Introduction
Hostaway offers you, the host, the guest invoice system you can set up here. As an additional feature, we also partner with the company Invopop.com, a certified e-invoice connection partner for various countries, especially in the EU. As a seller in Germany with listings located in Germany, you can connect the invoice module to generate compliant German e-invoices (E-Rechnung).
Important
Germany's e-invoicing rules apply between German businesses (B2B) and, unlike Spain, Italy or France, there is no government tax authority that invoices are submitted to. Invoices are generated and sent directly to your customer.
Keeping your invoices is your responsibility. Under German law, the business that issues an invoice must keep it for a legally defined period — currently 8 years. You are the issuer, not Hostaway, so download and archive your invoices in your own system or with your accountant.
Keep the invoice file itself, unaltered. The e-invoice is a ZUGFeRD PDF, meaning the machine-readable invoice data sits inside the PDF.
Not tax or legal advice. Rules, retention periods and deadlines change over time, and how they apply depends on your setup and the channels you sell through. Please consult a local tax specialist to confirm what applies to your business. This article is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Connecting your seller profile
When you follow the setup guide under invoice configuration step 2, you will be asked, when it involves a German seller, whether you wish to use automated e-invoicing: yes or no. When you select yes, a module will appear asking you to complete the details needed to generate compliant German invoices.
- You will be asked for the official seller tax details during setup.
Note: Unlike Spain, Italy, or France, there is no external tax authority connection step — your details are saved and used to generate compliant invoices.
Seller connection statuses
When initiating under the Sellers menu, you will see the different seller profiles and the status of the connection. The statuses are:
- Not connected — not connected, so it uses Hostaway's local invoice generation.
- Onboarding — the seller started the onboarding but has not completed it.
- Processing — the provided details are being processed on the Invopop side.
- Registered — the seller is registered, waiting for completion.
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Completed — the seller connection is completed and ready for use.
After connection is established
Once your seller profile is set up, any new draft invoice belonging to that seller can be finalized when you are ready. Finalizing the invoice generates a compliant invoice — a PDF with the invoice data embedded (ZUGFeRD format) — and sends it directly to your guest or business buyer by email.
For business (B2B) bookings, this invoice satisfies Germany's E-Rechnung requirement. For bookings to private individuals (B2C), Germany's e-invoicing mandate does not require this format, but the same compliant PDF is generated so you have one consistent invoice format across your German bookings.
You can find invoices based on their status in the invoice menu:
- Draft — invoices are not yet finalized and can still be altered.
- Submitted — invoices are sent out.
- Rejected — some or more details in the invoice, or other reasons, caused the system to reject the invoice, and it needs adjustments before resubmitting.
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Approved — invoices have been returned as accepted and contain the compliant invoice PDF based on German law.