- A bed and breakfast invoice must show the guest, the stay dates, the nightly rate, each extra on its own line, tax per line and the balance after any deposit.
- The UK charges VAT at the standard rate on a B&B stay, Texas adds a state hotel occupancy tax, and Germany taxes the room at the reduced rate but breakfast at the general rate.
- German businesses can still send non-electronic invoices only until December 31, 2026, or December 31, 2027 for issuers with prior-year turnover up to €800,000.
A bed and breakfast invoice is a bill that names the guest, lists the nights stayed and the room rate, adds any extras and tax, and shows what is still owed. The bed and breakfast invoice templates below give you that layout, filled in with real numbers for the UK, the US and Germany. Copy the structure, swap in your own rates, and send it on checkout day.
The short version: put the stay dates and nightly rate first, list extras on their own lines, show tax per line, and print the balance after any deposit. Tax is where B&Bs go wrong, because each country treats rooms and breakfast differently. The country-by-country table further down shows the rates.
What must a bed and breakfast invoice show?
A bed and breakfast invoice must identify who sold the stay, who bought it, when it happened and how much is due. A tax invoice is the version a business guest can use to reclaim the cost, so it must also carry your tax number and the tax charged. Leave nothing off.
| Field | What to write | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Your business name and address | Legal or trading name, full address | Needed on any tax invoice |
| Tax number | VAT number (UK), USt-IdNr. or Steuernummer (Germany) | Business guests need it to reclaim tax |
| Invoice number | Unique and sequential, such as BB-2026-0147 | Lets you trace every bill |
| Invoice date and stay dates | Arrival, departure, number of nights | Proves when the service happened |
| Guest name and, for business stays, company name | As booked | Business guests cannot claim without it |
| Room and nightly rate | "Double room, ensuite, 3 nights at £95.00" | The core charge |
| Extras on separate lines | Evening meals, parking, late checkout | Extras can carry a different tax rate |
| Tax per line and in total | Rate, amount and total | Required on a tax invoice |
| Deposit received and balance due | Deposit paid, amount still owed | Avoids disputes at checkout |
| Payment details and terms | Bank details, "paid by card" or due date | Shows how and when to pay |
Our guide Hotel receipt template: what a valid hotel receipt must show covers the paid-in-full version of this document.
Bed and breakfast invoice template, filled in (UK)
A VAT-registered UK B&B charges VAT on the whole stay. HMRC's VAT Notice 709/3 on hotels and holiday accommodation says that from April 1, 2022, the normal VAT rules apply and VAT is charged at the standard rate. The standard rate is 20%, according to GOV.UK's VAT rates page.
Here is a complete invoice for a business guest who stayed three nights. Consider it a model to copy.
| Description | Qty | Unit price | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double room ensuite, breakfast included, Oct 6 to Oct 9, 2026 | 3 nights | £95.00 | £285.00 |
| Evening meal | 2 | £22.00 | £44.00 |
| Parking | 3 nights | £5.00 | £15.00 |
| Net total | £344.00 | ||
| VAT at 20% | £68.80 | ||
| Invoice total | £412.80 | ||
| Deposit received on September 20, 2026 | −£100.00 | ||
| Balance due on departure | £312.80 |
Two details in this example save arguments. First, the stay dates sit on the room line, not only in the header. Second, the deposit appears as its own line. The same notice states that VAT is due when a payment is made, so a deposit can start the VAT clock before the stay.
If your B&B is below the VAT registration threshold, drop the VAT line and the VAT number. Leave the rest as it is.
Hotel invoice template for a larger property
A hotel invoice template follows the same layout as the B&B one, with more room for extras. A hotel folio is the running list of charges a guest builds up during a stay, and the invoice is its final, taxed summary. A hotel bill often carries a dozen lines: room nights, minibar, restaurant, spa, parking and city tax.
Group those lines so a finance team can read them in ten seconds:
- Accommodation, one line per rate if the price changed mid-stay.
