HOTEL RECORD RETENTION POLICY
Hotels must maintain books and records based on various federal, state, and local requirements for tax related, employment related, and risk management purposes. Each with its own requirements.
Here are some important considerations:
Federal and state income tax records (invoices, bank statements, ledgers etc) a minimum of 6+ years.
Local city and county tot room tax (daily audit packs), and tax exempt records which include large potential liabilities - must be kept until cleared by local tax audit and follow the ownership of hotel.
Employment files vary based on federal and state mandates, including time keeping records.
Risk management (incidents reports, inspections, permits, and insurance policies, etc) based on state statue of limitations.
Common mistakes:
Brand changes and lost access to PMS reports.
Failure to print reports in daily night audit packs.
Failure to utilize and archive automatically generated PMS reports.
Not making PDF archive copies and using online cloud based storage solutions.
Management company changes without change of ownership considerations.
Unauthorized property level destruction of records
Non-shredding or waste disposal of records.
Failure to print or store time keeping records.
Privacy concerns controlling access to paper files and online pdf archive storage systems.
Audit Hotel specializes in internal audits and surprise property inspections. We review document retention compliance at each engagement and recommend best practices to meet proper guidelines.
