Every dollar of rental income flows through a booking. This is where you record reservations, track payments, and manage the financial lifecycle from deposit to security deposit return. A booking in this app feeds your revenue totals, guest database, payment tracking, and tax reports.
Start with Booking Source — this is at the top because it determines how the rest of the form behaves. The source options come from the platforms you've enabled in Settings.
- OTA sources (Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com) — The form simplifies dramatically. Since these platforms handle payment collection and (usually) tax remittance, you only need to enter the estimated payout amount. No fee breakdowns, no payment schedules to set up.
- Direct sources (Repeat, Direct, etc.) — You'll see the full pricing form because you're handling payments and taxes yourself.
- Repeat — When you select this, the Last Name field becomes a search box. Type to find previous guests, and their contact info auto-fills.
- Owner Occupied — Automatically excluded from tax reports and has no occupancy tax. Use this for your personal stays.
Arrival and Departure — The app calculates duration automatically. It displays as weeks for 7+ day stays, or days/nights for shorter stays.
Date Booked — This field often confuses new users. It's asking when the booking was confirmed, not when the guest arrives. Why does this matter? Analytics uses it to calculate "lead time" — how far in advance your bookings come in. If you're getting bookings 6 months out, that's different from getting them 2 weeks out. This helps you understand your booking patterns and when to adjust pricing for unsold dates. For new bookings, it defaults to today. For historical imports, enter the approximate date if you know it, or leave it blank.
For OTA bookings, you just enter the payout. For direct bookings, here's how pricing works:
- Rate Unit — Choose how you quoted the rental: per night, per week, or per month. If you change this, the rate auto-converts (e.g., $3,500/week becomes $500/night).
- Rate vs. Rent — Rate is what you charge per period. Rent is the total (rate x duration). Both fields are editable — sometimes you negotiate a total that doesn't match the math exactly, and that's fine.
- Apply Nightly Weighting — This appears for stays that aren't exact week multiples. When checked, extra days are priced using your day-of-week weights from Settings. For example, a Friday-Saturday stay costs more than a Monday-Tuesday stay of the same length. Most owners leave this unchecked for simplicity.
- Fees — Your configured fees (cleaning, pet, etc.) appear as checkboxes. They're unchecked by default — check the ones that apply to this booking. The amounts come from your Settings but can be adjusted per booking.
- Occupancy Tax — Calculated automatically based on your tax rate in Settings. This is not editable — the app ensures tax math is consistent. If you need to adjust tax (rare), adjust the rent amount instead and let tax recalculate.
- Security Deposit — Your default from Settings, but adjustable per booking. Note: the deposit is tracked separately from "Total to Book" because it's refundable.
- Total to Book — Rent + Fees + Tax. This is the non-refundable revenue from the booking. The security deposit is separate.
Once you have a total and arrival date, the app auto-generates a payment schedule based on your settings. Here's what to know:
- Auto-generation — Payments appear automatically using your default schedule from Settings. Number of payments, percentages, and timing all come from there.
- Fully editable — The auto-generated schedule is just a starting point. Change amounts, dates, or types as needed. Add extra payments. Delete payments.
- Balance adjustment — When you change one payment amount, the final payment auto-adjusts to keep the total correct. This avoids rounding errors.
- Last-minute bookings — If you've configured a last-minute threshold in Settings and this booking falls within it, you'll see a single payment for the full amount.
- Payment types — "On Signing" means due when the rental agreement is signed. "Balance" and "Balance + Deposit" indicate final payments. "OTA Payout" is for platform bookings.
For Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, or custom platforms that collect payments:
- You only enter the estimated payout — no fee breakdowns needed
- Payment is auto-set to arrival date (when platforms typically pay out)
- If the platform remits tax, the booking is excluded from STR Tax Payments
- If you've configured a platform that does NOT remit tax, you'll see the full pricing form so tax can be calculated
In the booking list, each booking has an expandable row showing:
- Payment checkboxes — Mark payments as received
- Key Code — Record the lockbox/entry code for this guest
- Security Withheld — If you withheld any deposit amount, record it with a reason
- Security Returned — Auto-calculates (deposit minus withheld)
- Review tracking — Mark if you requested/received a review
Don't delete cancelled bookings — use the cancellation workflow. You'll record how much you retained per your cancellation policy, whether it's subject to tax, and whether it counts as rental income. The app handles the accounting correctly, and you keep a record of what happened.
At the top of the bookings list, a stats bar summarizes key metrics for the selected year:
- Bookings — Number of active (non-cancelled) bookings arriving in the selected year
- Days Booked — Total guest-nights for the selected year
- Total Collections — Everything the guest owes: rent + fees + tax + security deposit. This is the full amount you need to collect.
- Fees to Owner — The portion that goes to the property owner: rent + fees (no tax or deposit). This is the income you report.
- Received — Payments already marked as received
- Due — Total Collections minus Received. This is what's still outstanding.
The identity Received + Due = Total Collections always holds. Stats reflect only bookings arriving in the selected year — switch years using the dropdown to see different periods.
Q: Why can't I edit the tax amount?
A: Occupancy tax is calculated automatically to ensure consistency across all your bookings and accurate tax remittance. If you need to adjust the effective tax, adjust the rent amount instead.
Q: The payment schedule regenerated and lost my changes!
A: This happens when the total changes significantly. Payments that are already marked "Received" are preserved — only scheduled payments regenerate. Mark payments received as soon as you get them to protect those records.
Q: What's the "Date Booked" field for?
A: It tracks when the booking was confirmed, not when the guest arrives. Analytics uses this to calculate lead time — helping you understand how far in advance guests book. If you manage multiple properties, see the Managing Multiple Properties section for details on property assignment and how bookings work across properties.