The night audit is the moment the hotel closes one business day and opens the next. Everything that happened today (arrivals, departures, room charges, extras, payments) is posted, checked and frozen, so that tomorrow's reports start from a clean number. Skip it or do it badly and every report after that is wrong: occupancy, ADR, revenue, city tax, the lot.
What the business date is
The business date is the hotel's accounting day. It is not the calendar date: at 2:00 AM the calendar says Tuesday, but the hotel is still on Monday until the night audit runs. That is why a guest who checks in at 1:00 AM is still a Monday arrival, and why the room night is charged once, not twice.
A good PMS keeps the business date explicit and only moves it forward when the audit is done. In FrontDesk the business date is the day after the last completed audit, and the audit cannot run twice for the same night.
The 12-step checklist
- Arrivals. Every reservation due today is either checked in or marked as a no-show. An arrival left "pending" corrupts occupancy.
- Departures. Every departure is checked out. List the ones with an open balance: they are money leaving the building.
- Post room and tax. One room night per in-house guest, at the rate on the reservation, never more than the stay value.
- Post extras. Minibar, restaurant, parking, late check-out fees.
- Card payments. The total in the PMS matches the terminal batch for the day.
- Cash. The drawer is counted and matches the cash report.
- Room status. Occupied rooms in the PMS match what housekeeping sees. A room that is "occupied" in the system but empty in reality is either a skip or a missed check-out.
- Rate check. Look for zero rates, complimentary stays without a reason, rates below the floor.
- Guarantees. Tomorrow's arrivals without a card or deposit are flagged for the morning shift.
- City tax. Calculated per person per night with the local exemptions, and posted.
- Daily report. Save occupancy, ADR and RevPAR for the day before moving on.
- Roll the date. Only now does the business date move forward.
Worked example: a 60-room hotel
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Rooms available | 60 |
| Rooms occupied after audit | 47 |
| Room revenue posted | EUR 5,405 |
| Occupancy | 47 / 60 = 78.3% |
| ADR | 5,405 / 47 = EUR 115.00 |
| RevPAR | 5,405 / 60 = EUR 90.08 |
| No-shows | 2 (1 guaranteed, charged 1 night) |
| Departures with open balance | 1 (EUR 38 minibar, blocked until settled) |
Two things change the numbers here. The guaranteed no-show is revenue (one night charged) but not occupancy. The departure with an open balance is not a revenue problem yet, but it becomes one if nobody chases it in the morning.
No-shows
Decide the policy before the night, not during it. The usual rule: a reservation not checked in by the audit becomes a no-show; if it was guaranteed with a card, the first night is charged. The audit is the right place to do this because it is the moment the day is closed anyway.
Unpaid departures
A guest who left with an open folio is the most common leak in small and mid-size hotels. The audit should refuse to close the day while a departure is unpaid, unless a manager explicitly overrides it and the override is logged. In FrontDesk the override is reserved to owner and manager roles; reception cannot skip it.
How long it should take
With a PMS that posts room nights automatically, a 60-room audit is 15-20 minutes: most of the time goes to cash, card batch and the open-balance list. If it takes an hour, the posting is being done by hand.
Download the checklist below and print it for the night shift. It is the same sequence the FrontDesk audit follows.
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