Terms in Hospitality

A

Above the Line: Commission received from advertising like T.V., radio, posters, and press.

Acceleration Clause: Contract provision that accelerates deposit payment or increases prepayment in case of default or lack of credit.

Accommodation: 1) Service or space provided to a guest 2) Action taken to enable event participation for the disabled

Act of God: Natural disaster that could not have been predicted at the time of the contract signing. Parties have no control over an Act of God, thus they’re not legally bound to fulfill contract responsibilities.

Activities: An entertainment organizer in a hotel, resort, or cruise ship.

Adjusted Gross Operating Profit (AGOP): A measure of gross operating profit used to determine how much of your income is minus the hotel management base fee.

ADS: ADS stands for Alternative Distribution System. It is described as the third-party distribution of the hotel inventories via Online Travel Agents (OTAs), travel portals, and travel operators. It is basically a marketplace where travel inventory sellers sell their clients (Hotel) inventories.

Advance Order: Order placed prior the move-in date for an exhibition.

Advance Rates: Discounted rates to entice guests to book in advance.

Affinity Group: A group formed around a common interest where members are usually of the same organization.

Agenda: The items or unfolding’s that comprise the to-do list or schedule of an event.

Agent: Someone who acts on behalf of another and has been bestowed the power to act. (Ex: Third-party planner)

AGR (Agreed): Guest rooms contracted to a group

Agency Model: It is a payment model adopted by many of the Online Travel Agencies. In agency model payment is on per room basis. The hotel owner decides the price of the room and shares the commission with the OTA when the guest has checked out.

Allotment: The number of hotel rooms available for sale by an agent or supplier

Alternative Availability: Suggesting other available properties when the requested property is unavailable.

Allocation: In a Hotel when a room is assigned to a guest it is called room allocation.

Amenity: Complimentary item or service provided by the hotel for guests or groups. (Ex: Toiletries)

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Legislation that prohibits public spaces or businesses from discriminating against persons with disabilities. Discover accessibility guidelines for events here.

ARI: Average Rate Index is a KPI which shows the performance of your Hotel with respect to your competitors. It is the ratio of your Hotel’s ADR to that of your competitor set in the same time frame.

Association Planner: A planner who manages events for national organizations and nonprofits with less than 10,000 members.

Attendance Building: Programs for marketing and promotional purposes designed to increase attendance at conventions, trade shows, meetings, and events.

Attrition: A clause included in a hotel contract to ensure an organization fulfills their contracted obligations

Attrition Fees: Fees associated with unused rooms in a room block.

Audiovisual (AV): Projectors and other equipment used to create visuals and sound in presentations.

Average Daily Rate (ADR): A metric system used in the hospitality industry to measure the average rate paid for rooms sold

ALOS: Acronym for average length of stay

Average Published Rate (APR): A rate taken by averaging all types of hotel rooms throughout the year according to high or low season.

Amortization period: It is the time taken by a company to pay off the loan. Generally, hotels take 20 to 25 years during the amortization period.

À la carte: In restaurants, the practice of ordering something separately from the menu is called À la carte.

B

B&B: B&B stands for Bed and Breakfast. It is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight stay and breakfast. It can also describe the type of property a hotel give in a particular room price.

Back of House: It is the are of a hotel which is not accessible for the guests.  It can include the kitchen, storerooms and other hotel facilities.

BAR: Best Available Rate is the lowest price of the day for the given hotel room available for the guests to book. It does not include any further cancellation prices except the general cancellation policies of the hotel.

Banquet: Dinner for numerous people that is generally ceremonial in nature.

Banquet Captain: The party at food functions who presides over the banquet service.

Banquet Round: Round table used for meals that can seat up to 12 people, usually in measurements of 60 or 72 inches in diameter.

Banquet Setup: Seating arrangement created by the grouping of banquet rounds to help facilitate food service.

Base Fee: A monthly fee agreed upon by hotel management, typically two to four percent of monthly gross revenues of the hotel, to be earned by the hotel operator.

Bed Tax: An added price to a hotel room imposed by the city or country based on where the hotel is located.

Below the Line Promotion: Free printed promotional items, such as brochures and direct mail, set to build a relationship with the consumer.

Benchmarking: A method of comparing a hotel against competitors. Subjects of comparing could include product/service, room rate, or quality.

BEO: Acronym for banquet event order

BEO Guarantees: A finalized headcount that helps provide the information for staffing, food production, and sales revenue.

