French hotel accounting: tourist tax, VAT and e-hotel workflows

French hotel accounting combines accommodation, breakfast, events, booking platforms, commissions, tourist tax, deposits, cancellations, gift cards and seasonal payroll. Bank imports alone cannot explain revenue or VAT.

This guide complements our hotel accountant page, the restaurant accounting guide, our e-invoicing support and our article on accounting dematerialisation.

Quick answer. In a French hotel, the room night and the breakfast served with the room fall under 10 % VAT, while alcoholic drinks, meeting-room hire and most ancillary sales are 20 %. Tourist tax is never revenue: it is collected for the local authority. For steering, RevPAR (room revenue excl. VAT ÷ available rooms) is the central KPI, complemented by TRevPAR and GOPPAR.

Hotel reporting should connect the PMS, accounting system and bank. The PMS carries bookings, tourist tax, deposits, cancellations and channels. Accounting should turn those flows into readable revenue, taxes, commissions, costs and cash.

Freshness note: updated on 3 May 2026.

Tourist tax depends on local rules and should be collected, declared and remitted under the applicable framework. It should not be treated as the hotel's own revenue. Platforms may collect some flows, so reconciliation is essential.

Accommodation, breakfast, food, meeting rooms, spa services and packages do not all carry the same rate. A French hotel routinely combines two or three VAT rates on a single guest invoice, so a VAT matrix by service should be built and compared with PMS and cash-register settings.

Two common traps. First, mixed packages (room + breakfast + dinner, or an event package): each component must be split at its own rate, not bundled at a single rate. Second, deposits and advance payments: VAT becomes due when the deposit is collected, not only on the final invoice.

OTAs, online payments and deposits create natural differences between booking, invoice and bank. Accounting should reconcile gross booking, commission, net receipt, VAT and tourist tax. Dext can help capture supplier evidence, but the PMS remains the business source.

• Export PMS revenue by category.
• Reconcile tourist tax, platform collection and local reporting.
• Check OTA commissions.
• Split accommodation, food and ancillary sales.
• Track occupancy, average daily rate and RevPAR.
• Update cash with suppliers, payroll and debt.

Occupancy alone says nothing about profitability: a hotel 80 % full at a low average rate can earn less margin than a 60 %-full, well-positioned one. You must cross occupancy with price, then bring in costs. That is the role of the per-available-room performance indicators, which should come from the PMS, be reconciled with accounting and discussed monthly.

Example: a 40-room hotel, 70 % occupied at a €120 average rate, posts a RevPAR of €84 (120 × 0.70). After platform commissions, net RevPAR often falls 10 to 20 %. Tracking net RevPAR month over month, against budget and the prior year, immediately reveals OTA erosion or weaker positioning. TRevPAR measures the contribution of food and events; GOPPAR, which factors in costs, is the only indicator linking commercial steering to real margin.

Hayot Expertise recommends a monthly dashboard starting from PMS data. The owner should see occupancy, average price, RevPAR, payroll, commissions, tourist tax and forecast cash before closing.

The main risk is poorly reconciled revenue. Platforms, cancellations, virtual cards and tourist tax can lead to overstated revenue, understated revenue or incorrect VAT split.

The owner must choose the commercial model: platform dependency, direct booking, events, food, seasonality or premium positioning. Accounting should show the margin effect.

• Review local tourist tax rules.
• Align PMS, cash register, bank and accounting.
• Prepare relevant B2B e-invoicing flows.
• Document platform commissions and invoices.
• Monitor seasonal payroll.