Glossary

Amenity is a complimentary item or service provided to a guest from the hotel. Examples of amenities are wi-fi, swimming pools, garages, business center.

Often referred to as "tourist attractions". Attractions can be events, people, or places such as museums, historic sites, national sites. An example of an attraction would be Buckingham Palace.

Average Daily Rate is a statistical metric used in the hospitality and lodging industry to measure the financial performance of a property. ADR represents the average rental income per paid occupied hotel room in a specific time period. ADR is often used in conjunction with Occupancy Rate and RevPar to provide a clear picture of a hotels performance.

Referring to a menu, ordering individually priced dishes in a restaurant rather than a set menu for the table.

Specific dates when special rates, promotions, or discounts are not applicable. Typically, blackout dates occur during special events or holidays.

Blocked rooms are a hotel room that is reserved but has yet to receive a deposit to secure the room.

A booking engine is integrated with the PMS system and provides a website for prospective guests make a booking for a room through the website which communicates with the hotel software

Boutique hotels are typically smaller in sizes (less than 50 rooms) and differentiate themselves from the competition by delivering a unique experience through both high touch service and high-end design.

Channel Managers connect a Property Management System to multiple Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) providing information on room availability and nightly pricing and receiving reservation details in exchange.

Software is hosted in central servers managed by software vendors and end users access the application through their web browsers.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is designed to be a record of each customer, key information, and points of communication.

A day guest is someone whose arrival and departure occur on the same day. An example of this would be a guest who has a long layover at the airport and books a room to get a few hours’ sleep before their next flight later that same day.

No show is when a customer has a reservation at a hotel or restaurant but fails to cancel or show up.

Occupancy rate is the ratio of rented units against the total amount of units in a given period. Example, 20 rooms rented and 50 rooms available, the occupancy rate would be 40%

Overbooking is when a hotel sells more rooms than are physical rooms available on the property.

A payment processor is a software/hardware vendor that actually transacts the charge over the credit card. They typically charge the merchant (hotel) a transaction fee of a couple %.

Point of sale (POS software) is a software tool designed to track the sale of inventory items for restaurants, bars, or retail stores. In addition to tracking sales POS software helps process payments from credit cards, reports, and tracks inventory levels.

Property management system (PMS System) is a software tool designed to track room availabilities, reservations, guest accounts, analytics, check-in, and check-outs. Often the primary tool for hotels and it interfaces (integrates) with many other hospitality technology tools such as channel managers, booking engines, point of sale, and customer relationship systems

Rack Rate is the original price of a hotel room prior to any discounts, promotions or comps being applied to the rate.

RevPar is a statistical metric used in the hospitality and lodging industry to measure the financial performance of a property. RevPar represents the revenue per available room calculated on the number of rooms available to sell in a hotel. It is often used in conjunction with Occupancy Rate and ADR to provide an overview of a hotels performance.

Upselling is a common practice aimed a persuading customers to purchase/upgrade to a more expensive product or offering after they have already agreed to make a purchase.