Best Available Rate (BAR): A pricing system used by hotels to define a rate based on the demand and occupancy of a room.

Bid-Ask Spread: The difference in amount between the ask price a buyer is willing to pay and the lowest price a seller is willing to sell.

BKG: Acronym for booking

Blocked: Hotel rooms reserved without a deposit.

Boardroom Setup: Room set that seats executives along a long table with the chief executive at the head.

Booking Patterns: Patterns of confirmed sales in a hotel.

Boutique Hotels: Smaller luxury hotels that separate themselves from large competitors by their service and product offering.

Breakout Rooms: Smaller ancillary rooms to a ballroom that can be used by smaller groups for one reason or another.

Butler Service: Guests are served hors d’oeuvres on platters by servers.

Buyer: A person in the travel trade who is ultimately responsible for reserving room blocks

Booking Pace: Average speed of individual bookings between group booking date and arrival date.

Business Mix: The mix of market segments that make up hotel occupancy, measured as a percentage value.

C

C&B: Conference and banqueting are normally about putting together an event and it usually has as a scope different forms of get-together like a ceremony, or a celebration, small gatherings, seminars, family events, birthday party or weddings.

Cabaret Set-up: Cocktail tables, chairs, and a stage make up the room set. Generally, no seats will have backs to the stage.

Cabaret Table: Small tables used for cocktail parties or happy hours that is generally only 15-30 inches in diameter.

Campfire Session: Interactive breakout session in small informal groups focused on specific subject matter.

Catering Sales Manager: Hotel rep who handles food & beverage for group sales.

Certified Manager of Exhibits (CME): Rewarded to planners by the Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA).

Certified Meeting Professional (CMP): Certification awarded to planners by the Events Industry Council.

Channel Management: Techniques used by hotels to optimize performance across distribution channels such as OTAs.

Charter Group: An organized group of travelers with a custom itinerary.

Chef de Partie: A Chef de Partie is the head chef of a particular area in a restaurant. He can also have several chefs working under him.

Chain  Code: Chain Code is the two-letter code of a hotel chain which is used to identify it on a GDS. The chain code may vary with GDS.

Channel Manager: It is a system which allows you to manage your rates and inventory on different hotel inventory distribution channels. When you market your hotel rooms on different distribution channels like OTAs, it becomes very hectic to manage the room rates and inventories manually. Hence, this task is done by a channel manager. 

C&I: Conference and Incentive bookings.

Closing Ratio: The percentage of calls to contacts resulting in a verified sale.

Cold Call: A solicitation of business to convince potential customers to buy from a salesperson with no previous contact prior to the call.

Competitive Set: A group of hotels by which a property can compare itself to a competitor’s performance as a whole.

Commission: Payment made to a party for bringing business to a hotel.

Commissionable Rate Commitment: Contract where a portion of the room rate is to be paid to a sponsoring group or third party such as an intermediary planner.

Complimentary Ratio: Ratio of rooms provided at no cost to number of occupied rooms. Common incentive offered when negotiating room blocks.

Confidential Tariff: Discounted prices solely quoted to wholesalers, tour operators, and travel agents (unavailable for public use).

Convention Services Manager (CSM): Individual at hotel who oversees event operations.

Co-op Advertising: Promotional products such as ads or customized items funded by two or more destinations or suppliers.

Cooperative Marketing: Programs for marketing involving two or more participating companies, institutions, or organizations.

Cooperative Partner: An independent organization that works alongside a tourism office by providing donations or cash to increase the marketing impact of the tourism office’s program.

Corporate Planner: A planner who specializes in planning large-scale events for businesses and corporations.

Corporate Rate: A special reduced rate for guests staying on business under negotiated terms.

Corkage: It is the charge imposed by hotels and restaurants and hotels on drinks like wine which is bought from somewhere else.

CPOR (Cost per occupied room): Formula that calculates the average cost of occupied rooms. Used as a KPI to monitor operating costs.

Crescent-Round Setup: Seats occupy only about two thirds of  a table so that no attendees have backs to the speaker. Generally used to quickly transform a meeting setup into a banquet setup.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management): System used to track customer information and leads for a business.

CRS: It stands for computer reservations system or Acronym for central reservation system. It is a system which is used to store and retrieve information related to air travel, hotel booking, car rentals, etc.

Cut-Off Date: Date at which all unused guest rooms in a room block will be released to the public.

