Your numbers, but smarter: A first look at ThinkAccounting for ThinkReservations users

ThinkAccounting is a new accounting service built specifically for independent lodging businesses using ThinkReservations, combining real hospitality expertise with modern tools so owners can finally see what is really happening beneath the top-line revenue.

During ThinkGrowth, Richard Aday (ThinkReservations CEO and founder) mentioned something very important: that progress in hospitality doesn't happen in isolation. It happens when we (properties and providers) stop trying to do everything ourselves and start sharing the load.

That’s exactly why we’re so excited to finally pull back the curtain on ThinkAccounting.

If you’ve been running a property for any length of time, you know the "top-line trap." You’re looking at your revenue, and it looks great (bookings are up, the season is busy) but then you look at your bank account at the end of the month and wonder where it all went. It’s a frustrating spot to be in, and frankly, a common one.

Why ThinkAccounting exists

If you have ever stared at your P&L and thought, “This doesn’t really tell me how my inn is doing,” you are exactly the kind of person ThinkAccounting was built for. Many independent hotels, inns, and campgrounds rely on generic bookkeeping services that treat them like any other small business, often running everything on a simple cash basis and calling it a day. On paper that looks “fine” for tax prep, but in practice it can mean:

• Paying taxes earlier than you need to on future stays.​
• Not knowing which parts of the business actually make money.​
• Missing early warning signs in labor, cost of goods, or cash health until it is too late to react.​

ThinkReservations has always pushed to give independent properties the same leverage that big brands have, without the overhead. When ThinkReservations teamed up with hospitality accountant Tyler Otto, we realized there was still no firm truly specializing in this niche (and certainly not one deeply integrated with ThinkReservations), so the decision became clear: to build something together, tailored made for the industry.

A real accounting firm, not just a feature

Tyler put it pretty bluntly in his ThinkGrowth session: most accountants don't actually get the nuances of this industry. They don't understand the difference between a head in a bed and a burger sold at the restaurant. ThinkAccounting is built on the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) which is basically the "bible" for hotel finances. It means you can finally compare your small inn or campground to industry benchmarks and see where you’re actually winning, and where you’re leaking cash. That translates into:

• Access to a full team of US‑based accountants and bookkeepers behind the scenes, not just software and scripts.
• Your books follow the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI), the same framework used by large hotels, but adapted for independent properties.
• You are not locked into a single “magic” tool; ThinkAccounting is deliberately platform‑agnostic on the accounting side, using QuickBooks Online as the general ledger because it connects well with other systems you might already have (restaurant POS, spa software, marina systems, etc.).

Tyler jokes that he has the “sick type of personality” that enjoys charts of accounts and USALI rulebooks, but that is sort of the point: you did not buy an inn so you could debate capitalization policies. ThinkAccounting is meant to let you stay focused on guests while someone who actually likes this stuff builds you a clean financial backbone.

Accrual-based books that work like a hotel does

If there is a hill ThinkAccounting will die on, it is accrual accounting for hospitality. That might sound like textbook jargon, but it shows up in very real ways:

• Cash basis recognizes revenue when money hits the bank and expenses when money leaves.
• Accrual basis recognizes revenue when the stay happens and expenses when they are incurred, so revenue and costs for a stay share the same month.

For a seasonal property, that difference can be huge. Imagine collecting a large chunk of summer revenue in November and December. On a cash basis, you may end up paying sales, occupancy, and income tax on that money months before guests arrive. On properly managed accrual books, those deposits sit as liabilities until the stay dates, and the taxes follow later with the stay itself, which can mean tens of thousands of dollars shifted into a more favorable year or at least earning interest in your account instead of the government’s.

Accrual also unlocks metrics that cash books simply cannot deliver accurately:

• Profit margin by month and by department.​
• Housekeeping labor per occupied room and labor margin by season.
• Cost per occupied room for guest supplies and amenities.​
• Restaurant cost of goods and food cost percentages if you have F&B.​

Without matching revenue and expense in the same period, those numbers are basically illusions, and owners end up making pricing or staffing decisions on noisy, misleading data.​

The ThinkAccounting portal: where everything lives

On a practical level, most owners probably care less about the theory and more about whether the day‑to‑day is manageable. ThinkAccounting leans hard into that with a secure client portal that becomes your single hub for working with the accounting team.

Some of the things it handles:

• Document intake that fits your real life. Snap a photo of a receipt at Home Depot and text it in, auto‑forward vendor invoices from email, drag‑and‑drop files from your desktop, or upload via a mobile app.
• A two‑way Q&A stream. The team can flag specific transactions right inside the portal (“what was this charge for?”) and you can answer in a couple words from your phone; you can also ask them questions without fishing through old email threads.
• Centralized report access. Monthly financials, reconciliation schedules, and working papers are all stored in one place: no more hunting for PDFs across inboxes and shared drives.
• Live dashboards. In addition to PDF reports with written executive summaries, the portal surfaces interactive metrics like operating margin trends, labor breakdowns, credit card and OTA margins, housekeeping labor per occupied room, and more.

