In this guide
- A well-built statement follows each booking in order: what the guest paid, what the platform kept, the management fee and its VAT, any costs, and what reaches you.
- Most statements put a booking in the month of the stay, not the month it was made, so your payment rarely matches the bookings you saw come in that month.
- Keep every statement and receipt for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for that tax year. An itemised statement gives your accountant the full income and each deduction separately.
What a statement is for
Your monthly statement is the link between the booking platforms and your bank account. Guests pay the platform, the platform pays out after its commission, the manager takes its fee and pays any costs, and the net payout lands with you. The statement should let you follow every step without having to ask.
It does three jobs. It shows what the home earned and what it cost to run that month. It lets you check the manager’s sums. And it becomes part of the records HMRC expects you to keep for your tax return.
Every statement also sits in your owner portal with your calendar and earnings, itemised so your accountant can work from it directly.
The statement, line by line
Layouts differ between managers, but a well-built statement uses the same building blocks. Here is an annotated example. The entries are placeholders to show what each line is, not real figures.
| Line | Example entry | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Booking reference | The platform’s code for the booking | Lets you find the same booking on the platform or in your portal |
| Platform | Airbnb, Booking.com or direct | Sets the commission rate and when the money is paid out |
| Stay dates and nights | Check-in, check-out, number of nights | Which month the booking belongs to, and nights to compare with your calendar |
| Booking value | The guest’s price for the stay | What the stay sold for, before anyone takes a cut |
| Platform commission | Around 15% (illustration) | What the booking site kept, shown as its own line |
| Platform payout | Booking value less commission | The money that actually left the platform |
| Cleaning fee | Paid by the guest, paid to the cleaners | Goes in and out, so it does not inflate your income |
| Management fee | 15% of the payout | The manager’s fee, and the figure it was worked out on |
| VAT on the fee | 20% of the fee | Shown apart, so you see the full cost of the fee |
| Costs paid for you | Supplies or a repair, with a receipt | Money spent on your home, one line each |
| Adjustments | A refund, a late cancellation, a damage recovery | Changes to earlier bookings, with the reason |
| Net payout | What is left | The amount paid into your bank |
For illustration only. Commission varies by platform and booking, and your statement shows the real amounts.
Booking reference and dates come first because everything else hangs off them. With the reference you can open the same booking on Airbnb or Booking.com and check that the dates and price agree. Every night booked on your calendar should appear on a statement somewhere.
The most common confusion is between booking value and platform payout. Booking value is the price of the stay; the payout is what the platform sends after taking its commission. Airbnb takes a single host-only fee out of the payout for most hosts, while Booking.com deducts its commission or invoices it separately. Either way, a clear statement shows the commission as its own line, rather than starting from the payout and leaving you to guess.
The cleaning fee is paid by the guest and covers the clean and washing the linen. We pay the cleaners from it. A clear statement shows it coming in and going out, so it is never mistaken for money you can spend.
The management fee should say what it was worked out on. Ours is 15% plus VAT of what the platform pays out, never of the guest’s full price; direct bookings through our website add a 5% plus VAT platform fee in place of a booking site’s commission. VAT is charged at the standard rate of 20%. If you are not VAT-registered you cannot reclaim it, but the full cost counts as an expense.
Following one booking from guest to you
A statement is easier to read once you have followed one booking through it. The platform takes its commission first. The management fee is worked out on what the platform pays out, with VAT added. Costs paid for the home come off next, and the rest is yours.
Two points matter here. A fee is only as fair as the figure it is worked out on, so check the base, not just the percentage. And costs belong to the month rather than the booking, so a month with a restock and a boiler repair shows a lower net figure even when bookings were strong. Our guide to what Airbnb management costs covers fees and commission in more detail.
Costs, adjustments and damage
Costs paid on your behalf prompt the most questions, so each should be its own line with a date, a description and a receipt you can see. Typical entries are guest supplies such as toiletries, tea and coffee, and small repairs. Bills you pay directly will not appear, so give those to your accountant separately.
We ask before larger spends. We usually check with you before spending over £100, and tell you about smaller costs where we can, so few lines on a statement should come as a surprise.
Adjustments change a booking you may already have seen: a partial refund after an early departure, a cancellation where the policy still pays part of the booking, or new dates that move a stay into another month. Platforms often settle these after the original payout. Airbnb, for example, recovers a refund agreed after payout by reducing your future payouts. So an adjustment can turn up a month or two after the stay, and it should always name the original booking reference.
Damage usually shows as a pair of lines: the repair as a cost, and anything recovered from the guest, a deposit or a platform claim as a credit. They often land in different months, so match them by booking reference. A deposit returned to the guest untouched is not your income, and nor is a visitor levy collected for the council, where one applies. See when a guest damages your home for how claims work.
