eTIMS for Hotels in Kenya: The Complete 2026 Guide

A hotel runs several revenue lines at once: rooms, restaurant and bar, conferencing, and extras like laundry or tours. Each is a sale eTIMS expects recorded with the correct tax, and a single guest folio often spans all of them, which is what makes hotel invoicing more involved than a single-counter shop.

Hotels also deal heavily with business customers: companies booking staff travel, and travel agents booking on behalf of guests. Both need a compliant invoice carrying their KRA PIN to claim the cost, so capturing the buyer PIN on corporate and agent bookings is routine.

VAT and levies for a hotel. Accommodation and restaurant services are generally standard-rated for VAT, and the hospitality sector can also attract specific levies such as a tourism or catering levy. A VAT-registered hotel charges VAT on the eTIMS invoice, and where a levy applies it is shown too. A hotel below the VAT threshold still issues compliant non-VAT eTIMS invoices.

Because levies and rates change and can apply differently to rooms versus food and beverage, set each item to its correct treatment and confirm the current VAT rate and any applicable levies with KRA.

Running a hotel brings its own compliance demands. The specific ones that matter for eTIMS are:

- One folio spans rooms, food, drink and extras, each with its own treatment

- Corporate and travel-agent bookings need the buyer PIN to claim the cost

- Applicable levies must be reflected alongside VAT where they apply

Get these right and eTIMS runs quietly in the background of your hotel. Get them wrong and you face rejected invoices, disallowed expenses for your customers, and exposure during a KRA review.

Deadlines and penalties for hotels: KRA has phased eTIMS in, and from 2026 the income-validation rules mean an expense not supported by a compliant invoice can be disallowed. For a hotel that cuts both ways. Your own purchases need compliant supplier invoices to be deductible, and your customers need a compliant invoice from you to claim what they spend with you. Non-compliance can attract penalties under the Tax Procedures Act, disallowed input VAT, and lost business from customers who insist on a valid invoice.

There is no separate eTIMS deadline that singles out hotels. The practical answer is that you should already be issuing compliant invoices, because the cost of not doing so, in penalties and lost deductible expenses, grows the longer you wait. Confirm the current deadlines and penalty amounts with KRA, as they change.

What a hotel needs to be eTIMS-ready:

- An active KRA PIN and the correct tax registration for your turnover

- Every product or service mapped to its correct tax treatment

- A reliable way to capture the buyer KRA PIN for business customers

- A compliant system that issues invoices, works offline, and reconciles M-Pesa, so compliance happens as you trade

Record-keeping is the other half of the job. Beyond issuing invoices, a hotel should keep its eTIMS records, and the supplier invoices behind its own purchases, organised and reconciled. KRA can review records going back several years, so the goal is a system where every sale and purchase is already captured and searchable rather than reconstructed from receipts in a drawer. That is the difference between a quick review and a stressful one.

A practical path for a hotel in Kenya. Work through it in order.

1. 1

   Confirm the hotel KRA PIN and VAT status

   Ensure the hotel has an active KRA PIN and register for VAT and any applicable levy, since accommodation and F&B are generally standard-rated.

2. 2

   Set up revenue lines with the right tax

   Configure rooms, restaurant, bar, conferencing and extras, each with its correct VAT and any levy, so the folio invoices correctly.

3. 3

   Capture buyer PINs for corporate and agent bookings

   For companies and travel agents, capture the KRA PIN so the invoice supports their claim.

4. 4

   Invoice the folio compliantly

   When a guest checks out, the folio should issue a compliant eTIMS invoice covering each line with its correct tax.

5. 5

   Reconcile M-Pesa, card and bank

   Tie payments across channels to each folio so the front desk and accounts agree.

6. 6

   Test offline and go live

   Confirm the system issues invoices offline and syncs to KRA later, important when a property's connection is not steady.

7. 7

   Train whoever rings up a sale

   Compliance only holds if the people taking payment use the system every time. Show staff how to issue a compliant invoice, when to capture a buyer PIN, and how to handle refunds with a credit note, so no sale at your hotel slips outside eTIMS.

8. 8

   Keep records reconciled, then file from real data

   Reconcile sales against M-Pesa, cash and bank as you go, so at filing time your return is a summary of records you already hold rather than a month-end reconstruction. This is where a hotel saves the most time and avoids errors.

9. 9

   Confirm the current rules with KRA

   Rates, thresholds, exemptions and deadlines change. Before relying on a specific figure, confirm the current position for your hotel at kra.go.ke or with your tax adviser, so your invoices stay correct as the rules move.

Veira is built for Kenyan businesses like hotels. It issues a compliant KRA eTIMS invoice automatically on every sale, applies the right tax treatment per item, captures the buyer KRA PIN for business customers, and reconciles M-Pesa and Pochi payments to each sale. It runs on a free handheld terminal or the phone you already own, and keeps working offline, recording sales locally and transmitting to KRA when the connection returns.

For a hotel, that means compliance happens as you trade, not as a separate evening of paperwork. Onboarding takes a weekend, with local support to help you switch from whatever you use now. See how Veira works for hotels, or book a free demo. It runs from KES 2,999 a month, with a free terminal included and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Switching is low-risk. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee, no expensive hardware to buy, and the system runs on a phone you already own, so a hotel can move from manual or non-compliant invoicing to fully compliant KRA records in a weekend. If you sell across more than one location or counter, Veira keeps every outlet on the same compliant system and the same reporting, so the whole hotel reconciles as one.