The portal follows strict standards for data protection (SOC 2 and IRS security guidelines), and ThinkAccounting carries cyber, errors & omissions, and professional liability insurance, essentially treating your financial data with the same seriousness you expect a licensed trade to treat your building.

From pretty reports to useful decisions

Where this gets interesting is not just “having better reports” but seeing patterns that change how you operate. Owners sometimes assume that if revenue and net profit are up, everything is fine; ThinkAccounting nudges you to ask, “Fine compared to what?”​

A few real‑world style examples they talk about:

• Spotting shoulder‑season labor issues: When labor cost is graphed as a percentage of rooms revenue, April and November sometimes jump out as problem months, revealing over‑staffing, unplanned overtime, or even wage theft hidden inside otherwise “normal” totals.​
• Catching waste and shrinkage in F&B or supplies: Food cost in dollars might grow in step with restaurant revenue, but food cost percentage can still spike if an inexperienced chef is over‑ordering, product is spoiling, or staff are “selling” ribs out the back door.​
• Seeing when discounting has quietly gotten out of control: A dropping average ticket or ADR, paired with a rising discount margin, often points to well‑meaning team members handing out too many “friends and family” deals or last‑minute rate cuts that outpace any revenue benefit.​
• Monitoring cost per occupied room over time: When that metric suddenly jumps, it forces a conversation about everything from rising utility rates to amenity creep to possible theft of amenities or supplies.​

Checking true cash health: By comparing bank balances to advanced deposits and short‑term obligations, the team can highlight if a property is effectively spending guest money before the stay happens, which becomes painfully visible when something like a road washout or shutdown forces mass refunds.​

Individually, none of these metrics is magic. Together (and tracked consistently) they give you a much clearer sense of whether your operation is getting more efficient or just busier. There is also a longer‑term play: as more properties join ThinkAccounting, the firm will be able to provide anonymized benchmark data so you can see how your cost per occupied room or housekeeping labor compares to peers of similar size.

What working with ThinkAccounting actually looks like

ThinkAccounting is not positioned as a one‑size‑fits‑all silver bullet. In fact, Tyler goes out of his way to say the service is not right for everyone, which feels refreshing in a world where everything is “perfect for you” by default. It tends to fit best when:

• You are replacing a generic or slow‑to‑respond outsourced bookkeeper who does not understand hospitality nuances.
• You want to retire an in‑house accounting role and get an expert team for less than a full salary.
• You are doing the books yourself and want to buy back 8–15 hours a month to focus on guests, revenue, or even just your life.

Plans are tiered (from a more cost‑conscious option up through VIP) based on how much “white glove” help you want, including things like monthly video walkthroughs of your numbers, live review meetings, expanded metrics, and broader support such as bill pay, payroll assistance, sales and occupancy tax filing, W‑9 collection, and 1099 preparation. Income tax prep itself is handled through Specialized Accounting as a separate engagement, largely for regulatory reasons, but it connects through the same portal, so from a user’s perspective it still feels like one workflow.

Perhaps the most important philosophical decision in all of this is that ThinkReservations chose not to build a lightweight, automated bookkeeping add‑on and hope it was “good enough.” Instead, they partnered with a firm whose entire business is getting hospitality accounting right and then built the connective tissue (a shared portal, synced data, and aligned standards) on top.

For an owner, the result is simple enough:

• Your reservations and revenue data continue to live inside ThinkReservations.
• Your books live in a robust accounting system tuned for hospitality.
• Your day‑to‑day collaboration happens in a secure, purpose‑built portal designed around how lodging businesses actually operate.

If you are curious whether ThinkAccounting makes sense for your property, the next step is usually a conversation with the ThinkReservations sales team, who can talk through your current setup, size, and goals, and then loop in the ThinkAccounting team to review your books and outline what would change. It is not about chasing perfection (no property’s numbers are ever perfect) but about getting you close enough, consistently enough, that your finances stop being a monthly chore and start behaving like a real decision‑making tool.

Is This for You?

Let’s be honest (and Tyler did mention this at ThinkGrowth too) this isn't for everyone. If you love spending fifteen hours a month on administrative paperwork, you probably don't need us. But if you’re looking to replace a bookkeeper who doesn't "get" hotels, or if you want to scale your business with actual data instead of "gut feelings," this might be the missing piece. And the best part? No carrier-pigeon cancellation policies, just 30 days’ notice and you’re out.

It’s about making it easier (and maybe even a little more fun) to run your business.