Rooming
Rooming list format: columns, rules and a free template
What a rooming list is, the columns hotels need, sharing rules, when to send it and how to manage rooming across several hotels. Free template included.
By Rahi teamPublished Updated 7 min read
What is a rooming list?
A rooming list is the document a group organiser sends a hotel that maps every guest to a room for the nights of their stay. The hotel uses it to pre-assign rooms, prepare keys and speed up check-in for a group that arrives at the same time. For the operator, it is also the answer to the question every traveller asks at reception: "which room am I in?"
Which columns does a rooming list need?
Hotels vary, but these columns cover almost every request:
| Column | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Room number or room reference | Lets you and the hotel talk about the same room. Use a reference such as R1, R2 before the hotel assigns numbers. |
| Room type | Single, twin, double or triple. Drives the hotel's allocation and your cost. |
| Sharing arrangement | Who shares with whom. The most common cause of last-minute changes. |
| Guest name | Exactly as on the ID they will show at check-in. |
| Check-in and check-out dates | Some guests join late or leave early. |
| ID type | Hotels in India commonly ask for guest identification at check-in; confirm what your hotel needs. |
| Special requests | Ground floor, adjoining rooms, accessibility needs, a cot. |
Keep personal details to what the hotel actually asks for. A rooming list gets emailed and printed; the less sensitive data on it, the better.
How should you set sharing rules?
Decide your rules before you take bookings, publish them, and apply them consistently:
- Twin and triple sharing for travellers who booked as a pair or group should keep them together on every night, not just the first.
- Solo travellers should know in advance whether they will share, with whom they might share, and whether a single supplement is available.
- Gender-based sharing for solo travellers is a common policy on group departures. Make it explicit in your booking terms rather than deciding at the hotel desk.
- Minors on school and college trips need a written rooming policy agreed with the school, covering who rooms with whom and where supervising staff sleep. Get this reviewed against your agreements with the school and your legal advice before the trip.
When should you send a rooming list to the hotel?
Send it as early as the hotel will accept it, usually once your group's numbers are stable, and confirm the hotel's own deadline when you book. After that:
- Send changes as changes, not as a new full list. "R7: replace Kabir R. with Dev T." is harder to miss than version four of a spreadsheet.
- Reconfirm the day before arrival with the hotel's front office, not just reservations.
- Carry one printed copy for the captain in case the hotel's copy is out of date.
Is there a free rooming list template?
Yes. It has one row per guest per night, with the columns above, and opens in Excel or Google Sheets.
Download the rooming list template (CSV)
How do you manage rooming across several hotels?
Circuits that move every night or two are where spreadsheets break. Each hotel needs its own list, and each change has to be made in every list it touches.
What works:
- Keep one row per guest per night, not one row per guest. Filtering by night then gives you each hotel's list.
- Keep sharing pairs stable across nights unless a traveller asks otherwise, so you change one pairing, not five.
- Tell each traveller their own room for that night, not the whole list.
This is what rooming and stays in Rahi is built for: a hotel for each night, a room for each traveller, and each traveller sees their own stay and room in the traveller app. Changes reach travellers immediately instead of in another forwarded file.
Want to see it with one of your circuits? Book a demo.