Guest house software for room income, guest bills and running costs

The room rate is not the room's profit

A room let at UGX 60,000 does not earn UGX 60,000. Before the next guest walks in, that room has cost you laundry, soap, water, power, the breakfast you included in the rate, and a share of the housekeeper's wage. Most guest houses know the rate exactly and the cost not at all.

The lump at the desk makes it worse. Room money, bar money and lunch money land in the same drawer, so the month reads as one figure. When it comes out thin you cannot tell whether the rooms were empty or the bar was drinking its own stock.

PesaScope splits it at the moment of recording. A room night goes in as a service, a beer as a product out of stock, the water delivery as an expense — so by month end the rooms and the restaurant each have a number of their own.

How a guest house runs it

1. Record the room night when the guest paysSingle, double or self-contained, at the rate actually agreed — which on a wet Tuesday is rarely the rate on the board.
2. Take a deposit now, the balance at checkoutRecord what was paid and against which guest. The rest sits on that guest's record until they settle it.
3. Put the bar and kitchen through as salesDrinks and meals come out of stock as they sell, so a shortage shows up as a shortage rather than as a bad month.
4. Record what the property costs to runLaundry, gas, water deliveries, power, generator fuel, housekeeping supplies. These turn a full house into a thin one.

Rooms, bar and kitchen on one list

Pick "Hotel & guest house" at sign-up and this list is already there. Rooms and extras go in as services; the bar and kitchen as products that come out of stock.

Each room type is its own line, so you can see what the doubles earned against the singles instead of one room total.

A twelve-room guest house, one month

The rooms brought in nearly three times what the kitchen and bar did, and the kitchen and bar took most of the stock money. Set them up as two branches and each side gets its own figure instead of hiding inside the other.

What PesaScope will not do for you

PesaScope is not a property management system. There is no booking calendar, no availability chart, no room-status board and no link to Booking.com, Airbnb or any other channel. If your reservations live in a register book or a WhatsApp thread, they stay there.

What it does is the money. It records what each room night earned, what the guest actually paid and what they still owe, what the bar and kitchen sold, and what the property cost to run. That is the half most guest houses are missing, and the half a partner or a bank asks about.

A guest house that knows its cost per room night can quote a two-week stay without guessing. One that doesn't will discount to fill the room and lose money doing it, month after month, without seeing why.

Where a guest house loses money

1. Long-stay rates nobody wrote downThe price agreed at the desk for a two-week guest is often known to one person. Record it and it stops being a rumour.
2. Balances left behind at checkoutA guest pays half on arrival and leaves at 6am. If the balance was never recorded against them, it is gone.
3. Bar stock with no sale behind itEvery bottle out of the fridge should have a sale against it. Count the fridge against the sales and the gap answers the question.
4. Cash bills nobody entersGenerator fuel, water deliveries and the plumber are paid from the drawer and forgotten, making the rooms look better than they are.

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Questions guest house owners ask