Hotel vouchers and booking codes: reading what the agency sent
A hotel voucher confirms what an agency booked, but it is not an invoice. This guide explains how to read voucher codes, check them against reservations, and handle discrepancies at the front desk.
Contents
Key takeaways
- A voucher records what an agency bought and on what terms; the hotel's own reservation records what the hotel will deliver, and the desk has to reconcile the two.
- Board and room codes are partner shorthand, not a standard: RO, BB, HB, FB, AI and UAI mean whatever that agency's contract says they mean.
- RQ means on request, not confirmed; a guest holding an RQ voucher does not yet have a room.
- A voucher is a commercial document, never a fiscal one; the invoice is issued separately, usually to the agency's account.
- When the voucher and the reservation disagree, record the difference in writing and settle it with the agency, not with the guest at the desk.
A hotel voucher is the document a travel agency, tour operator or bedbank issues to confirm what it has booked and paid for on a guest's behalf: dates, room, board, occupancy and payment terms. The hotel reads it at check-in to confirm the services it must provide. It is a commercial document, not an invoice.
It is late, the lobby is full, and the guest puts a printed page on the counter: HB, DBL plus CHD, OK, prepaid. The reservation on your screen says something else, and the guest is waiting to be told which one is true. This article gives you the vocabulary to read that page in seconds: what a hotel voucher is, what every field and code means, how to check it against your reservation, and what to do when the two disagree.
What is a hotel voucher?
A hotel voucher is the document an agency, tour operator or bedbank issues to confirm the services it has bought from the hotel for a named guest, and the terms it bought them on.
Who issues a voucher, and to whom
Outbound tour operators, domestic agencies, bedbanks (wholesalers who buy room stock and resell it), corporate travel desks, and event or incentive organizers all issue vouchers. Each uses its own template, its own field order and its own codes. The document travels with the guest or, increasingly, arrives as a phone screen at your counter.
What a voucher does and does not prove
The voucher authorizes the hotel to provide the listed services to the named guest, and the guest to receive those services without paying again for whatever is marked prepaid. It is not the hotel's reservation, not a contract between hotel and guest, not proof that money reached the hotel, and not a fiscal document.
The desk still reads it carefully, because the voucher is often the only paper the guest carries, while the reservation in your system may have been loaded weeks earlier by someone else, from a different source, under a different contract. It protects both sides: the guest uses it to show what was bought, and the hotel uses it to show what the agency asked for when the invoice is prepared.
No standards body defines these codes. Treat every printed abbreviation as that partner's shorthand, and check the contract or the reservation when a letter is unfamiliar.
Key pointThree documents, three jobs
The voucher is the agency's commercial instruction: what was bought, on what terms. The reservation is the hotel's operational record: which room, which nights, which rate. The invoice is the fiscal document for the sale. Confusing them is the root of most desk disputes.
What is printed on a hotel voucher?
Most vouchers carry the same dozen fields, in a different order and under different labels, so read the whole page before you read the reservation.
The fields, one by one
The agency identity and logo come with a contact number for reservations; that number is what the desk calls when something is wrong, so note it before the guest leaves the counter. The voucher number and the agency's own booking reference are two different numbers, and the agency usually wants both quoted when you call.
Guest names appear as the lead name plus every accompanying guest, sometimes with passport numbers. Check the spelling against the passport, not against the reservation alone. Room type, room count and occupancy are split into adults, children and infants, with child ages, because child ages change both the rate and the legal bed capacity of the room. The payment note says prepaid, pay locally or charge to the agency's account, and the remarks carry transfers, early check-in, connecting rooms and special requests.
A voucher without a reference number or an agency stamp is worth a phone call before a key is handed over. How rates and contracts are loaded into your systems in the first place is covered in the contract loading checklist: putting agency rates into your systems correctly.
Reading dates and nights correctly
Count nights, not dates. An agency selling three nights from Friday prints a Saturday departure, which is not an error. A mismatch of one day between the voucher and the reservation is usually a loading mistake on one side, and it is cheaper to catch it at the counter than at checkout.
| Field | What it usually says | What the desk checks |
|---|---|---|
| Agency and contact | Logo, reservations line | Is this an agency we have a contract with |
| Voucher number | Agency reference, sometimes a second internal number | Recorded on the reservation |
| Guest names | Lead guest plus all names | Matches passport, all rooms covered |
| Dates and nights | Arrival, departure, night count | Night count matches the reservation |
| Room and occupancy | Room type, room count, adults, children with ages | Within capacity, child age matches the rate |
| Board | RO, BB, HB, FB, AI, UAI | Matches the contract for that agency |
| Payment note | Prepaid, pay locally, city ledger | Decides whether the desk collects anything |
| Remarks | Transfers, requests, free services | Noted on the reservation, not promised verbally |
What do the abbreviations on a hotel voucher mean?