D

Day Guests: Guests who arrive and depart the same day.

DDR: Daily Delegate Rate is the price per delegate per day charged by the venue of a full day meeting. It includes the venue, refreshment breaks, lunch, and equipment.

Decor: Lighting, table sets, props, and other elements used to create an aesthetic theme for an event.

Dedicated Bandwidth: Bandwidth available to only a specific group.

Definite Booking: Confirmed in writing.

Destination Management Company (DMC): Organization that aids planners via their extensive knowledge and connections pertaining to a specific locale.

Destination Marketing Organization (DMO): Non-profit financed by occupancy taxes with the goal of promoting travel, tourism, and events in a host city.

Demand: Anticipated business for a set period in the future.

Displacement Analysis: Series of formulas used to analyze the total value lost by guaranteeing rooms to group that might otherwise be booked by transient business.

Distressed Inventory: Last-minute discounted hotel rooms to ensure a property reaches full capacity.

Distressed Sale: A desperate need to sell assets due to unfavorable conditions results in seller receiving a lower price.

Direct Connect:  It is an interface which connects the hotel’s system and distribution system without a third party connection system.

Direct Booking: When a guest books a hotel room directly from the hotel via any platform like a website, mobile phone or any other method and no other third party distributor is in between. Then it is called a direct booking.

Distribution Channel: A distribution channel is a chain of supplying the hotel room to the end customer. The OTAs, GDS, Travel Operators and Hotel Websites all our distribution channels.

Domestic Tourism: When a resident of a country travel in the same country it is called domestic tourism.

Double Occupancy (DBL): The hotel rate covers up to 2 people in the room.

Dual Brand Hotel: Dual Brand Hotels are the two hotels operating in the same building sharing the resources together. Usually, in dual-brand hotels, two different brands of the same hotel chain co-exist. But, in very rare instances different hotel chains have also formed dual-brand hotels.

E

Early Arrival: An agreement with a hotel that allows confirmed guests to check-in before the standard time.

Eco-tourism: A responsible way of traveling to natural areas that conserve the environment and sustains the well-being of local people.

English Service: Vegetables are served in bowls and readily on the table for guests to serve themselves. Main course is presented on a tray to the host at the table.

Enterprise Planner: An event planner that works exclusively for a large corporation coordinating brand events that range from internal meetings to conferences.

ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival.

ETD: Estimated Time of Departure.

Ecotourism: A responsible way of traveling to natural areas that conserve the environment and sustains the well-being of local people.

European Plan (EP): One hotel package that excludes coverage of meals

Exposition: Another term for a large exhibit or trade show.

Extranet: Back-end of a hotel sales website allowing hotels to log in and enter all their rates, availability, and restrictions.

Extended Stay Hotels: Extended stay hotels are basically the serviced apartments that have a hotel like booking systems.

F

F&B: Industry acronym for food & beverage

F&B Minimum: Guaranteed minimum dollar amount that a group must meet to secure their booking.

Familiarization Tour (FAM): Organized trips for members of the travel trade to familiarize them with tourism destinations.

Feeder City: A distant city that attracts travelers to gateway cities.

Fenced rate: Rate that is contingent on certain requirements being fulfilled by the booking party.

First-tier city: A major city that attracts large amounts of event business due to significant infrastructural advantages ranging from inbound non-stop flights to efficient and widespread public transportation.

Folio: An overview of a guest’s hotel account including all charges and payments made, stored at the reception desk.

Forecast: An analysis that renders revenue expectations for an upcoming period.

Forecasting Model: Models or systems used to predict KPIs.

FOH: Front of House is the area accessible to the guests. It includes areas like reception and waiting room etc.

FIT: Free and Independent Traveler is a term associated with a traveler who travels without any assistance from a travel agency or operator.

Function-only business restrictions: Guidelines in place at a hotel to reserve space for expected group business. Also known as event-only business restrictions.

Full Board: A rate that includes a bed and covers all standard meals.

G

Gala Dinner: Social function that generally includes speakers or performers.

Global Distribution System (GDS): A computer software company that provides travel agencies with hardware for airplane, hotel, and car reservations.

Government Planner: A planner who manages event for government functions at the city, state, or local level.

Gross Operating Profit (GOP): The result of the hotel’s gross operating revenue, minus gross operating expenses.

Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room (GOPPAR): A measure of performance across all sources of revenue.

Gross Operating Revenue (GOR): A hotel’s total operating revenue.

