When OTA remittances arrive after the month closes
How late channel credits distort month-end hospitality revenue — and what to pull before an audit starts.
Month-end in a hotel rarely matches the calendar the OTA uses to release funds. A stay that occupied a room in March may credit the bank in April, while the remittance PDF still carries a March settlement label. Finance teams then argue with occupancy charts that look healthier than cash.
What to gather first
Pull the remittance files for the month you care about and the following month. Match on booking reference or guest name plus stay dates, not on the PDF’s header month alone. If your bank feed is available, mark which credits landed after the ledger closed.
Why this matters in an audit
During a booking revenue audit we separate “late but complete” credits from true shortfalls. Without the following month’s remittances, late credits look like missing money. That single intake habit saves days of false exceptions.
A Penang pattern we see often
Leisure properties with heavy weekend OTA mix see Friday–Sunday stays remitted in a batch that crosses the month boundary. City hotels with corporate rates see fewer boundary issues but more commission tier surprises. Neither pattern is fraud by default — both need folio-level patience.