- Food and drink, with one line per outlet.
- Services such as parking, laundry or the spa.
- Local taxes or levies charged to the guest.
- Tax summary, then the total, then deposits and the balance.
Keep the folio number from your booking system on the invoice. Corporate clients quote it back when they ask a question.
Hotel bill invoice: how to itemize extras and deposits
A hotel bill invoice should show extras as separate priced lines, because HMRC treats separately charged extras differently from the room. VAT Notice 709/3 states that any additional goods or services which are separately charged for are standard-rated. Where meals and a room are sold for one inclusive price, the notice treats each element as a separate supply.
Practical rules for the lines:
- Print the unit price and quantity for every extra, not a lump sum.
- Show a prepaid deposit as a negative line, dated.
- Never fold a tip or service charge into the room rate. Show it separately.
- For UK stays over 28 days, apportion the charge. HMRC says that from the 29th day, VAT is charged only on the part of the payment that is not for accommodation.
Free hotel invoice template you can copy
A free hotel invoice template can be plain text. Paste this into a document, an email or a spreadsheet and fill in the brackets.
INVOICE [BB-2026-0147]
Date: [October 9, 2026]
From: [Rosehill B&B, 14 Church Lane, Bath BA1 1AA]
VAT no: [GB 123 4567 89]
To: [Guest or company name, address]
Stay: [Oct 6 to Oct 9, 2026] Nights: [3]
Description Qty Unit Net
Double room, B&B 3 £95.00 £285.00
Evening meal 2 £22.00 £44.00
Parking 3 £5.00 £15.00
Net total £344.00
VAT 20% £68.80
Total £412.80
Deposit received −£100.00
Balance due £312.80
Payment: [bank transfer or card], reference [BB-2026-0147]
Invoqk's free invoice generator builds this layout for you, adds the tax lines and exports a PDF.
Hotel bill template by country: UK, US and Germany
A hotel bill template has to match the tax rules of the country where the room is. The three markets this guide covers differ a lot.
| Country | What is charged on a room | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| UK | VAT at the standard rate, for VAT-registered businesses | HMRC, VAT Notice 709/3 |
| US (Texas example) | State hotel occupancy tax, plus local taxes that vary by city or county | Texas Comptroller |
| Germany | Reduced VAT on short-term room rental, general VAT on services that are not directly part of the rental | § 12 UStG |
US bed and breakfast invoice
Hotel occupancy tax is a state or local tax charged on short-term room rentals. The Texas state tax is 6% of the room cost and applies to bed and breakfasts, according to the Texas Comptroller's hotel occupancy tax page. Cities, and some counties, can add their own tax, and the rates vary. Most cities can levy up to 7%, according to the Comptroller's local hotel occupancy tax overview. Contact the Comptroller or your city for the local rate, because no complete list exists.
A two-night stay at $180 a night with a city tax at that 7% ceiling looks like this:
| Description | Amount |
|---|---|
| Queen room, 2 nights at $180.00 | $360.00 |
| State hotel occupancy tax, 6% | $21.60 |
| City hotel occupancy tax, 7% (example rate) | $25.20 |
| Total | $406.80 |
Show each tax on its own line. Guests on expense accounts get asked which tax is which.
German hotel invoice (Rechnung)
Germany taxes the room at the reduced rate. Section 12(2) no. 11 of the Umsatzsteuergesetz (UStG) sets the reduced rate of 7% for renting rooms to guests for short stays. The same provision says the reduced rate does not apply to services that do not directly serve the rental, even when the room price covers them. The Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof) applied this to breakfast in its April 24, 2013 ruling, case XI R 3/11. Breakfast is therefore taxed at the general rate, which is 19% under § 12(1) UStG.