Group Demand: Group business predicted for a specific period or date.

Group Rate: Rate secured for all rooms in a room block for an event.

Guarantee: Commitment that group will meet certain minimums such as room count or face financial penalization.

General Property: The property will not be in any breach of this agreement or in any way liable, if it is prevented from complying with the supply accommodation and other related services by reason of Act of God, Act of Public Enemy, War, Earthquake, Riot, Fire, Storm, Flood, Explosion, Compliance with any Law of Government Restraint Order, Rule Regulations, Strikes, Lock Outs or any other cause not reasonably within the control of the hotel.

H

Half-Board: A rate that includes a bed, breakfast, and a choice of lunch or dinner.

Half-Pension: Similar to a half-board, however secondary meal is dinner.

HCD: Hotel Content Database is a content-based database used to distribute a hotel’s information to GDS, OTAs, IDS, and others. It contains text, images, and geocoding information about the hotel in multiple languages.

HEDNA: Hotel Electronic Distribution Networking Association is a conference formed in 1991 with the aim of being the leading global forum for hospitality distribution through collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Heads in Beds: The hospitality industry’s reason for existence, to sell hotel rooms and increase the occupancy rate of the hotel.

Hollow Circle Setup: Circular room arrangement in which tables/chairs all face one another.

Hollow Square Setup: Rectangular room arrangement in which tables/chairs all face one another.

Hot Buttons: An issue that evokes emotional reactions, issues, and legal principles in hotel contracts that causes friction between planners and suppliers

Hotelligence: Historical electronic booking data reports from Global Distribution Systems (GDS) that include information on rates and length of stay patterns, business sources, for their local competitive sets, and individual subscriber properties.

House Count: The total guest occupancy of a hotel at any given moment.

House Manager: The manager underneath the General Manager in ranking that is responsible for an individual hotel, unlike the General Manager–who covers more than one.

I

IATA: The International Air Transport Association is a global trade association for the airline industry, representing around 300 airlines, which account for about 83% of total air traffic worldwide. IATA’s primary role is to support aviation with global standards for airline safety, security, efficiency, and sustainability. It is headquartered in Montreal, Canada, with its executive offices in Geneva, Switzerland.

IBE: Internet Booking Engine is a website that allows a consumer to book flights, hotels, and other travel-related services.

Icon: A famous landmark or facility associated with the destination.

IDS: The Internet Distribution System is a collection of internet reservation systems, travel websites and portals which specialize in internet marketing of travel and related services directly to consumers.

Inbound Tourism: The traffic of international tourists spending foreign money contributing to the export economy. Inbound tourism is when non-residents travel to a country for leisure, business, or other reasons, and stay for no more than 12 consecutive months.

Incidental Charges: Anything that costs extra than the hotel room rate. (e.g. parking, in-room movies, and internet).

Incentive Travel: A prized or rewarded trip to stimulate the productivity of employees.

Incentive Fee: A highly negotiated management fee provided to the manager based on incremental profitability and manager’s operational expertise.

Independent Hotel: A hotel with no affiliation with a franchise or chain.

Intranet: A private computer network using Internet to securely share part of an organization’s information within itself.

Intelligent Hotels: Hotels that use state of the art technology to run operations.

InterActiveCorp (IAC): A U.S. company that owns various online travel-related businesses.

Inventory (relative to hotel distribution): Rooms available the hotel has to sell across all channels.

Island Booth/Stand/Exhibit: Aisles are created on all four sides of the booth, stand, or exhibit.

J

JD Power: A company that conducts guest satisfaction surveys.

Joint Venture: An agreement between two or more individuals or businesses concur on sharing profit, loss, and control in a specific endeavor.

K

KPI (Key Performance Indicator): Metric widely used as a measurement of business performance.

L

L2B: Look to Book is a ratio of customers coming on a booking site to the number of reservations actually made.

Late Arrival: When a guest comes late than the agreed time then it is called a late arrival

Late Charge: Some charges take time to be determined. So they are passed to the guests after they have departed from the hotel. Such charges are called late charge.

Late Check-out: When a guest leaves the hotel after the agreed time of departure by paying a late check-out fee.

Late Show:  When a guest arrives after the agreed time of arrival

Lanai: A room that has a balcony or patio with an overlook of water or garden.

Last Room Availability (LRA): A combination of negotiated and group rates that allow agents to book a hotel’s last available room at a contracted rate.

