Free Reservation System for Nepal Guesthouses
One calendar for every booking: Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Viber, phone calls and walk-ins. No double bookings. No missed reservations. Check-in, room status, a bill in Rs (NPR) and daily reports. Free. No subscription, no trial period.
OnlineHotelier PMS is a free hotel reservation system for Nepal guesthouses, trekking lodges, teahouses and homestays. It puts every booking in one calendar: Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Viber, phone and walk-in. Check-in, room status, housekeeping, bills in NPR and daily reports are all included at no cost. The optional paid add-on is the channel manager, which syncs availability across OTAs automatically.
OnlineHotelier PMS at a glance
| Product | OnlineHotelier PMS, a free cloud hotel reservation and management system |
|---|---|
| Price | Free. No subscription, no trial period |
| Who it is for | Guesthouses, trekking lodges, teahouses, homestays and small hotels in Nepal with limited inventory |
| Local tax handling | Configurable for Nepal: set the taxes and service charge that apply to your property. VAT at 13% applies where you are registered (mandatory above NPR 3 million annual turnover from services). Most small guesthouses and teahouses are below that threshold |
| Paid add-on | Channel manager that syncs availability and rates to Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb and other OTAs. Pricing on WhatsApp |
| Runs on | Any web browser on a phone, tablet or laptop. Nothing to install. Needs internet to sync: mobile data (NTC or Ncell) works fine for most tasks |
| How to start | Sign up online, or message us on WhatsApp for guided setup |
One calendar for every booking source
You run a seven-room guesthouse on Thamel's quiet side. A Booking.com reservation comes in for room 4 on Saturday night. An hour later, a WhatsApp message arrives from a trekking agency in Pokhara: they want the same room for a client starting the Langtang trail that weekend. You check your notebook. You check a WhatsApp chat. You check Booking.com on your phone. You are not sure which one is most current.
That is the problem the OnlineHotelier calendar solves. Every booking lives in one place, whatever its source:
- Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb and other OTAs (via the channel manager add-on, or entered manually)
- WhatsApp and Viber messages from guests and trekking agencies (entered at the front desk)
- Phone calls, a day or two ahead, from lodges and agencies on the trekking routes
- Walk-ins and direct bookings (entered directly)
When a room is taken, the calendar shows it as blocked. No double booking. Nothing missed. If you add the channel manager add-on, a Booking.com reservation closes the room on Agoda and Airbnb automatically.
WhatsApp and Viber as booking channels in Nepal: Trekking agencies, local tour operators and repeat guests in Nepal often book directly over WhatsApp or Viber rather than through an OTA. A lodge in Pokhara Lakeside may get a third of its bookings this way. Guesthouses near the Annapurna or Everest trailheads often take phone calls from agencies the day before a trekking group sets off. Adding those bookings to the same calendar as your OTA reservations keeps everything in one place without a separate notebook for each channel.
Check-in, room status, housekeeping and check-out
The calendar is one piece. The rest of the day-to-day runs here too.
Guest check-in
Record the guest's name, passport number, nationality and room on arrival. The system creates a guest folio (a running bill) from the moment they check in. Read our guide on the hotel check-in process for what to collect at the desk and why it matters for immigration records.
Room status
Mark rooms as occupied, vacant, dirty or clean after housekeeping. Front desk sees the update live so they know which rooms are ready for the next arrival.
Housekeeping
Your housekeeper updates room status from their phone as they clean. No calling reception. The room shows as clean the moment it is ready.
Guest check-out and bill
Post room charges, any extras, and the guest's payments to their folio. Review the bill, apply any taxes that apply to your property, and share it at check-out. Done in one step.
Daily reports give you occupancy, average room rate and total revenue for the day. You get the numbers you need each morning without building them by hand.
Nepal taxes, service charge and guest registration
The PMS can be configured for Nepal. You set your property's rates and charges once, and the bill calculates correctly every time.
