What is a folio in a hotel? Guest folio, master folio

Part 1: What a hotel folio is — an open account for the guest

The word “folio” originally means a sheet in a ledger. In a hotel, the folio is the ledger sheet for one guest, one room or one group, now kept in the management software rather than on paper. You read a folio the way you read an account:

• Charges: what the guest uses, such as each night’s room charge, dinner at the restaurant, drinks at the bar, laundry, transfers.
• Payments and credits: what the guest has paid or been credited, such as the deposit, cash, card, bank transfer, an approved adjustment.
• Balance: total charges minus total payments. A positive balance means the guest still owes money. A negative balance means the hotel is holding the guest’s money, for example when the deposit is larger than what has been used.

Below is an illustrative guest folio with hypothetical amounts, to show how a folio changes over the stay:

Three people read this table for three different things. The front desk sees how much the guest still owes. Accounting sees where room revenue, restaurant revenue and payments received sit. The guest sees what they have used. When the folio is right, all three agree; when it is wrong, all three have to go looking.

Part 2: What a guest folio is

A guest folio is the folio of one guest or one room. It is the common kind, used for individual travellers, business guests paying for themselves and families on holiday. In many hotels, each room has a default guest folio in the name of the person checking in.

One room, several folios

A room may need more than one folio. Two colleagues share a room and each pays half; a family wants to keep the parents’ food and drinks apart from those of a grown-up child. The front desk then opens an extra folio in the same room and sets which charges go to which folio at check-in, rather than waiting to split them at check-out. DiHotel can split one room into several folios.

Folios not linked to a room

Some charges need a folio but have no room attached: a walk-in guest using the spa, an outside guest at a banquet, a company paying a deposit for an event before the rooming list exists. Usually the hotel opens a folio not linked to any room to hold these charges, instead of posting them temporarily to some room and moving them later. Temporary postings to another room are a common cause of mismatched figures. DiHotel has folios not linked to a physical room, used for walk-in guests and shared accounts.

Part 3: What a master folio is — group and company folios

A master folio is a shared folio for a group, in the name of whoever pays for the whole group: a tour operator sending a group, a company holding a conference, the organisers of a wedding with a room block, or a company with a contract to pay for its staff’s rooms on business trips. The aim is for the payer to receive one clear statement instead of dozens of separate folios.

With DiHotel, room charges, services and deposits can be posted to a shared account for the whole booking or the whole group, kept apart from each room’s folio. In operational terms this is the master folio: the party paying for the group sees one account, while each room keeps what its guests pay themselves.

Routing charges to the master folio

Usually each room in the group still has its own guest folio, but with a rule attached: which charges move automatically to the master folio and which stay on the room folio. Many systems call this routing. Common examples:

• Room and breakfast charges for every room in the group are routed to the company’s master folio.
• The group’s shared dinner is posted straight to the master folio.
• Personal drinks, laundry and phone calls stay on the room folio, and the guest pays them at check-out.

The rules need to be set before the group arrives, based on the group contract. If they are set afterwards, the front desk has to move each posted charge by hand, which is when charges get missed or moved twice. Group contracts, deposits in instalments and room block deadlines are covered in conference season: deposits and inventory.

How a master folio differs from company receivables

A master folio lives for the duration of the group’s stay. When the group checks out, if the company is allowed to pay later under its contract, the master folio balance is transferred to the company’s receivables for accounting to follow up and collect. From then on, the amount is no longer the front desk’s job but the receivables accountant’s. In DiHotel, the transfer to company receivables is done invoice by invoice, so accounting knows exactly which invoice each receivable belongs to. This boundary matters: a group folio left open long after the group has gone is a sign that the work is stuck between two departments.

Part 4: Splitting a folio — the company pays for the room, the guest pays for services

Splitting a folio means assigning each charge of a stay to the right payer. Common ways to split at 4–5 star hotels and resorts:

When the split is right from the start, each party gets exactly its share at check-out and invoices are issued to the right buyer. DiHotel can split room charges and service charges so that separate invoices are issued to the company and to the guest, and it pulls in the details of the guest staying in the room so the front desk does not have to retype them.

How the split is set out in a group contract, and the steps on the group’s check-out day, are covered in detail in group check-out: splitting the company and guest bills. This article keeps to the principles.

Part 5: What gets posted to a folio

A complete folio usually contains the lines below. The last column is what front desk agents and cashiers should watch:

Restaurant and bar posted straight to the room folio

At resorts and hotels with several outlets, charges to the room are where things slip most easily. With DiHotel, the restaurant and bar take orders on DiPOS, the bill is posted straight to the guest’s room folio, and the guest pays once at check-out. The restaurant cashier does not need to send a paper slip to the front desk, and the front desk does not need to re-enter it. See also restaurant and F&B management.

Other services outside the room, such as spa or karaoke, and how to prevent leakage when they are charged to the room, are covered in charging services to the room.

Part 6: The night audit closes the folios every night

The night audit closes the books at the end of each business day. Typically the night auditor does a few main tasks: posts that night’s room charge to the folio of every occupied room, checks occupied rooms against open folios, handles no-shows, reviews the day’s postings, then closes the day and rolls over to the next. So the night audit and the folio go hand in hand: the folio is where each night’s result is recorded.

