Creating a business model

• Verify your Guesty account information

Make sure that your company information, including address and time zone, are accurate. See details here about what information you can change yourself and when you need to contact us.

• Add owners and assign to listings

Add your owners in Guesty to calculate how profits are shared between you and the owner, then assign an owner to each listing.

Only one owner can be assigned to each listing before you add the listing to a business model.

• Add vendors

Add your vendors to Guesty to keep track of payments owed to them from your business’s trust account.

• Set up additional fees

Set up an inventory of additional fees to charge guests for extra services, such as early check-in or laundry services. At least one fee must be set up before creating a business model.

• Set up taxes

Set up your taxes on the account or listing level. At least one tax must be set up before creating a business model.

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Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Accounting mode.
3. Click Business models.
4. Click Add business model.
5. Fill in the business model fields. Learn more below.
6. At the top right, click Create business model.
7. At the top right of the business model page, click Activate Accounting.
8. In the pop-up, select the entry trigger, or recognition date, for each income and expense in your business models:

• Check-in: The transaction will be recognized upon check-in, even if the guest paid before the check-in date
• Check-out: The transaction will be recognized upon check-out, even if the guest paid before the check-out date
• Nightly: The transaction will be recognized on a nightly basis, with a journal entry created for each night separately. For example, if a reservation runs from 25 May until 5 June, the transaction will be recognized for each night even though they are in two different months. Learn more.

The entry triggers you selected will be the default revenue recognition date in every business model you create after activating Accounting. You can change this in each business model as needed.

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Create the business model's internal name. It will only be used in Guesty to help you identify the model and is not visible to guests.

This is the date on which the business model will become active and apply to the listings assigned to it. The activation date defaults to the creation date, however you can change it to be in the past or in the future.

For example, if there are upcoming changes in the revenue share agreement with your owner, create a business model with a future date, and assign the listing to it. The changes will apply from the activation date.

Provide a short explanation of the business model, to help you find it quickly when needed.

Net rental income

Decide how to calculate net rental income (NRI); your commission is calculated out of this amount.

The default is accommodation fare only. Select fees to adjust the calculation as follows.

• Income - Added to and increases NRI

Include all or specific fees

• Expenses - Subtracted from and decreases NRI

Channel commission: We recommend selecting both "channel commission" and "pre-deducted channel commission" but you have the option to only include one type in your NRI. Learn more about the two types.

Other expenses: Any flat fee expenses will be displayed as an option to include. Percentage expenses, such as payment processing fees, cannot be included in the NRI calculation and therefore are not shown.

Commission setup

Set the PMC commission out of the NRI:

Confirmed reservations: Click edit to set the commission amount and the recognition. Recognition defines the date the transaction should be recognized in your accounting, and applies to both confirmed and canceled reservations.

Canceled reservation: Click edit to set the commission amount.

This commission applies to reservations that are canceled after check-in. For reservations canceled prior to check-in, a cancellation fee is applied based on the listing's cancellation policy. The commission split between PMC and owner for the cancellation fee is set under "Trust account income" below.

Optional for both reservation types:

• Toggle on Charge owner VAT or GST for Commission. Fill in the details then click Save.
• Click Add condition per channel or source to set specific commissions for connected booking channels or for other sources like a direct booking website.

Add recurring owner charge

Create a recurring charge for a charge that occurs repeatedly. After creating a name for the owner charge, choose the relevant category, write a description of the charge, enter an amount, and choose how often the charge should occur, e.g. per stay, per guest, per quarter, etc.

Select the recognition, which defines the date the transaction should be recognized in your accounting.

Set the revenue share between the PMC and the owner/vendor. Choose the conditions for this expense and what manual reservations or channel reservations the conditions will apply to.

An example of a recurring owner charge could be a monthly marketing fee that is split 50%-50%.

Cancellation fee

Choose how to split the payment for a cancellation fee between the PMC and the owner. This applies to reservations that are canceled prior to check-in, based on the listing's cancellation policy.

For reservations canceled after check-in, see "Commission setup" above.

Cleaning fee

Choose how to split the payment for a reservation's cleaning fee between the PMC and the owner/vendor, for confirmed and canceled reservations.

The split can be based on percentages, such that you always get X percent of the fee and the owner/vendor gets 100-X percent of the fee, or you can decide that you will always get a fixed amount out of the fee, and make sure that the rest of the fee is paid to the owner/vendor.

Guest taxes

Choose whether the owner or the PMC is responsible to remit the taxes to the relevant tax authorities.

Additional fees

For each additional fee, choose how to split the payment between the PMC and the owner/vendor.

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Add recurring expense

Add a recurring expense for a cost that occurs regularly. After creating a name for the expense, choose the relevant category, write a description of the expense, enter an amount, and choose how often the charge should occur, e.g. per stay, per guest, per quarter, etc.

Select the recognition, which defines when the transaction should be recognized in your accounting. 

Set the revenue share between the PMC and the owner. Choose the conditions for this expense and what manual reservations or channel reservations the conditions will apply to.

Channel commission

Choose when to recognize and how to split the payment between the PMC and the owner for booking channel commissions, based on your setup in Guesty. (If you are on cash basis accounting, the channel commission is always recognized at check-in.)

You have the option to set a different split for pre-deducted commission, or keep them both the same. Learn more about the two types.

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