends with the amount due.

You need an invoice when the people staying aren't the ones paying at check-out: a company with a direct-billing arrangement, a tour operator or event organizer that booked a block of rooms, a wedding party settling one master account, or a department that pays against a purchase order. Hotels often call this direct billing. Until the client pays, the amount sits in accounts receivable, which some hotels call the city ledger.

Price rooms by room type. Write the rooms, nights and dates in the description (for example, "20 rooms x 3 nights"), enter the room nights as the quantity and the agreed group rate as the rate. If the rate changes partway through, for example a different rate for a night before the main dates, put each rate on its own line rather than averaging them.

Bill from what was actually used, checked against your group contract:

• Rooms picked up. Reconcile the rooming list with the nights each room was occupied, so the client's accounts team can match each line to their attendees.
• Released or unused rooms. If your contract charges for rooms canceled after a cut-off date, or for a shortfall below an agreed pick-up level (often called attrition), put that charge on its own line, as the sample does for one unused room, and say in the billing notes which contract terms it comes from. The invoice should only bill what the client agreed to in the contract.
• Complimentary rooms. If the contract gives the group free rooms, add them as a line at 0.00 so the client can see the concession.
• Incidentals. Agree before arrival whether the master account covers room and tax only, or extras too. If guests settle their own bar, minibar or laundry charges at check-out, leave those off this invoice; each guest gets their own folio and receipt.

Lodging taxes go by different names (occupancy tax, hotel tax, transient accommodations tax, tourist tax) and can be set by a state, a county or a city, so more than one may apply to the same room. In Hawaii, for example, the County of Kauaʻi explains that its transient accommodations tax and the State of Hawaiʻi's are separate taxes, each paid to its own taxing authority. Meeting room hire and food and beverage may be taxed differently from rooms, or under a different tax altogether.

That's why the template has two tax lines with no rate built in. "Room taxes, if applicable" applies only to the room block, and "Sales tax on meeting rooms and food, if applicable" applies only to the meeting room and food and beverage sections. In the Excel file, each has a rate cell that starts at 0%: enter the rate that applies, or leave it at 0% if that tax doesn't apply. Don't delete the row, because the totals refer to it. If several percentage taxes apply to rooms, you can enter their combined rate and name each tax in the label or the billing notes. If a tax is charged another way, such as a flat amount per room night, check how your tax authority wants it shown.

If a client tells you it's exempt, check what your state and local rules require before you leave the tax off. Rates, exemptions and which charges are taxable vary from place to place, so check your state and local rules.

1. Add your hotel's details and group sales contact, then the invoice number, invoice date, group contract number, payment terms and due date.
2. Under "Bill to", enter the company that is paying, who it's for the attention of, the billing address and the PO number.
3. Fill in "Group and stay": group name, arrival and departure dates, rooms in the block and rooms picked up.
4. Enter the room block, one line per room type, with the room nights as the quantity and the group rate. Then add the meeting room and food and beverage lines.
5. Set the two tax lines. In the Excel file, type each rate into its rate cell and the amounts are calculated; in Word or on the PDF, write the rate into the label and enter the amounts yourself.
6. Enter the deposit received (with the date it was paid in the billing notes) and check that the amount due equals the total less the deposit.
7. Fill in "How to pay" and the billing notes, then send the invoice and keep a copy.

The PDF is a blank form for printing and filling in by hand. The Word and Excel files have the same layout with sample values filled in, which you overwrite for each group. The Excel file works out each line amount, the section subtotals, the taxes, the total and the amount due with formulas.

When the client pays, send them a receipt for the payment. If you invoice in Billed, clients can pay online by card or PayPal, Billed can send automatic reminders for overdue invoices, and it sends the client a payment receipt after each online payment.