Statement week
At the start of each month, someone in your office builds statements for every owner. They export bookings from your booking system, download payout reports from Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo, match them up, work out commission on each booking according to that owner's agreement, then add the cleaning, linen and a plumber's invoice from the previous month. A spreadsheet per owner, checked, turned into a PDF and emailed.
Then the questions arrive. Why is this booking not on my statement? Why was the commission higher this month? What was the maintenance charge for? And the answers mean going back into the spreadsheet.
Why statements are so hard to get right
Each channel pays differently. Some pay you after check-in, some after check-out, some net of their fees and some gross. Direct bookings are paid in deposits and balances. So the month a booking is earned, paid and reported can all differ, and the rules for which month it belongs to live in the head of the person who builds the statements.
Owner agreements also vary: different commission rates, some owners paying for linen, some not, special arrangements for owner stays. And costs arrive from cleaners, laundries and tradespeople as separate invoices that need allocating to properties.
What difficult statements cost
Owners who do not understand their statement lose trust, and trust is what keeps them with you when another agency calls with a lower commission. Errors mean corrections, awkward emails and sometimes paying out twice. And the person who builds the statements is usually one of your most experienced staff, spending days a month on something that follows fixed rules.
How we automate owner statements
We build a statement engine that follows your rules and each owner's agreement, with every line traceable.
- Booking data: bookings are read from your property management system or channel manager, such as Guesty, Hostaway, Lodgify or similar, through its API.
- Payout matching: channel payout reports are imported and matched to bookings, so the statement shows what was actually received and when.
- Owner rules: each owner's commission, cost responsibilities and payment timing are recorded once and applied every month.
- Costs: cleaning, linen, consumables and maintenance are pulled from supplier invoices and job records, allocated to the right property, with receipts attached.
- Statement output: a statement per owner, in your branding, lists bookings, receipts, commission and costs, with a plain explanation of anything unusual this month.
- Review and send: your team reviews flagged items, such as unmatched payouts or costs above a threshold, then statements go out by email or appear in an owner portal. Payment figures can be passed to Xero or your accounts system.
| Statement line | Source | Owner can see |
|---|---|---|
| Booking income | Booking system and channel payout | Guest dates, channel and amount received |
| Commission | Owner agreement rules | Rate and how it was applied |
| Cleaning and linen | Changeover records and supplier invoices | Per changeover |
| Maintenance | Job record and contractor invoice | Description and invoice copy |
What statement week becomes
Statements are ready for review rather than built from scratch. Your team spends its time on the few flagged items and on owner relationships. Owners get statements they can follow, and when they have a question, the answer is a click away rather than a spreadsheet search.
Recognise statement week?
- Owner statements are built in spreadsheets each month.
- Channel payouts are matched to bookings by hand.
- Owners regularly query their statements.
- Different owner agreements are applied from memory.
- Only one or two people know how statements are built.