Which month a booking lands in
A statement covers a calendar month, but every booking has three dates: the day it was made, the day the guest arrives and the day they leave. Statements usually ignore the first and report a booking in the month of the stay. Within that, there are two common conventions.
Neither is wrong, as long as the manager sticks to one and tells you which. Some split long stays night by night instead, so a guest staying from mid-January to mid-March appears on three statements, each with its share of the nights. Airbnb itself pays stays of 28 nights or more in monthly instalments. This matters most for long work and insurance stays, which can run for months.
It also answers the question owners ask most: why does my payment not match the bookings I watched come in? A booking made in May for an August stay belongs on the August statement, while your May statement holds stays booked weeks or months earlier.
- Bookings made this month are mostly for later months, so they show up later.
- Platforms pay on their own timetables. Airbnb usually releases the payout about 24 hours after the guest checks in. Booking.com pays after check-out, weekly, several times a month or monthly, depending on the host’s settings.
- Refunds and cancellations can reduce a month’s total well after the stay.
- Costs vary. A repair or a restock lowers the net figure for the month it is paid.
How a month runs
Put together, a typical month looks like this. The statement and payment dates are ours. The payout timings belong to the platforms.
- Through the monthGuests stayEach stay is recorded with its booking reference, dates and nights.
- Through the monthPlatforms pay outAirbnb releases money soon after check-in; Booking.com pays after check-out on its own schedule.
- Through the monthCosts are paidSupplies and repairs are logged with receipts, and larger spends agreed first.
- Month endThe month closesStays are totalled under the manager’s convention, and late adjustments are added.
- Around the 7thYour statement arrivesEvery booking, fee and cost on its own line, and in your owner portal.
- 10thYou are paidThe net payout reaches your bank account.
- ThenCheck and fileCompare it with your calendar and save it with your tax records.
Using statements for your tax records
HMRC expects you to keep records of your property income and costs, such as receipts, invoices and bank statements, for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year they relate to. Monthly statements cover most of the income side, and their receipts cover much of the cost side.
Most individual landlords work out their profit on the cash basis, HMRC’s default for property businesses run by individuals and partnerships, unless receipts are over £150,000 or they opt out. Under the cash basis, income counts when it is received and costs when they are paid, so around the 5 April year end a booking’s money can fall in a different tax year from the stay. Your accountant decides how to treat it; the statement gives them the dates.
If you have to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, each digital record needs an amount, a date and a category. Where income arrives with expenses already taken off, HMRC’s guidance is to record the full amount before deductions, then the expenses separately. A statement with each deduction on its own line makes that easy. One showing only the net figure does not.
Keep each statement with receipts for anything you pay yourself, such as insurance or bills. Our guide to tax on short-let income explains what you can deduct and when returns and quarterly updates are due.
What to check each month
Ten minutes with the statement and your calendar is enough. The aim is not to audit every penny but to catch the few things that do go wrong: a missing stay, a cost charged twice, a refund with no explanation.
If something does not add up, ask for the platform’s record of the booking or the receipt behind the cost; a good manager can show you either quickly. Over a year, statements also show which months earn most and which costs keep coming back, useful when you think about pricing through the year or running costs.
Questions owners ask
Why is a booking on my calendar missing from this month’s statement?
Most likely because it belongs to a different month under the manager’s convention, such as a stay that starts on the last night of the month and is reported on a check-out basis. Look for it on the next statement. If a stay has finished and appears on no statement at all, ask.
Is the cleaning fee part of my income?
It is paid by the guest and spent on the clean and the linen, so it should not add to what you take home. Your accountant may record it as income with the cleaning as a matching expense; either way, the two cancel out.
What if a guest is refunded months after their stay?
It usually appears as an adjustment on the statement for the month it is made, against the original booking reference. It reduces that month’s payout rather than reopening the earlier one, which is why a quiet month can occasionally show a negative line.
Can I see past statements?
Yes. Every statement stays in your owner portal alongside your calendar and earnings, so you can find any month when your accountant asks for it.
Do I need to keep receipts if the costs are on the statement?
Keep both. The statement shows what was spent and the receipt proves it. HMRC can ask to see your records for at least five years after the 31 January deadline for each tax year.
- GOV.UK: Income Tax when you rent out a property, working out your rental income
- HMRC Property Income Manual: PIM1092, cash basis for landlords
- GOV.UK: Use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, create digital records
- Airbnb: how cancellations and refunds affect your payout
- Airbnb: getting paid as a host
- Airbnb: service fees
- Booking.com for partners: Payments by Booking.com FAQs