That means a "room with breakfast" price must be split on the invoice. Here is a two-night stay with a gross price of €192.00:
| Line | Gross | Net | VAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room, 2 nights at €84.00 (7%) | €168.00 | €157.01 | €10.99 |
| Breakfast, 2 at €12.00 (19%) | €24.00 | €20.17 | €3.83 |
| Total | €192.00 | €177.18 | €14.82 |
A German invoice also needs the items listed in § 14(4) UStG: full names and addresses, the supplier's tax number or USt-IdNr., a sequential invoice number, the date of the service and the tax per rate. Invoices up to €250 can use the shorter list in § 33 UStDV: supplier name and address, issue date, the type of service, and the gross amount with the tax rate.
What changed in 2026: e-invoices for business stays in Germany
German hotels and B&Bs that bill other businesses face an e-invoice deadline. The E-Rechnung is a structured electronic invoice, such as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD, that software can read. The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) says in its E-Rechnung questions and answers that from January 1, 2025, businesses must be able to receive e-invoices for transactions between domestic businesses. Issuers could still send other invoice formats, such as paper or a plain PDF, until December 31, 2026. Issuers with prior-year turnover of €800,000 or less can keep doing that until December 31, 2027.
As of October 14, 2026, that first deadline is about eleven weeks away. A B&B that invoices a company for a guest's stay is a supplier to a business, so a company booking is the case to prepare for. A private guest paying for a holiday is not a business customer.
What to do this quarter:
- Check last year's turnover against the €800,000 line.
- Ask your invoicing software whether it exports XRechnung or ZUGFeRD.
- Keep paper or PDF invoices for private guests as they are.
Our guide Invoice email template: how to email an invoice covers the delivery side once your file is ready.
Common mistakes on a B&B or hotel invoice
Most corrections come from the same handful of errors:
- One lump price for room and breakfast in Germany. The two parts carry different rates, so split them.
- No stay dates. A header date shows when you issued the bill, not when the guest slept there.
- VAT shown on a non-registered B&B's invoice. Only charge VAT if you are registered.
- Deposit missing. The balance does not add up and the guest queries it.
- Wrong customer name. A business guest's invoice made out to the individual is rejected by finance teams.
- Duplicate invoice numbers. Keep a single running sequence per year.
Work through these before you send. Corrected invoices cost more time than a careful first draft.
Which document to send: invoice or receipt?
Send an invoice when payment is still due, and a receipt when the guest has already paid in full. Many B&Bs collect on departure and hand over a single paid invoice, which does both jobs. The difference is explained in What is the difference between an invoice and a receipt?, and the same fields apply either way.
If the booking began with a price quote, keep the quote number on the invoice so the two match. A fresh quote for a group booking is covered in Quote template: what to include, with a free example.
A final check before you send
Run this list on every bed and breakfast invoice:
- Stay dates and number of nights are on the room line.
- Rate times quantity equals the line total.
- Tax is shown per line and in total, with the right rate for each line.
- Your tax number appears if you are registered.
- Deposit and balance are correct.
- The invoice number is unique.
Send the invoice by email as a PDF, keep a copy, and record the number in your sales ledger.
Frequently asked questions
What should a bed and breakfast invoice include?
A bed and breakfast invoice should include your name, address and tax number, a unique invoice number, the guest's name, the stay dates, the nightly rate, extras on separate lines, tax per line, any deposit received and the balance due.
Do I charge VAT on a B&B stay in the UK?
If your B&B is VAT-registered, you charge VAT at the standard rate on the whole stay, according to HMRC's VAT Notice 709/3. If you are below the registration threshold, you do not charge VAT or show a VAT number on the invoice.
Why does a German hotel invoice show two VAT rates?
German law taxes the short-term room rental at the reduced 7% rate under § 12(2) no. 11 UStG, but services that do not directly serve the rental, such as breakfast, at the 19% general rate. The invoice must split the two.
Is a hotel receipt the same as a hotel invoice?
No. A hotel invoice asks for payment that is still due, while a hotel receipt confirms payment already made. Many small B&Bs issue one paid invoice that works as both, as long as it shows the amount paid and the date.
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