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Guest invoicing and E-invoicing - Setup

Robert
  • Updated

Use this article to set up guest invoicing and e-invoicing in Hostaway, including seller profiles, invoice templates, and invoice configurations.

 

Introduction

Governments around the world, especially in Europe, during 2026 are preparing the local tax systems for Electronic Invoicing, also known as E-invoicing. To support you, Hostaway works together with the partner Invopop.com as a certified e-invoicing connection provider for over 30+ local country tax office submission systems. For this, we have built a new version of our guest invoicing system to support our own direct booking systems and prepare for OTA and various country-specific requirements during the year, where possible.

The new guest invoicing system:

The guest invoicing system at this time supports guest invoice generation and credit note generation for Direct, HW Website, VRBO, and Booking.com Host<>Guest reservations where you or the seller is the merchant of record for the guest payments made. Pending changes and needs for other OTA's, the system will remain using the existing older invoice template system.

The setup for the new guest invoicing system:

As we are rolling the new guest invoicing system out, you, as the main account owner, should have access to a new menu under reservations > Guest payments > Invoices and Invoice settings. When you do not yet have access, contact support to get access.

 

Setting up your invoicing system contains 4 main parts:

  1. Setup or verify you listing level Tax setup: Taxes that apply based on your local needs, and so guest reservations.
  2. Add Seller profile(s): The Seller profile is the one who charges the guest legally and needs to submit invoices to tax authorities. (More details below)
  3. Add invoice template: provide additional details for the invoices to use, like logo, company website URL, T&C, Policies, and other locally needed custom fields to be used for every invoice created. You can have multiple templates based on needs and "Seller" profiles. (More details below)
  4. Add invoice configurations: The invoice configuration allows you, for each connected seller, to add, for example, the consecutive number prefixes, the template applying, closing, and submitting invoice settings manually or automatically, and the listings this invoice configuration applies to. (More details below)

Guest invoicing Standard vs E-invoicing connection:

Hostaway supports a combination of 2 different guest invoicing creation flows.

  1. Standard invoicing: These new invoice setups support sequential invoice numbering, and manual and automated closing are the default setup to support all countries where no electronic submission to local tax authorities is supported or possible.  Based on GOBL and configuration setups, the guest invoice PDF will be generated for your guest reservations by common international standards.
  2. E-invoicing: These new invoice setups allow you to connect by partner Invopop to supported local tax authorities like Spain - VeriFactu, Italy - SDI, France - DGFIP, and others. During the setup of a Seller and invoice configuration per country, where applicable. You can connect to the local tax authority by providing the details of the seller to make the connection possible. Once the local tax authority is connected, the generated invoice will follow the country's specific compliant rules, look and feel as provided by the local tax authority after submission. 

Local tax regulations and needs can vary from location to location. As a software provider, we provide the best tools possible to generate these invoices. Ultimately, the "Seller", you, the host, etc., remain responsible for an ongoing correct setup, invoice outcome, and so we do recommend you to always consult local tax advisors where needed to remain compliant.

The invoice setup sections are broken down:

Adding a Seller(s) profile:

Every invoice needs the seller's details to provide to the guest. In general, the seller is the merchant of record and the person or company who charges the guest and files taxes to local authorities, where applicable, manually or automatically. 

Step 1: When you start adding a new seller profile the system will ask you first for the country of the seller that you can select from the dropdown, and click next.

Step 2: E-invoicing supporting countries like Spain, France, Italy, and others in step 2 will ask you if you like to:

  1. Yes, send invoices once closed automatically to a connected tax authority.
    1. The system will ask you for a seller's name and legal tax ID to start creating an e-invoicing connection. The seller's address and other details will eventually be populated based on the local tax office's registered details.
  2. No, you handle the invoices locally and submit them manually externally, where needed to the tax authority.
    1. The system will automatically skip the e-invoicing connection setup and move to step 3 below.

Important note: it's not possible to later switch from a yes to a no anymore and so if you wish to move between sending to tax authorities, you have to create a new seller profile from the start that will only apply to new reservations afterwards.

