Key Terms or Glossary used in Hotel Front Office Department.

Key Terms or Glossary used in Hotel Front Office Department.

American Plan ( AP) 

- A billing arrangement under which room charges include the guestroom and three meals, Also called as full board / full pension.

European Plan (EP)

- A billing arrangement under which meals are priced separately or room only plan

Modified American Plan  (MAP)

- A billing arrangement under which the daily rate is including room and two meals, generally Breakfast and dinner.

Continental Plan ( CP )

- One of the most common / preferred  billing arrangement which includes room and continental breakfast.

All Inclusive (AI)

- AI normally stands for all inclusive rates ie rates which are inclusive of all applicable taxes and service charge . Eg: CPAI, MAPAI, APAI etc.

Rack Rate 

- The published tariff for each room type / category  in a hotel.

Log Book 

- Located at reception containing instructions/information/ happenings / handover of the day to know of.

Registration Card 

- A printed form for a registration record, In most countries the guest's signature on a registration card is required by law.

Reservation Status

- An indicator of a room's long term availability for assignment.

Room Rate

- The price a hotel charges for overnight accommodations.

Skipper

- A guest who leaves with no intention of paying for the room.

Scanty Baggage

- A guest who checks in to the hotel with very less or no luggage.

Walk -in

- A guest who arrives at a hotel without a reservation.

Walking

- Turning away a guest who has a reservation because of a lack of room availability.

Due outs

- Guests expected to check out on a given day who have not yet done so.

Credit limit / house limit 

- A limit assigned by the hotel to guest or company accounts.

Upselling

- A sales technique whereby a guest is offered a more expensive room than what he or she reserved or originally requested, and then persuaded to rent the room based on the room's features, benefits, and his or her needs.

Block

- An agreed-upon number of rooms set aside for members of a group planning to stay in a hotel.

Book

- To sell or reserve rooms ahead of time.

Confirmation Number

- A code that provides a unique reference to a reservation record and assures the guest that the reservation record exists.

Confirmed Booking

- When Reservation is guaranteed with Credit card, Deposit, Company / TA voucher etc.

Tentative Booking

- When reservation is waiting bookers confirmation.

Waitlisted Booking

- Reservation kept on hold due to hotel over

Cut-off date

- The date agreed upon between a group and a hotel after which all unreserved rooms in the group's block will be released back to the general availability.

Cancelation date

- Indicates the date when the reservation was manually canceled.

No-Show

- A guest who made a room reservation but did not register or Check in.

Long Stay

- A Guest who stays more than certain number of days, Eg: More than 7 days etc.

Overbooking

- accepting more reservations than there are available rooms.

Wash down

- Blocking fewer rooms than the number requested by a group, based on previous group history.

Guest Cycle

- A division of the flow of business through a hotel that identifies the physical contacts and financial exchanges between the guests and the hotel.

Guest Folio

- A form ( paper or electronic ) used to chart transactions on a account assigned to an individual person or guest room.

Late Charge

-  A transaction requiring  posting to a guest account that does not reach the front office for posting before the guest had checked out or done the  final settlement.

 

Global Distribution System (GDS)

- A distribution channel for reservations that provides worldwide distribution of hotel reservation information and allows selling of hotel reservations around the world, usually accomplished by connecting the hotel reservation system with an airline reservation system ( Eg - Amadeus, Saber, Galileo/Apollo or Worldspan )

PMS

- Property Management System

TA

- Travel Agent who receives commission for the bookings.

OTA

- Online Travel Agents

Void

- Reversal of Charges which was posted on the same day

Allowance

- Reversal of charges which was posted before current system / PMS date.