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Hotel bills get more scrutiny than almost any other invoice. Corporate guests need them for reimbursement, business travellers need them for input tax credit, and wedding parties block-booking twenty rooms need one consolidated bill their accountant won't bounce. A sloppy bill costs you repeat business from exactly the guests who pay best.
Here's the format a hotel bill should follow in India, the GST rules specific to accommodation, and the details that separate a professional bill from a printout that gets questioned.
Core fields of a hotel bill
A hotel bill is a tax invoice, so it starts with the standard mandatory fields:
- Hotel name, address, contact details, GSTIN
- Bill/invoice number (consecutive, unique for the financial year)
- Date of issue
- Guest name and address; guest's company name and GSTIN if they'll claim input credit
- SAC code — 996311 for room accommodation
- Signature of authorised person
Then the hospitality-specific block:
- Room number and room type (deluxe, suite, etc.)
- Check-in and check-out date/time
- Number of nights and number of guests
- Tariff per night and total room charges
- Extra services itemised: restaurant/room service, laundry, spa, airport pickup, early check-in charges
- Advance/deposit already paid, and balance due or refund
The check-in/check-out line matters more than people think. Reimbursement teams match bill dates against travel dates; a bill missing them frequently gets returned to the guest, and the guest blames the hotel.
GST on hotel rooms: the slab system
GST on accommodation depends on the declared tariff per room per night:
| Room tariff (per night) | GST rate |
|---|---|
| Up to ₹1,000 | 12% (post-2022 — the old nil rate is gone) |
| ₹1,001 – ₹7,500 | 12% |
| Above ₹7,500 | 18% |
Two practical wrinkles:
Rate is per room, per night. If a guest stays in a ₹6,000 room but upgrades to a ₹9,000 suite for one night, that night is billed at 18% while the others stay at 12%. Your bill must show them as separate lines.
Restaurant charges are separate. Food billed through a hotel restaurant attracts 5% GST (without input credit) at standalone-style restaurants inside hotels with room tariffs up to ₹7,500, and 18% (with ITC) in hotels above that threshold. Mixing food and room charges into one line at one rate is the most common GST error on hotel bills.
Also note: hotel accommodation is charged CGST + SGST always, even for out-of-state guests, because the place of supply is the hotel's location. An IGST hotel bill is wrong on its face — and it means your guest's company probably can't claim the credit, since their registration is in another state. Warn corporate guests about this rather than letting them discover it at filing time.
Sample structure
HOTEL SEA PEARL
12 Beach Road, Kochi, Kerala — GSTIN 32AAACH1234F1Z5
TAX INVOICE No: HSP/2026/0412
Guest: Rohan Mehta Company: Meridian Textiles Pvt Ltd
GSTIN: 27AABCM4321K1Z8 Bill date: 22-07-2026
Room 304 (Deluxe) | Check-in 19-07 14:00 | Check-out 22-07 11:00
Description SAC Qty Rate Amount
Room charges (Deluxe) 996311 3 ₹4,500 ₹13,500
Restaurant (dine-in) 996331 — — ₹2,240
Laundry 999712 — — ₹400
Subtotal ₹16,140
CGST 6% + SGST 6% (room+laundry) ₹1,668
CGST 2.5% + SGST 2.5% (restaurant) ₹112
Advance paid ₹5,000
BALANCE DUE ₹12,920
Homestays, guest houses and wedding-block billing
You don't need to be a 100-room property for this to apply. Homestays and guest houses crossing the ₹20 lakh registration threshold face the same invoice rules. And if you host wedding room blocks, the couple's family will ask for one consolidated bill across rooms — build it as itemised room lines under one invoice number, not twenty separate bills stapled together.
Wedding venues bundling hall + rooms + catering should be especially careful: each component can carry a different GST rate, so itemisation isn't optional. Our GST rates for wedding services guide maps the full rate card, and the SAC codes reference covers banquet and event codes.
Common hotel billing mistakes
- One combined line for room + food — different GST rates, must be split.
- Charging IGST to out-of-state guests — place of supply is the hotel; always CGST+SGST.
- Missing company GSTIN — ask at check-in, not at check-out when the guest is rushing to a cab.
- No check-in/check-out times — reimbursement teams reject these.
- Advance not shown — guests who paid a booking deposit online expect to see it deducted on the final bill.
Generating hotel bills without software headaches
Full property-management systems make sense for larger hotels, but a homestay or small guest house mostly needs clean, correct bills fast. BrightDesk's free invoice generator handles itemised lines, GST splits and advance adjustment, and produces a branded PDF you can WhatsApp to a departing guest in under a minute. If you're registered, the GST invoice generator pre-fills the CGST/SGST breakup.
For the fields that apply to every invoice — numbering, signatures, payment terms — see our general bill book format guide and invoice payment terms explained.