With DiHotel, once the day is closed in the night audit, the system rolls over to the next day automatically. Figures for a closed day are protected, and changing them requires permission. This matters in practice: yesterday’s room charges and revenue cannot be quietly changed today, so the reports accounting receives are closed figures.

Check before closing the day

• Occupied rooms whose folio has no room charge for the night.
• Checked-out rooms whose folio is still open.
• Restaurant and bar bills from the day not yet on the room folio.
• Deposits received during the day not yet linked to a booking.
• Adjustments or discounts without a reason or an approver.
• Master folios of groups that have left but have not been transferred to receivables.

How the night audit connects with accounting, and how room revenue reaches the books, is covered in chain accounting under Circular 99.

Part 7: How a folio differs from an invoice

The two are often confused, because the guest receives a “bill” at check-out and calls it an invoice. Operationally they differ in several ways:

One folio can produce several invoices, for example one invoice to the company for the room charges and one to the guest for services. Conversely, a group’s folio can be combined into one invoice to the company. When to issue an invoice and what buyer information it needs are legal questions, covered separately in splitting the company and guest bills at group check-out; this article does not repeat them.

DiHotel does not issue e-invoices itself. DiHotel splits room and service charges and pulls in the details of the guest staying in the room, so accounting can issue the invoice through the e-invoice provider without retyping.

Part 8: Closing the folio at check-out

Closing the folio is the last step of the stay, and also the moment when the guest judges the hotel by whether everything feels clear. A typical sequence:

• Ask the guest one last time about recent charges: extra breakfast, drinks, the airport car.
• Print or send a preview of the folio so the guest can check each line. Once the guest agrees, the front desk collects payment.
• Split by payer if not already done: the company’s part, the guest’s part.
• Collect the balance by the method the guest chooses, after deducting the deposit received.
• Issue invoices to the right buyer for each part.
• Balance at zero, folio closed. The room moves to a needs-cleaning status.

What if the folio still has a balance at check-out

• The guest still owes money: collect it before the guest leaves the desk. If that part is paid later by the company under its contract, transfer it to the company’s receivables, with the guest’s signature or confirmation according to hotel policy.
• The hotel is holding the guest’s excess money, for example a deposit larger than what was used: refund it according to hotel policy and the original payment method, and record it on the folio.
• A charge appears after the guest has left, for example a late restaurant bill: handle it under the hotel’s procedure, with an approver, not quietly on a closed folio.

With DiHotel, extensions and room moves are done directly in the PMS, so the front desk does not need another record when a guest stays longer or changes rooms mid-stay. When a hotel switches software, in-house guests’ folio balances and deposits must be closed off carefully; see the balance confirmation record for the chief accountant.

Part 9: Common folio mistakes at the desk and how to avoid them

Many folio mistakes are not about careless staff but about a busy desk and rules that were not set in advance. The table gathers the common ones:

This table works well for training new front desk staff. Each row is a situation that can be rehearsed on test data before a real shift.

Part 10: Summary table of folio types

What is a folio in a hotel?

A folio is the guest’s running account during the stay: charges such as room, food and drinks and services are posted to it, payments such as the deposit and settlements are deducted, and the balance shows how much the guest still owes. A folio opens at check-in or when a deposit is received, and closes at check-out.

What is a guest folio?

A guest folio is the folio of one guest or one room, containing each night’s room charge, food and drinks, services, the deposit and payments made. One room can have several guest folios when the guests sharing it pay separately; DiHotel can split one room into several folios.

What is a master folio?

A master folio is a shared folio for a group or a company, in the name of whoever pays for the whole group. Usually the group’s room charges and shared charges are routed to the master folio under rules set in advance, while personal extras stay on each room’s folio. With DiHotel, room charges, services and deposits can be posted to a shared account for the whole booking or group, kept apart from each room.

How does a folio differ from an invoice?

A folio is an internal statement that stays open for the whole stay and changes every day. A VAT invoice is a document issued under the regulations when a service is sold, in the buyer’s name. One folio can produce one or several invoices.

Can a folio be invoiced to a company?

A folio is not an invoice, but it is the basis for one. The part the company covers is split out so that an invoice can be issued with the company’s details. DiHotel splits room charges and service charges so separate invoices can be issued to the company and to the guest, and connects with the e-invoice provider rather than issuing e-invoices itself.

How do group guests split the bill?

Usually the company or tour operator pays for the rooms and shared charges through the master folio, while guests pay their personal extras on the room folio. The split rules should be set before the group arrives, based on the group contract, so each party gets exactly its share at check-out.

What if the folio still has a balance at check-out?

If the guest still owes money, collect it before the guest leaves the desk, or transfer it to company receivables if the contract allows later payment. If the hotel is holding excess money, such as a deposit larger than what was used, refund it according to hotel policy. A folio does not close until the balance is zero.

How does the night audit relate to the folio?

The night audit closes the books at the end of each day: it posts the night’s room charge to the folio of every occupied room, reviews the day’s postings and then closes the day. With DiHotel, once the day is closed the system rolls over to the next day automatically, and figures for a closed day are protected and require permission to change.