Board codes describe the meal plan and room codes describe who sleeps in the room; both are agency shorthand, and the same letters can carry different inclusions under different contracts.
Board codes
RO means room only, BB bed and breakfast, HB half board (breakfast plus one meal), FB full board, AI all inclusive and UAI ultra all inclusive. What sits inside AI or UAI, such as drinks, snacks, local alcohol or a late bar, is set by the contract, not by the letters. The hotel board types explained: from room only to ultra all-inclusive guide covers what each plan normally includes.
Room and occupancy codes
SGL is single, DBL double, TWN twin, TRPL triple, QUAD quadruple, CHD child, INF infant and EXB extra bed. DBL can mean one large bed or two beds depending on the partner, so confirm before assigning the room. View and position codes such as SV sea view, LV land view and GV garden view sometimes carry a supplement; a view code is a request unless the contract sells it as a room category.
Status and free-of-charge codes
FOC means free of charge: a tour leader, a guide, a driver, a child below the contract's free age, or a complimentary room inside a group. The voucher should name the person and the reason. OK means confirmed and RQ means on request; both describe the agency's view of the booking, not the hotel's.
The trap: a voucher can print AI while the hotel's contract with that agency sells HB at a different rate. The contract decides what the hotel owes, and the desk needs to know which contract applies before it promises anything.
| Code | Common meaning | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| RO | Room only | No meal of any kind, including breakfast |
| BB | Bed and breakfast | Breakfast for the stated occupancy only |
| HB | Half board | Which meal is included, and whether drinks are |
| FB | Full board | Lunch on the departure day |
| AI | All inclusive | What the contract includes beyond meals |
| UAI | Ultra all inclusive | Extra services and hours, contract by contract |
| SGL | Single occupancy | Rate usually higher per person |
| DBL | Double | One bed or two |
| TWN | Twin | Two separate beds |
| TRPL | Triple | Often a double plus an extra bed |
| CHD | Child | Age band and free age |
| INF | Infant | Cot, not a bed |
| EXB | Extra bed | Capacity limit of the room |
| SV / LV | Sea view / land view | Category or request |
| FOC | Free of charge | Who exactly is free |
| OK | Confirmed | By the agency, not by the hotel |
| RQ | On request | Not a room yet |
What do OK, RQ and FOC mean on a voucher?
OK means the agency considers the booking confirmed, RQ means it is still on request, and FOC means the service is free of charge to the guest.
OK is the agency's confirmation, not the hotel's. The desk still checks the voucher against the reservation, because the agency can confirm something the hotel never received. RQ is the one that causes scenes at the desk: the agency has issued a document before it had a room. Treat it as a request, look for a later confirmation, and escalate rather than improvise.
The payment note is separate from the status code. A confirmed booking can still be pay locally, and a prepaid booking can still be on request. Prepaid means the guest owes nothing for the services the voucher covers; it does not mean the guest owes nothing at all. Minibar, telephone, spa, laundry and late check-out normally sit outside the voucher.
When the payment note and the reservation disagree, the guest is not the person to resolve it. Take the details, give the service the hotel can defend, and settle the money with the agency afterwards.
Watch outAn RQ voucher is not a confirmation
The guest is holding a document, but the hotel has not yet promised a room. Never tell a guest with an RQ voucher that the room is guaranteed, and never let the conversation at the counter become the confirmation.
How do you check a voucher against the reservation at check-in?
Compare the voucher to the reservation field by field before you hand over a key, and write down any difference while the guest is still standing at the desk.
Start with the reference numbers: the agency's booking reference and the voucher number should both be traceable to the reservation, or the reservation was loaded without them. Then names and rooms: every guest named on the voucher should be covered by a room, and the room count should match. Then nights, then board and occupancy with child ages, then the payment note, which decides whether the desk collects anything and which account the charges go to.
If no reservation exists at all, do not send the guest away and do not create a rate from the voucher alone. Take a copy, call the agency, and involve the duty manager. Record the voucher number on the reservation and keep the copy with the registration card; it is the backing document when the agency invoice is prepared. The full arrival workflow is covered in the hotel check-in procedure at the front desk: steps, checks and records.
