A dharmashala (pilgrim rest-house), bhakta nivas (devotees’ lodge) or kalyana mandapam (wedding and function hall) run from a paper register works until two families arrive for the same room. Online booking removes that problem, but only if the rules behind it are clear. Most of the work is deciding those rules; software only enforces them. This guide lists the decisions in the order to make them.
Start with an honest inventory
List every bookable unit as it really is, not as the brochure describes it, and group units into types that share a price and rules:
| Type | Booked by | Rules to decide |
|---|---|---|
| Private rooms (AC and non-AC) | Room per night | Maximum occupants, extra-bed charge, check-in and check-out times |
| Family suites or cottages | Unit per night | Minimum stay at festivals; who may book (members, donors, public) |
| Dormitory | Bed per night | Separate men’s and women’s dorms, locker deposit, maximum nights |
| Halls and mandapams | Time slot — morning, evening or full day | Advance to confirm, cleaning and electricity charges, decoration rules, cancellation cut-off |
Mark rooms you hold back — for visiting acharyas (religious teachers), trustees, guests of the temple or maintenance — as blocked, so they never appear available online and cause an argument at the desk.
Rents, deposits and guest categories
Keep rent and deposit separate. Rent is income; a caution deposit is the guest’s money, held against damage and returned at check-out less any deductions, and the books should show it that way. Decide:
- Rent per night for each room type, and per bed for dormitories.
- The deposit for each type, and what may be deducted from it — damage, lost keys, extra cleaning.
- Guest categories that get a discount or a complimentary stay — donors, sadhus, staff families — and who must approve a complimentary stay.
- For halls, the advance needed to confirm a date, when the balance is due, and whether part-payments are allowed.
GST on room and hall rent charged by a religious trust depends on the facts of each case; take your CA’s view before you publish prices.
Booking rules that prevent disputes
- Booking window. How far ahead can a guest book? Festivals may need a shorter window so that rooms are not hoarded.
- Hold time for unpaid bookings. A booking not paid within a short time should be released automatically, or rooms sit empty while a payment “is being done”.
- Maximum stay per booking, and per person over a period.
- Who can book online — anyone, or only registered devotees — and how many rooms in one booking.
- Arrival cut-off — when an unoccupied confirmed room is released as a no-show.
- Same-day bookings only for rooms that housekeeping has marked ready.
ID at check-in
Most dharmashalas ask the lead guest for a government photo ID at check-in — Aadhaar, PAN card, driving licence or voter ID — and record its number. Treat this as trust policy and print it on the booking page, so nobody is surprised at the desk. Handle IDs carefully: record only what you need, avoid keeping loose photocopies, show only the last few digits on screens and registers, and do not let staff photograph IDs on personal phones.
Foreign guests. Accommodation providers must upload a Form C with the details of foreign nationals within 24 hours of their arrival. A December 2025 notice from the Government of Goa explains that this follows the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, in force from 1 September 2025; that providers first register on the Bureau of Immigration portal; and that non-submission can attract a penalty of ₹50,000 in each case. If your dharmashala hosts foreign pilgrims, register before the first one arrives and confirm the procedure with your local FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office).
Cancellation and refund slabs
Publish refund slabs by notice period and apply them automatically, so the clerk is never asked to make an exception at the counter. An example you could start from:
| Notice before arrival | Rent refunded |
|---|---|
| Less than 7 days | Nil |
| 7 to 14 days | 50% |
| 15 to 29 days | 75% |
| 30 days or more | 90% |
Decide separately whether a deposit is always refunded in full on cancellation (it usually should be, since no stay took place), whether gateway charges are deducted, and how refunds reach the guest — back to the original payment method is cleanest. Hall slabs are often steeper, because a cancelled wedding date is hard to re-let. Whatever you choose, print it on the booking confirmation.
Halls and mandapams need their own rules
A kalyana mandapam booking is closer to an event contract than a room night. Settle these before you open hall dates online:
- Slots, not nights. Define morning, evening and full-day slots, with the time the family may enter for decoration and the time the hall must be handed back.
- Group bookings. A wedding party may take the hall, the dining area and a block of rooms together; book them as one reservation, so a cancellation releases everything at once.
- Advance and balance. Fix the advance that confirms a date and the date the balance is due, and release the slot automatically if the balance is not paid.
- Charges and deductions. List electricity, generator, cleaning and damage charges in advance, so the checkout settlement is arithmetic rather than negotiation.
- Who may book. Some trusts restrict mandapams to particular ceremonies, or require a local reference; write it down and show it on the booking page.
Housekeeping the desk can see
The front desk and housekeeping need one shared view of every room. Five statuses cover almost every case:
- Dirty — the guest has checked out.
- In progress — being cleaned.
- Clean — cleaned, waiting for inspection.
- Inspected — ready to let.
- Out of order — not to be let until repaired.
The rule that saves the most arguments: a same-day arrival gets only a room that has been inspected, or the booking holds until one is.
Accounts for rooms and halls
Room income is not donation income, so give it heads of its own. At the end of each day the desk should be able to show collections by mode, deposits taken and refunded, advances received for future hall bookings, and dues outstanding. Hall advances for dates months ahead are owed back to the family until the event takes place, and your auditor will want them shown that way. Export the day book to your accounting package rather than retyping it.
Launch checklist
- Inventory entered — buildings, rooms, beds and halls — with blocked units marked.
- Rents, deposits and guest categories approved by the trustees.
- Booking window, hold time, maximum stay and arrival cut-off decided.
- ID policy and refund slabs printed on the booking page and the confirmation.
- Payment gateway connected, and a test booking refunded end to end.
- Housekeeping staff trained on the five statuses.
- Form C registration done, if you host foreign guests.
- A week of running alongside the old register before you retire it.
How Kshetra fits
Kshetra is our room, dormitory-bed and hall booking software for dharmashalas, bhakta nivas and kalyana mandapams. It handles AC and non-AC room types, per-bed dormitory rent and deposits, halls by time slot with part-payments and advances, guest categories with discounts, complimentary-stay approval, transfers, extensions, and checkout with deductions. Refund slabs are set per temple — the default is the table above — unpaid holds expire automatically, and bookings are processed one at a time per temple, so a room cannot be double-booked. The housekeeping board uses the five statuses above, and the accounts side has a daybook, contra entries, a GST summary and Tally export. Each temple gets its own public booking page, with payments through Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU.
What it does not do: Kshetra records Aadhaar, PAN, driving licence or voter ID numbers at check-in — format-checked, stored encrypted and shown masked — but it does not verify them against any government database, and it does not file Form C. It is English-only today, has no kiosk, and shares receipts through WhatsApp links rather than sending messages automatically.