VAT
VAT (Value Added Tax) in Nepal is charged at 13% on most goods and services, administered by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) under the VAT Act 2052. You must register for VAT once your annual turnover from services passes NPR 3 million. Confirm the current threshold with the IRD (ird.gov.np) or a local accountant, as it has been revised in recent Finance Acts.
Most small guesthouses, teahouses and trekking lodges are well below that threshold. If you are not registered, you do not charge VAT. If you are registered, the PMS adds it to each bill automatically once you set the rate in your settings.
Service charge
Service charge was mandatory at 10% for Nepal hotels under a long-standing industry arrangement. The Nepal Supreme Court struck this down in January 2023, ruling that the Labour Act provision that allowed the charge was unconstitutional. It is no longer compulsory by law. You can still set your own service charge at whatever rate you choose, or charge none at all. The PMS works either way.
Here are two sample bills for a VAT-registered property and a small unregistered guesthouse.
VAT-registered guesthouse (13% VAT, 10% service charge):
| Room rate (1 night) | Rs 3,000 |
| Service charge (10%) | Rs 300 |
| Subtotal | Rs 3,300 |
| VAT (13% on Rs 3,300) | Rs 429 |
| Total payable | Rs 3,729 |
Small unregistered guesthouse (no VAT, no service charge):
| Room rate (1 night) | Rs 1,200 |
| Total payable | Rs 1,200 |
Note on trekking permits: TIMS cards, ACAP, MCAP and other trekking permits are paid by trekkers directly to the relevant authorities. They are not a hotel or lodge charge and do not appear on your guest bill.
Guest registration and immigration reporting
Nepal's immigration rules require hotels and guesthouses to collect foreign guest details and submit them to the immigration office, local police unit and ward office. The government is rolling out a digital Foreign Nationals Management Information System (FNMIS) starting with Kathmandu Valley hotels. Check with your local immigration office or hotel association for the current rules for your area.
The PMS records each guest's name, nationality and passport number at check-in. A guest-list export is available on request: message us on WhatsApp to have it set up for your property.
Payments recorded
The PMS records how each guest paid: cash, card or bank transfer. The folio keeps a full payment history. Your daily report shows total collections by payment type. The PMS records payment; it does not process card transactions.
Property types across Nepal
The system is built for very small properties. Whether you are running a guesthouse in Thamel or a teahouse at 3,400 metres above sea level, if your main job is keeping track of who is in which room on which night, this covers it.
Thamel and Patan guesthouses
Kathmandu guesthouses juggle Booking.com and Agoda bookings alongside WhatsApp messages from agents and travellers. One calendar prevents the double bookings that happen when you update OTAs by hand at peak season.
Pokhara Lakeside guesthouses
Lakeside properties have a strong mix of OTA bookings and direct WhatsApp inquiries from returning guests and Annapurna trekkers. Adding both to one calendar takes a few minutes to set up and keeps everything straight.
Trekking route teahouses and lodges
Lodges on the Annapurna, Everest and Langtang routes often take bookings by phone from agencies a day or two before guests arrive. The free system handles phone and walk-in entries alongside any OTA bookings you carry. It runs on a phone or tablet with mobile data.
Chitwan jungle lodges and homestays
Small jungle lodges and community homestays near Chitwan or Bardia handle international visitors with short stays and package bookings via agents. Quick check-in and a correct bill in Rs matter most. The PMS delivers both without a monthly subscription.
Channel manager: for when you outgrow updating each OTA by hand
If you are on one or two OTAs and you update availability yourself after each booking, the free PMS is enough. Most small properties start here.
The channel manager add-on becomes useful when you are on three or more OTAs and a booking on one means you need to close the room on all the others. Doing that by hand is slow, and a missed update causes a double booking.
The add-on connects your PMS calendar directly to Booking.com, Agoda, Airbnb and other OTAs. When a booking arrives, all connected channels update automatically. Read our guide on what a channel manager does before deciding whether you need one.
The channel manager add-on is paid. Message us on WhatsApp and we will give you the current price for your property.