Lead Time: It is the time between the check-in date and the date on which the booking was made.

Leisure Time: The travel done for pleasure is leisure travel. The main purpose of leisure travel is to break the daily routine and get some fun.

Lead: Term for a potential booking that has shown interest but has not yet booked. Usually used for group business.

Lead Conversion: A lead that has been changed into an account, contact, or potential sale.

Length of Stay (LOS): Total nights that a guest spends with a hotel.

Look-to-book ratio: Rate of traffic that looks at a listing on a website compared to the number that book.

Loyalty Programmes: Hotels and other travel services like to reward their regular customers through Loyalty Programmes. These rewards can include points that can be converted into cash or discounts.

M

Market Parity: The process of assessing your product or service contribution against a competitor set to define your market price and confirm competitiveness.

Market Segments: An identified group in an overall market to which a specific service appeals. This is used in the hotel industry to determine who responds to a lead.

Market Share: A percentage of business within a market category.

Mattress Run: A traveler who is staying a number of nights in order to rack up points for their frequent stay program specific to that hotel chain.

Merchant Rate: A business model used by OTAs to markup hotel net rates to sell to the public.

Merchant Model: It is a business model adopted by many of the OTAs. In this model, merchants purchase the inventory form the hotel and then after marking up the price they sell it to the customers.

Meta-Search Engine: A search tool which uses the data from other search engines to show the results. In the hotel industry, the websites which show and compare the booking services results on various websites are the metasearch engine.

Minimum Acceptable Rate (MAR): Lowest rate that a hotel will accept from a group, determined via displacement analysis.

MICE: It stands for Meeting, Incentive, Conference, and Exhibition. It is a kind of travel in which large, planned, and advanced groups are brought together for a specific purpose.

MLOS: Minimum Length of Stay is the minimum span of time for which a booking has to be made to be validated.

MPI: Market Penetration Index is a KPI which measures your performance with respect to your competitors on the basis of occupancy. It is your occupancy results versus the average occupancy of your competitors.

MTD: Month to date is a period starting to the beginning of the current month and ending at the current date.

Mystery Guest: When an employee of an external organization visits a hotel as an undercover guest to check the quality of the services offered by the hotel, he is known as the mystery guest.

N

Net Rate: A hotel rate given by travel agents and tour companies that can be marked up and sold at a higher rate to the end customer.

No-Show: Term for reservations where the confirmed party does not show up without contacting the hotel to cancel or change.

O

OOO: Out of Order

Occupancy: The measure of fill by dividing the total number of rooms occupied by the number of rooms available.

Occupancy Forecast: A prediction of occupancy for a set period that helps hotels define their business goals. Usually communicated as a number of rooms or percentage of total rooms available.

Occupancy Rate: An average of occupancy over a defined period of dates.

Offsite: A company meeting or function that occurs off company grounds and requires external space.

OTA: Acronym for Online Travel Agent/Agencies such as Expedia.

Other Revenue: Term for group revenue that is not made from room blocks or food and beverage.

Opaque Model: In this business model the customer does not know the brand of the product before they purchase it. Or in a bundled package, they do not know the price of the components.

Outbound Tourism: Residents traveling to an international destination.

Outside Vendor: Any supplier that is not in-house nor a preferred vendor of the hotel.

Overbooking: When more rooms are sold than are physically available to sell.

Owner’s Priority: An incentive fee included in hotel management agreements earned by a manager after the owner receives a return of a specified portion of the investment in the property.

Owner’s Total Investment: Includes total amounts spent to acquire, develop, construct, and finance the hotel.

P

Parity: It is the policy for maintaining the price consistent between all the sales channel

Partition: Portable wall or barrier that is wheel-mounted and can be used to divide a large space into smaller spaces.

Pax: Another term for number of people or passengers.

Peak Night: Term for the date of an event where the room block is the largest.

Peak Season: Season or set of dates where occupancy for a hotel is at its highest.

Pipe & Drape: Tubing and drapery that separates individual booths or stations. Usually constructed of lightweight aluminum.

Pitfalls: A danger or problem that is hidden or unexpected.

Positive Space: A confirmed reservation.

POS: Point of Sale is the combination of software and hardware on the front desk of the store or a hotel. It allows the businesses to sell the product and take payment and record the whole transaction on the system.

PPPN: Industry acronym for per person, per night.

PRPN: Industry acronym for per room, per night.

Press Trip: Travels with the main purpose of writing about that destination.

