Homestay and Lodge Records in Nepal: What to Keep

Running a homestay or lodge in Nepal means answering to more than guests. Local government, tourism offices, tax authorities and sometimes a community committee may all want records at different times. This article is about keeping those records in order. It is not legal or tax advice, and the rules differ by municipality, registration type and size, so always confirm what applies to you with the relevant office or your accountant.

The records a guest-facing property usually needs

Whatever your registration, a few records are valuable for almost every property:

• A guest register with name, nationality, ID or passport details, arrival and departure dates and contact number.
• Receipts or invoices issued for money received, numbered in sequence.
• Advance and refund records showing who paid what and when.
• Daily sales and cash summaries for rooms, meals and extras.
• Expense records with bills for food, fuel, wages, repairs and supplies.

Keeping these in one system rather than across notebooks makes any later question easier to answer.

Why a guest register matters

A properly kept register is a safety record as much as a regulatory one. If a guest is ill, if something is lost, or if a family contacts you months later, the register tells you who stayed and when. In some places, local rules or tourism bodies may require registers of foreign guests; ask your local office what applies in your area rather than assuming. A digital register is also easier to search than a bound book when a question comes up.

Receipts and invoices

Even a very small property should be able to give a guest a clear receipt. A receipt shows the property name, address, date, guest name, a description of the service, the amount and the payment method. If you are registered for VAT, the invoice follows the format required for tax purposes. Software can store the numbering and the layout so every receipt is consistent. Whether your homestay must charge VAT or a service charge depends on your registration and turnover, so confirm with the Inland Revenue Department or your accountant.

Advances, deposits and refunds

Money received before arrival is the easiest to lose track of. Record each advance with the guest name, date, amount, method and the person who received it. If you refund or retain an advance after a cancellation, record the decision and the reason. At the end of each month, the total of advances held for future stays should match your records; if it does not, find the gap while memory is fresh.

Tax lines and your accountant

VAT in Nepal has long been 13% on standard supplies, but whether and how it applies to a particular homestay or lodge depends on its status. A service charge is a separate matter. Instead of guessing, ask your accountant for a simple instruction sheet: what to charge, how to show it on the bill and what to report each month. Give that sheet to whoever configures the software. The same sheet protects you if staff change.

Make one person responsible

Records fail when everyone assumes someone else is writing them. Give one person, ideally the owner or a trusted family member, the job of checking at the end of every day that the register, the receipts and the cash summary agree. It takes ten minutes and prevents a month of cleaning up.

A monthly routine that takes thirty minutes

1. Print or export the list of guests and nights for the month.
2. Check the number of invoices issued against the bookings.
3. Reconcile cash and bank deposits with the daily summaries.
4. List advances received for future months.
5. Gather expense bills and note any missing ones.
6. Send a summary to your accountant, using BS months if that is how they work.

This routine becomes much quicker when the data is already in a system. Without it, owners often spend days at year end trying to piece together a year from notebooks.

Keeping community and family arrangements clear

Many homestays operate under a community model where income is shared, or where several families host in rotation. Clear records protect relationships. Note which family hosted which guest, what was charged for meals and what share goes to a committee fund or a guide. Software can keep a simple ledger of these allocations. This is record keeping rather than legal structure, so follow the rules of your community and registration body.

Protecting guest information

You hold personal details such as passport numbers and phone numbers. Keep them in a place with limited access, protect computer logins with passwords, and do not post guest details in public groups. Give each staff member their own login so you can see who changed what. When you replace a computer, remember to remove old data.

Record	Why it helps	Where to keep it
Guest register	Safety, local compliance, repeat guests	Booking system with ID fields
Receipts and invoices	Proof of payment and tax trail	Numbered in the billing module
Advance ledger	Avoids disputes and lost money	Against each booking
Expenses	Profit calculation and tax filing	Accounts or a simple expense list

Next step

Before your next season, sit down with your accountant and write a one page list of what you must record and report. Then check that your booking and billing method can produce it. Our homestay and resort software keeps the guest register, advances and bills together, and if your accounting is separate, our accounting software is designed to take the numbers onward. Message +977 9846280400 on WhatsApp and we will show you a demo.

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