Step 3a E-invoicing supporting profiles:

When a e-invoicing connection is selected above. The system, depending on the country involved, will ask you for the full official registered seller name and international tax ID number belonging to the seller. From here, the system will start loading the country-specific vs. Invopop connection guide steps, where more details will be asked. For some countries, you will be asked to download a PDF contract for legal signing, and in the next step, asked to upload this legally signed document to the connection wizard step.  Once followed all the steps, the connection request will be initiated, and depending on the local country, tax authorities may take a couple of days to get approved. The system will show you in the seller overview the status of the connection once completed as successful or rejected based on the tax authority response. If rejected in some cases, you can restart the submission, correcting details in other cases. We ask you to contact support for case-by-case support.

Step 3b Non-E-invoicing the seller address details:

When you do not use the above step 3a, or it's not available yet for your country.
The setup asks you to provide various details of the seller.

  • Full Name: can be an individual or company name.
  • Tax ID: The full international official tax ID of the seller
  • Address: Official address line
  • City: The city the seller is registered to
  • Zipcode: Zipcode/Postal code of the seller's address
  • State: The state, region, or township name belonging to the seller's address.
  • Phone: International phone number +XX XXX.XXX belongs to the seller.
  • Email: The Email address for external use for guest invoice questions.

Step 4 optional: The new guest invoice template options:

By default, the system provides one default template for the invoice, excluding items like the company logo and website URL. T&C, Policies, and other custom field details potentially needed at the top or at the bottom of the invoices. With the new custom template setups, you are able to create templates that will be used to enrich the official invoices based on your needs. Individual template configs can later on be selected for use when you set up the invoice configuration. The following options are available:

  1. Add a new internal use template title: Used for better recognition and use per invoice config setup.
  2. Add a website URL: The URL of the for example seller/company's public website.
  3. Add a seller logo:  A logo, 800x400 or equivalent, used for invoices at the top.
  4. Terms and conditions: General T&C you would like to have included in the invoice PDF as a new page attached.
  5. Policies: General policies you would like to have included in the invoice PDF as a new page attached.
  6. Custom fields: Optional listing or reservation-specific data fields you would like to add under top seller details or bottom invoice PDF.

Step 5: Add invoice configuration setup(s)

The invoice configuration, also known as Invoice preset, setup(s) allow you to define many settings based on a seller profile, invoice template, e-invoicing or non-connection and listings involved or belonging to the seller. You always need to set up at least the seller profile first before starting with an invoice configuration.

Step 5a: When you click on the button "Add invoice configuration," you will first see a screen to select the seller and its details, and the new invoice configuration will apply. Select one seller from the list you intend to create the invoice config for.

Step 5b: The General settings will open, where you are asked to provide an internal name for the configuration as the configuration title. Next, you can define the invoice sequential numbering formats for both the invoices and credit note invoices. It supports a list of various numbering formats, including Prefix and Suffix support and starting number adjustments where needed for the invoice and credit note levels. It's recommended to ask your local tax advisor what format fits your local requirements.

Step 5c: Once you have completed the above, you can now select what invoice template should be used for this configuration based on the previous Step 4.

Step 5d: You have now arrived at the Invoice configuration closing settings options. 

At this time, invoices are automatically generated in Draft status every 24 hours, 14 days before the official check-in date. The draft status allows you to make adjustments manually or, where applicable, automatically before the invoice is closed and finalized. With the settings below, you can choose based on your own requirements if you like to keep control manually or if you like the system to automatically finalize and close invoices based on the planning options below.

It's recommended in the beginning to keep this option set to manual closing. This allows you to review invoices in draft status based on your new setup and manually approve them once confirmed valid. You can later always opt for automated closing by editing the invoice config. For e-invoicing connected setups at this time, we only allow manual closing and will open up automated closing a bit later this year, based on request. 

Step 5e: You have now arrived at the " Apply to listings selection section.

Based on the previous completed step, the system will now show you all listings that have a matching country location and seller country location you have selected before. Now you can select the listings to which this invoice configuration should be applied. Select the listings to finalize the setup with the save option.

Important note:

When you work with one seller profile, use the option to automatically apply it to the next new listings.

When you work with multiple different seller profiles, do not select the automated apply to new listings. In these cases, when adding new listings to your account, you can edit and select the new listing or create new invoice pre-sets based on your needs.

You are at the end of the setup.

Once you have followed all the steps, you are at the end of the setup. Moving forward, the system will apply the setup to the next net new incoming reservations it is applying to. Depending on your local demand and new reservations created with check-in <14 days in the future, you should see the first draft invoices appearing after 1 day minimum. When you use multiple sellers, as mentioned, you can start with the next seller profile and repeat the steps above as needed.

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