Preferred Rate: A negotiated rate between the hotel and a specific client.

Programme: A schedule that gives the details and times for pieces of the event agenda.

Profits Per Available Room (ProPAR): A metric that calculates net revenue per available room. Also known as Net RevPAR.

Property Management System (PMS): A software hotels use to manage all operations.

Proprietary Booking Engine: An individual or group of hotels that own and operate their Internet reservation system.

Proposal: General information about what services and products a hotel can offer for customer’s meeting or event.

Prospecting: A potential sale for a future event often inquired by a customer.

Protected: A guarantee from a supplier or wholesaler to reimburse an agent commission and client on prepaid confirmed bookings, regardless of cancellation.

Q

Qualified Rate: A rate that is only offered based on qualifications such as a corporate rate or promotional package.

Qualifying Questions: Particular questions from hotels used to examine potential business.

Quick Set: A setup template that reduces turnover times and work between events and thus results in a price break for the group.

Quin: Refers to hotel rooms that can accommodate five people.

R

Rack Rate: The original price of a hotel room before any discounts or promotional rates are applied.

Rate Parity: Under certain conditions, a travel supplier, such as a hotel, keeps the same price across all different distribution channels.

RDR: Residential Delegate Rate is the price per person in a conference including the charges for the conference room, snacks, catering and overnight stay.

Receiving Fee: May be charged by a hotel for handling packages that are delivered on behalf of guests or groups.

Receptive Operator: Specialists who handle arrangements for incoming visitors, such as airport transfers, restaurants, and accommodations.

Refreshment Break: Period between sessions of an event that is accompanied by snacks and beverages.

Refundable Deposit: Deposit that may be returned if certain conditions are not met by the supplier.

Repeat Business: Returning business generating increase in profits

Repeat Booking: When repeat business is booked on behalf of the same client.

Request for Information (RFI): Sent to a hotel or venue to request further details as to the property and event space.

Request for Proposals (RFP): Document containing the services and requirements for an event that is sent to hotels to solicit a bid.

Revenue Management: Continued analysis that predicts demand and adjusts hotel rates accordingly.

RevPar: Revenue per available room calculated on the number of rooms available to sell in a hotel.

RevPAR Index (RPI): Metric that indicates how a specific hotels RevPar compares to that of its compset.

Revenue Per Available Square Foot (REVPAS): A metric that used to calculate the performance of a hotel in regards to event space bookings. RevPAS = Total space rental revenue / total square feet of event space.

Room Block: A specific set or count of rooms that are reserved for guests in a group.

Room Class: A grouping of rooms based on similar value characteristics.

Room Nights: Rooms blocked or occupied multiplied by the number of nights the rooms are reserved.

Room Rack: A continually updated card index system reflecting occupied and vacant rooms

Rooms Management Module: An application from a computer-based property management system used in the front office to maintain up-to-date information on the status of rooms, assists in the assignment of rooms during registration, and helps coordinate various guest services

Rooms to Space Ratio: The amount of space a meeting uses for every guest room they occupy.

Rooms Yield: An equation averaging revenue from all rooms, divided by number of rooms in a hotel, divided by 365 nights.

Run Of House (ROH): ROH in hotel terms means a basic room type with no guaranteed specific amenities.

S

Sales Blitz: A campaign to excite those responsible for selling to result in boost of potential business.

Sales Yield: The income or profit arising from sales.

Scout Lead: A research tool to scope out potential sale lead.

Second Tier City: More appropriately referred to as a midsize city. Term for popular event city that does not meet infrastructural requirements such as convention space to be considered a first-tier city.

Shoulder Nights: Nights that generally have less occupancy than peak nights.

Shoulder Season: Period adjacent to the peak season with lower occupancy, but not the lowest occupancy of the year.

Short Lead: When a booking is made on a short notice i.e. one or two days prior to the arrival

Site Inspection: In-person evaluation of the hotel and event space by a planner.

SIT: Special Interest Travel.

Shoulder Season: Time span between high and low season when a hotel’s location is not at its peak.

SMERF: An acronym for the group travel market for social, military, educational, religious, and fraternal segment.

Smith Travel Research (STR) Rate: A series of reports, monthly, weekly, or daily, tracking supply and demand data for the hotel industry.

Snag List: It is a list of problems and issues which needs to be addressed before the opening of a hotel. The snag list in a project is made by the client on contains the points which are not up to the expectations of the client.

