How should an Irish hotel account for meeting-room hire separately from accommodation?
A corporate booking can bring meeting-space income, overnight stays and catering onto one bill. This guide shows how to keep those charges traceable from the event quotation to your accounting records.
Use separate sales categories and VAT codes for meeting-room hire, accommodation, meals and relevant drinks. Under Revenue’s room-hire guidance, hotel meeting-room hire is standard-rated from 1 January 2026: currently 23%. Overnight accommodation remains at 13.5%; qualifying catering is 9% from 1 July 2026. Assess bundled event services before choosing rates: separate invoice lines do not, by themselves, establish separate supplies.
Classify the services before setting up charges
For hotel meeting room hire VAT in Ireland, the starting point is what the customer buys. A property management system (PMS) category called “room” is too vague. Revenue’s accommodation guidance distinguishes overnight stays from meals; its current rates table confirms the percentages.
- Separate meeting-space hire from bedroom accommodation in your charge catalogue and sales ledger.
- Identify qualifying meals separately from alcohol, bottled water and soft drinks, which remain standard-rated. Check the actual drinks supplied rather than applying one catering code.
- Record the service date, invoice date, any advance payment and the agreed package contents before selecting the tax treatment.
Worked example: one event bill, four sales categories
Hypothetical example: a VAT-registered Galway hotel supplies a meeting room, ten room-only overnight stays, twenty lunches and bottled water on 12 November 2026. All are independently ordered and priced, with no package discount, deposit or conference-organising service. Invoicing and payment occur that day. Prices below are illustrative net amounts, not market rates.
| Supply and net charge | VAT rate | VAT | Gross | Sales mapping and source check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meeting-room hire: €500.00 | 23% | €115.00 | €615.00 | MEET23 → meeting-space income. Check room-hire guidance against the venue-hire agreement. |
| 10 room nights × €100: €1,000.00 | 13.5% | €135.00 | €1,135.00 | STAY135 → accommodation income. Check accommodation guidance; confirm these rates exclude breakfast. |
| 20 lunches × €25: €500.00 | 9% | €45.00 | €545.00 | FOOD9 → catering income. Check the post-July catering rules against the agreed menu; drinks excluded. |
| Bottled water: €50.00 | 23% | €11.50 | €61.50 | DRINK23 → beverage income. Check the standard-rated drink exclusions and actual consumption. |
| Total net: €2,050.00 | Mixed | €306.50 | €2,356.50 | Keep each net sales amount and its VAT code in the accounting output. |
The posting labels are illustrative bookkeeping codes, not RoomRaccoon defaults. VAT equals net value × rate; gross equals net value + VAT. An accountant should approve the supply classification and mapping before this example is used for a live booking.
Reconcile the bill to the ledger
- Link every charge to event reference EVT-1112, its service date, the organiser and the relevant reservation or catering record.
- Check the VAT summary: 23% on €550 = €126.50; 13.5% on €1,000 = €135; 9% on €500 = €45.
- For this simplified invoice journal, debit customer receivables €2,356.50; credit the four sales accounts €2,050 in total and output VAT €306.50. Allocate the receipt against that receivable without recording sales twice.
- Match the invoice, VAT report and accounting export. Investigate missing lines, duplicate restaurant postings and rounding differences before closing the event.
A single delegate price needs a separate assessment. Under Revenue’s mixed-supply rules, independently usable services may require apportionment, while a principal service with inseparable ancillary elements generally takes one rate. Do not assume that every event package can use the split above.
Check packages, discounts and advance payments
For a multiple supply, retain the allocation method and supporting values. Revenue’s detailed mixed-supplies guidance requires a reasonable allocation and records of how discounts are divided. Separate contracts or invoices do not automatically turn a composite service into separate supplies. Have the accountant review the quotation, customer purpose and actual services together.
For an accommodation-and-meal package, Revenue requires a fair allocation using the components’ separate selling prices as a reference. Keep the calculation with the booking. Do not copy that allocation automatically into a conference-organising package: Revenue’s room-hire manual treats conference-organising services as standard-rated.
Advance payments can cross rate changes. The room-hire manual bases their treatment on the rate when the related invoice is issued or should have been issued, whichever is earlier. Check any pre-January 2026 venue deposit and pre-July 2026 catering payment individually; do not recalculate the entire booking solely from its event date.
Test the event workflow in RoomRaccoon
RoomRaccoon’s hotel events and banqueting software page describes group billing, split invoices, deposit reporting and function sheets. Its property management system page also describes conference-space sales through Grey Rooms. These capabilities support the workflow; the tax classification and your accounting configuration still need to be agreed.
Bring this four-line example to a demonstration. Ask to see the charge setup, VAT summary and accounting output, including which steps depend on your subscription or an integration.
Book a demo for your propertyMeeting-room VAT questions
Can all charges appear on one customer bill?
Yes. One bill can show the distinct services and their respective VAT amounts. Keep the underlying sales categories separate so the event total can be reconciled without losing accommodation, catering or venue-hire income.
Does calling meeting-room hire “accommodation” change the VAT?
No. A label in your PMS does not change the service supplied. Use descriptions that distinguish meeting-space use from an overnight stay, and correct any legacy product mapping that treats both as bedroom revenue.
What if the quotation says meeting-room hire is included?
“Included” does not settle the VAT treatment. Review whether there are separate supplies within a package or a composite service. Revenue’s guidance explains that a promotional description does not necessarily remove the consideration attributable to an item.
Should meeting-room income feed bedroom performance reports?
Keep it in a separate revenue category. As an operational reporting control, check that meeting-space sales do not inflate bedroom revenue or occupied-room counts when your team reviews accommodation performance.
Sources and checks
Checked 13 November 2026 for the Republic of Ireland. Source review covers current VAT guidance and the product descriptions linked below.
- Revenue: Hire of a room and detailed room-hire manual.
- Revenue: Current VAT rates and Guest and holiday accommodation, April 2026.
- Revenue: Mixed supplies overview and detailed mixed-supplies manual.
- RoomRaccoon: Events and banqueting and PMS capabilities.
