A good hotel voucher format fits on one A4 page and puts the hotel's own confirmation number first, then the guests, the hotel, the dates, the rooms and meal plan, who pays for what, the cancellation terms and a number answered 24 hours a day. The free template below does exactly that, in Word and as a PDF, with every field in square brackets ready to replace.
Download: the Word template · the PDF to print or preview. Nothing of ours is printed on it: once your logo and details are in, it is your document.
What the template looks like
The page follows the order a receptionist works in: find the booking, check the people and the stay, see who pays.
| Zone | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Header | Your logo and details; the voucher number, issue date and version |
| Reference band | The hotel's confirmation number in large type, your reference, the status |
| Guests and Hotel | Lead guest, adults, children and ages, other guests; the hotel's name, address, phone, email |
| Stay | Check-in and check-out dates in words, the hotel's times, nights |
| Rooms | Per room type: how many, meal plan in words, who sleeps there, a room confirmation number |
| Special requests | One line, worded as a request |
| Payment and Cancellation | What you prepaid, what the guest pays at the hotel; your cancellation terms |
| Help and Check this voucher | Your 24-hour line, a local contact; a QR box and how else to check |
| Footer | Registered name, licence or registration number, tax number |
Why each field earns its place, and what goes wrong without it, is covered in what a hotel voucher must show. This page is about filling the format in well.
Field by field
Voucher number, issue date, version. Pick a prefix and run one series for every voucher you issue, hotels, transfers and tours alike. Version 1 is the first issue. When the booking changes, keep the number and raise the version; the template already prints "This version replaces any earlier version of this voucher".
Hotel confirmation number. The number the hotel's own system holds the booking under, not your supplier's reference and not yours. If the hotel confirms each room separately, put each number in the Rooms table instead and write "See rooms" here.
Our reference and Status. Your file reference, the same one on every document for this trip. Status is Confirmed, Awaiting confirmation or Cancelled: never Confirmed before the hotel has said so.
Guests. The lead guest exactly as the passport spells it. Children's ages are their ages on the travel date, which is what the hotel's child policy uses, not the day you booked.
Hotel. The phone number with its country code, so a guest abroad can dial it.
Stay. Write "Friday 14 May 2027", never 14/05/2027. The times are the hotel's check-in and check-out times, not a promise of your own.
Rooms. One row per room type, with the count in the first column. Two rooms with different guests are two rows. Write the meal plan in words; the codes are spelled out in the travel trade glossary.
Payment. "Prepaid by us" is usually the room and meal plan. "Payable at the hotel" names what the guest settles at the desk, such as local taxes, without an amount you cannot guarantee. Change the bold sentence if you also prepaid extras.
Cancellation. Your terms for this booking, as you agreed them with the client. The template does not suggest any: deadlines and charges are yours to set.
Help. A 24-hour line answered by someone who can act, and a local contact with hours in local time.
Check this voucher. A QR code is only worth printing if it opens a page that knows whether the booking still stands. If you have nothing like that, delete the box and keep "call [phone] and quote the voucher number". A QR that opens a PDF copy proves nothing: it shows the same paper again.
How to fill it in
- Make a master once. Put in your logo, agency name, contact details and footer, then save it as a Word template (.dotx) or a read-only master file.
- Start every voucher from the master, never from last week's voucher.
- Wait for the hotel's confirmation number. If you must send something earlier, set Status to "Awaiting confirmation" and say an updated voucher follows.
- Take the next number from your register, a simple list of number, date, guest, hotel, version and status.
- Search for "[" before saving. Every bracket left in is a field you forgot.
- Save as PDF and send the PDF. Keep the PDF with the booking file.
- When the booking changes, open the voucher, change it, raise the version, send it again, and tell the guest to discard the old one. Do the same for the hotel. The hotel reconfirmation process is the moment to catch changes the hotel never received.
The hotel voucher is one paper in a set: the transfer and tour vouchers, the itinerary and the bills each have their own reader, set out in which travel document does which job.
Mistakes a Word voucher invites
- Editing an old voucher for a new booking. The last guest's confirmation number survives in a corner nobody rereads.
- Sending the .docx. Anyone can edit it, and it reflows on a phone. Send the PDF.
- Numeric dates. 03/04 is a different day on different continents.
- A code instead of a meal plan. "HB" means nothing to many guests, and the desk may use another code.
- A new number for a changed booking. Two vouchers with different numbers now describe one stay, and the guest may show either.
- Confirmed too early. A request sitting with a supplier is not a booking.
- One voucher for two hotels. Each stay gets its own voucher and its own number.
What iTravel Vouchers does instead
A template is enough for a handful of vouchers a month. Its limits show when bookings change: every copy is retyped, and nothing can tell a desk whether the paper is still valid. iTravel's travel voucher software issues the same voucher from the trip you typed. The hotel's confirmation number leads it, a number can be kept per room, and a service nobody has confirmed prints "Awaiting confirmation". The traveller, supplier and agent copies share one number; the supplier's carries no price and none of the guest's contact details, and says "Booked and payable by" your company. Re-issuing keeps the number and adds a version. A QR on the voucher opens a check page that answers valid, cancelled or replaced, with no prices on it, and a desk without the QR can check by reference and the lead guest's surname; how voucher QR verification works explains why that page shows so little. Each copy is printed in its reader's language, from 32, with dates in words, in one of eight layouts, one of which prints onto your own letterhead.
Before you send the voucher
- Started from the master, not from another booking's voucher.
- The hotel's confirmation number in the reference band, or per room in the Rooms table.
- Status matches what the hotel has actually confirmed.
- Lead guest spelled as on the passport; children's ages on the travel date.
- Dates in words, nights counted, the hotel's own check-in and check-out times.
- Meal plan in words on every room row.
- Prepaid and payable at the hotel both filled in; no prices.
- Your cancellation terms for this booking.
- A 24-hour number someone answers.
- No square brackets left; the right number and version; sent as a PDF.