Soft Lunch: The Soft launch of a hotel is opening the hotel with limited services, it is done to test the services and working of the hotel before the final launch.

Sous Chef: A sous chef is second in command after the executive chef in a commercial grade kitchen like a restaurant, hotel or cruise ship.

Social Event: An event with the primary purpose of networking or celebrating a life event such as a wedding.

Source of Business: A breakdown structure a hotel uses to track how business brought in and which channel it came from.

Squatters: They are the guests who stay in a hotel for a longer time than the agreed period without paying for it.

Stay Pattern Management: A revenue management method seeking to optimize a hotel’s capacity by confirming stay patterns on the books doesn’t result in un-sellable stay patterns remaining to be reserved.

Stop Sell: The act of stopping the hotel from being booked on distribution channels, used when hotel is sold out during a certain time period.

Sustainable Tourism: It is a kind of tourism in which travelers visit a place to make a positive impact on the environment. They may stay in a hotel which is made on the basis of sustainable practices.

T

TAC: Travel Agent Commission is the percentage share in the prices of the Hotel Inventories, Air Tickets and other travel related services which are paid to Travel Agents on the bookings referred by them.

Third Party Planner: An experienced intermediary who may coordinate site selection or end-to-end event management for a planner.

Total RevPAR: Total revenue per available room. The sum of net revenues from all operating departments in addition to rentals and other income per available room for the time period, divided by total available rooms during a specified time period.

Trade Show: Industry-specific exhibition of products or services. An exhibition of products and/or services held for members of a common or related industry. Not open to the general public.

Transient Business: Segment of business comprised of individual bookings as opposed to bookings from a group.

Transient Demand: Prediction for business from the transient segment for an upcoming period.

Transient Occupancy Tax: City or County tax added to the price of a hotel room.

Trial Close: A technique used to close a sale by ensuring the stakeholder understands the conditions of purchase and is serious about buying.

Turn: The process of completely changing a meeting room set-up from one event to the next.

Two-pack Hotels: A conjoined property of two hotels that share resources, such as back-of-house operations, but operate separately.

U

UGC: User Generated Content is the i.e. blogs, reviews, audio, images, video, and any kind of the content that was created by the end-users on an internet website, which is available for other users.

Unconference: Conference where the agenda is dictated in real-time by participants. Usually favors discussion and interaction.

Unconstrained Demand: The demand for a hotel regardless of any capacity limitations.

Unqualified Rates: Rates offered to hotel guests without restrictions or conditions for booking.

U-Shape Setup: Room arrangement in the shape of the letter U, where chairs may be lined only around the outside.

Upsell: Upselling is to motivate or persuade a customer who is buying something to buy more or something more expensive.

V

Very Important Person (VIP): Individual who should receive special or elevated treatment based on their role or relationship to an event.

Voice: Taking a hotel reservation over the phone.

W

Walk: Moving guests to a nearby hotel when overbooking occurs.

Walk-in: When a guest directly arrives at the hotel without any pre-booking and reserves a room at high rates, then it is called walk-in.

War Room: Another term for the office for meeting on-site staff.

Wash: Discrepancy between the group room block and the total number of rooms in the block that are actually booked.

WBE: A web booking engine is the same as an Internet Booking Engine. It is a website that allows a consumer to book flights, hotels, and other travel-related services.

Wholesaler: A third-party organization that sells hotel rooms such as sites, distribution channels, extranets, or merchants.

WTM: World Travel Market is an event in the UK for the global travel industry launched in London Olympics 1980.

WTO: World Travel Organization is the United Nation Agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.

WTTC: World Travel and Tourism Council is the body representing the private tour and travel industry on a global platform.

X

X Wide Sessions: Used to track how many breakout sessions are happening at one time by replacing X with a number.

Y

Yield: It is the profit of the hotel when a room is sold.

Yield Management: Process of understanding, anticipating, and reacting to consumer behavior to maximize revenue. Also known as Revenue Management.

YTD: Year to date is the period between the first day of a year to the current date. The year can be the calendar year or the fiscal year.

YOY: Year over year is a way of financial comparison on the same day of two consecutive years. With this method, you can compare two measurable events on an annual basis. It is mainly used to compare the financial progress of the hotel.

Z

Z Hotel: A boutique hotel set in various locations around the world.

Zero-Hour Contract: It is a working contract between an employer and employee in which the employer is not bound to provide any minimum working hour while the employee is not bound to accept any work offered.

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