Guide to Understanding the Owner Financial Statement for the Short-Term Rental Industry

The owner financial statement is a crucial document that provides a detailed overview of the financial performance of your short-term rental property. It is designed to give you a clear picture of your income, expenses, deductions, and the amount payable to you as the owner. Below is a detailed breakdown of each section of the statement and what the information means.

Summary

The summary section is a snapshot of the financial activities for the month. It includes:

• Last Statement Balance: This is the closing balance from the previous month 
• Payment Made: This is the payment made from the previous month statement 
• Total Value of Bookings: Total revenue generated from bookings.
• Expenses: Total costs incurred, including housekeeping, maintenance, and other operational expenses.
• Commission: Any amounts subtracted from your income, such as commissions or service fees.
• Money Reclaimed & Damages Refunded: This shows any compensation amounts payable 
• Balance Now Payable: The final amount that will be transferred to you after all expenses and deductions.

Bookings

This section lists all the bookings for which payment is due this month. For each booking, it shows:

• Booking ID: Unique booking reference number
• Property: Property name
• Order Date: Date the booking was made
• Check In: Start date of the booking
• Check Out: End date of the booking
• Nights: Total number of nights
• Guest: Name of the lead guest
• Guest Amount: The total amount charged to the guest.
• Extras: The total amount charged for any extras
• Commission: The commission earned from the accommodation cost
• Extras Commission: The commission earned from the extras
• VAT: The total VAT payable on both accommodation and extras
• Net Due: Total amount due to the owner after commission and tax
• Due Now: Total amount due based on statement date, applicable if you pay a deposit to your owner

Understanding this section helps you see the total revenue from bookings and what portion is deducted as commission and taxes.

Expenses

The expenses section details all costs associated with operating your rental property. It includes:

• Description: The description provides the date of when the item was charged, the invoice number it was charged against and a short summary description.  So that it is easily identifiable to the owner. 
• Debit / Credit: This could be a debit shown in red and brackets i.e (500) is minus 500, if it is a credit to the owner it will show in black as 500
• VAT: Any applicable tax will be shown here
• Total: The total amount that is deducted.

Payments

This section records any advance payments or amounts carried over from the previous statement. It includes:

• Description: Transaction record for previous month statement payment
• Debit / Credit: The amount paid
• Balance to Date: The amount paid

Sample Statement

Please download our sample statement so you can see exactly how it is displayed to your owner.