GST and BAS for motels: what your PMS should give your accountant
Updated · HotelOne
General information only, checked against the ATO pages listed at the end on the date above. It is not tax advice: confirm how it applies to your property with your accountant or the ATO.
In short
For a motel registered for GST, short stays are taxable: the price includes GST of one-eleventh. Stays of 28 continuous days or more can be treated differently — as input taxed, or with GST on half the price — which is why your PMS needs to show how long each stay is. Room revenue goes to G1 on the BAS and its GST to 1A, and every tax invoice needs your ABN and the GST amount, plus the guest’s identity or ABN from $1,000.
GST on short stays
For GST, motels, hotels, hostels and caravan parks are “commercial residential premises”. If you are registered — or required to be registered — for GST, a stay of less than 28 continuous days is short-term accommodation, and the price you charge includes GST of one-eleventh: $11 of a $121 night, for example.
Long stays: the 28-day rule
A stay of 28 continuous days or more is long-term accommodation, and a property is “predominantly long-term” when at least 70% of its guests stay that long. For long-term stays you may choose one of three treatments:
- Input taxed: no GST on the long-term accommodation, but no GST credits on what you buy to provide it — and once chosen, it applies to all long-term stays for at least 12 months
- Concessional treatment, when guests are not predominantly long-term: full GST for the first 27 days, then GST worked out on half of the normal GST-inclusive price from day 28
- Concessional treatment, when guests are predominantly long-term: GST on half of the normal GST-inclusive price from the start of the stay
The concession covers the accommodation and what comes with it, such as electricity, heating or cooling, cleaning, Wi-Fi and TV. Services charged separately — meals, the mini-bar, phone calls, personal laundry — keep the normal rate of GST.
Agree with your accountant which treatment suits you before you set up long-stay rates. Whatever you choose, your PMS has to show stay length per booking, and keep each night’s price, so the long stays can be identified and invoiced correctly.
Which BAS labels room revenue goes to
| Label | What goes in it | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| G1 Total sales | All your sales: taxable room nights and extras, plus GST-free and input-taxed sales. Under the calculation worksheet method it includes GST; under the accounts method you can choose to report it without GST | The PMS sales figures for the BAS period |
| G3 Other GST-free sales | GST-free sales — which are also counted in G1 | Sales split by tax rate |
| 1A GST on sales | The GST on your taxable sales | The GST total for the period |
The ATO’s list of what to report at G1 includes forfeited customer security deposits, so check with your accountant how you treat the deposits you keep and the cancellation or no-show fees you charge. GST on purchases (1B) and the purchase labels come from your accounting system, not the PMS.
Keep OTA commission as its own figure: the room price is your sale, and the commission is what the channel charges you. How your accountant records it depends on each OTA’s arrangement.
What a valid tax invoice needs
If a guest asks for a tax invoice, you must provide one within 28 days, unless the sale is $82.50 or less including GST. For a sale under $1,000, the invoice must show enough to work out these seven things:
- That the document is intended to be a tax invoice
- Your identity
- Your ABN
- The date it was issued
- A brief description of what was sold, with quantity and price
- The GST amount — or, when GST is exactly one-eleventh of the total, a statement such as “Total price includes GST”
- The extent to which each item is a taxable sale
From $1,000, the invoice must also show the guest’s identity or ABN. A PDF sent by email is a valid tax invoice, as long as it contains all of this.
Reports your PMS should give you
- Sales for any period, split by item and by tax rate — the figures for G1, 1A and G3
- Tax invoices with sequential numbers, with voided invoices kept rather than deleted
- A daily snapshot that doesn’t change after the day is closed (the night audit)
- Payments by method — cash, EFTPOS, card, bank transfer, OTA-collected — to reconcile with the bank
- OTA commission per channel, kept apart from room revenue
- Receivables: who still owes you, and for how long
How HotelOne does it
HotelOne’s tax page shows G1, 1A and G3 for any period, broken down by item and by tax rate, with a CSV export of the summary and the detail. Tax invoices carry your ABN and a sequential number and can be emailed from the booking; a voided invoice keeps its number and stays archived. Every night of a booking has its own price. The night audit freezes each business day at 03:10, the channel report shows commission per channel, the ageing report shows what is still owed, and orders can be pushed to Xero.
Invoices, reports and BAS in HotelOne PMSQuestions
- Do I have to charge GST on accommodation?
- Only if you are registered, or required to be registered, for GST. Once you are, short stays in a motel are taxable sales.
- Do the long-stay rules cover breakfast and laundry?
- Not when they are charged separately. Meals, mini-bar items, phone calls and personal laundry billed on their own keep the normal rate of GST.
- Can a tax invoice be a PDF sent by email?
- Yes. A tax invoice doesn’t have to be on paper, as long as the digital version contains all the required information.
Sources
- Australian Taxation Office, Features of commercial residential property (Last updated 15 December 2022)
- Australian Taxation Office, Tax invoices (Last updated 18 September 2026)
- Australian Taxation Office, Step 1: Sales — completing labels G1 to G3 of your BAS (Last updated 9 September 2026)