The five-minute check at the counter
Checklist
- Agency and contract identified
- Voucher number recorded on the reservation
- Every guest name covered by a room
- Room count and room type match
- Night count matches
- Board matches the contract
- Adults, children and infants match, with child ages
- Payment note matches, prepaid or pay locally
- Remarks and free services noted
- Copy of the voucher filed with the registration card
What should the desk do when the voucher and the reservation differ?
Record the difference, give the guest the service the hotel can defend, and settle the commercial difference with the agency afterwards.
Separate guest-facing differences from commercial ones. A missing breakfast or a different room type is guest-facing and needs a decision now; a rate difference is commercial and belongs to the back office. Never ask the guest to pay a difference at the counter for something the voucher marks as prepaid. That turns an agency dispute into a guest complaint and is hard to undo.
Call the agency's reservations line, get the correction in writing by email or a reissued voucher, and note the time, the name of the person and the reference you were given. Write the difference on the reservation and on the guest's bill: what the voucher said, what the hotel delivered, who authorized it. A note made at the time is worth more than a memory three weeks later.
Turkish regulation sets the general duties of a certified facility, but it does not settle every commercial case. The hotel's own contract with the agency and its own written policy are what govern, so escalate rather than improvise. Confirm your hotel's position with a manager or, for contract questions, a legal adviser.
TipWrite it down in front of the guest
Write the difference down at the desk, in front of the guest, and read it back to them before they go to the room. It costs a minute, it stops the story changing later, and it gives the back office a dated record for the agency conversation.
Is a hotel voucher an invoice?
No. A voucher is a commercial document from the agency about what was bought; an invoice is a fiscal document issued for a sale.
The voucher proves what the agency asked the hotel to provide. The invoice records the taxable sale: in Türkiye a fiscal document, often an e-Fatura or e-Arşiv (electronic invoice) issued through a licensed integrator, depending on the taxpayer's scope. Who gets invoiced depends on the payment note: prepaid agency business is normally invoiced to the agency's account rather than to the guest, while pay-locally business is invoiced to the guest at the desk. Put the voucher number on the invoice or its backing documents so the two can be matched when the agency queries a charge months later.
Charges outside the voucher, such as minibar, spa or late check-out, follow the hotel's normal billing and are invoiced to whoever consumed them. The mechanics of agency accounts are covered in the hotel city ledger explained: invoicing agencies and companies guide.
Vouchers also carry personal data: names, sometimes passport numbers, sometimes dates of birth. Store them under the hotel's own personal data rules, do not leave them loose at the counter, and do not photograph them for personal use. Finally, a voucher that says prepaid is not proof that the hotel was paid. The proof is the agency's remittance and the account statement, which is a separate reconciliation.
What to do next
Turn this into one page at the desk: the field list, the code table and the mismatch steps, printed and laminated next to the terminal. Then agree with the reservations manager which differences the desk may settle alone and which must go to the agency in writing, so the next late arrival with a printed voucher gets an answer in seconds instead of an argument.
Frequently asked questions
What does RQ mean on a hotel voucher?
RQ means on request: the agency has issued a document before it had a confirmed room. It is not a confirmation, and the guest should not be told the room is guaranteed. Check the system for a later confirmation, call the agency, and involve the duty manager if nothing has arrived.
Is a hotel voucher the same as a booking confirmation?
No. A confirmation is the message that a room is held, from the hotel or from the channel that sold it. A voucher is the agency's document describing what it bought and on what terms. The two should agree, and the desk's job is to check that they do.
Who pays the hotel when the voucher says prepaid?
The agency pays the hotel under its contract, and the guest pays nothing for the services the voucher covers. Extras such as minibar, telephone, spa and late check-out normally sit outside the voucher and go on the guest's bill. The invoice for the covered services usually goes to the agency's account.
What does FOC mean on a voucher?
FOC means free of charge. It usually covers a tour leader, a guide, a driver, a child below the contract's free age, or a complimentary room inside a group. The voucher should name the person and the reason; if it does not, confirm with the agency before check-in rather than deciding at the counter.
Can a hotel refuse a voucher at check-in?
That is a commercial question between the hotel and the agency, not a decision for the front desk. The desk should check the voucher against the reservation, record what it finds, and escalate to the duty manager. Whether the hotel must honor the booking depends on its contract and its own policy, so confirm the position with a manager or legal adviser rather than refusing at the counter.