Front office terminology
Front office personnel use specific terminologies in their work. Here is a list of some commonly used terms in the hotel industry with their meanings:
American plan – A room rate that includes meals, usually breakfast and evening meals as well as room rental in the room rate.
Average Daily Rate ( ADR ) – A measure of the hotel staff’s ability to sell available room rates; the method to compute the ADR is Room revenue/number of rooms sold.
Cashier’s report – A daily cash control report that lists cashier activity of cash and credit cards and machine totals by cashier shift.
Chain – A group of hotels that follow standard operating procedures such as marketing, reservations, quality of service, food and beverage operations, housekeeping, and accounting.
Commercial hotels – Hotels that provide short-term accommodation for traveling guests.
Commercial rate – Room rates for business people who represent a company but do not necessarily have bargaining power because of their infrequent or sporadic pattern of travel
Complimentary rate – A rate with no charge to the guest.
Concierge – A person who provides an endless array of information on entertainment, sports, amusement, transportation, tours, church services, and babysitting in a particular city or town.
Conference call – A conversation in which three or more persons are linked by telephone.
Confirmed reservations – Prospective guests who have a reservation for accommodations are honored until a specified time.
Continental breakfast – Juice, fruit, sweet roll, and/or cereal.
Concierge – A person who provides an endless array of information on entertainment, sports, amusement, transportation, tours, church services, and babysitting in a particular city or town.
Conference call – A conversation in which three or more persons are linked by telephone.
Confirmed reservations – Prospective guests who have a reservation for accommodations are honored until a specified time.
Customer relationship management – A system that allows hotel managers to integrate technology to support customer service techniques that provide top-notch customer service.
Cycle of service – The progression of a guest’s request for products and services through a hotel’s department.
Daily blocking – assigning guests to their particular rooms daily.
Daily sales report – A financial activity report produced by a department in a hotel that reflects daily sales activities with accompanying cash register tapes or point-of-sales audit tapes.
Debit cards – Embossed plastic cards with a magnetic strip on the reverse side that authorize the direct transfer of funds from a customer’s bank account to the commercial organization’s bank account for the purchase of goods and services.
Deep cleaning – A thorough cleaning of furniture and accessories, windows, flooring, and walls.
Double Occupancy Percentage – A measure of a hotel’s staff ability to attract more than one guest to a room; the method to compute double occupancy percentage is :
Number of guests – number of rooms sold / number of rooms sold X 100%.
Eco-tourists – Tourists who plan a vacation to understand the culture and environment of a particular area
Electronic key – A plastic key with electronic codes embedded on a magnetic strip.
European plan – A rate that quotes room charges only.
Express check out – Means by which the guest uses computer technology in a guest room or a computer in the hotel lobby to check out.
Family rate – room rates are offered to encourage visits by families with children.
Float – The delay in payment from an account after using a credit card or personal check.
The floor limit is the maximum amount guests can charge on their credit card.
Folio – A guest’s record of charges and payment.
Forecasting – Projecting room sales for a specific period.
Full house – 100 percent hotel occupancy; a hotel that has all its guest rooms occupied.
Cabana – A room adjacent to the pool area, with or without sleeping facilities, but with provision for relaxing on a sofa. It is mainly used for changing.
DND Card – A do not disturb card is hung outside the room to inform hotel staff or visitors that the occupant does not wish to be disturbed.
Double Locked (DL) – An occupied room in which the deadbolt has been turned to prohibit entry from the corridor. Only a grandmaster key or an emergency key can open it.
Dry Cleaning – The cleaning of fabrics in a substantially non-aqueous liquid medium.
Duplex – A two-story suite with a parlor and bedrooms connected by a stairway.
Duvet – Quilts filled with down feather or synthetic fibers. Many hotels use duvets with a decorative duvet cover instead of both blankets and bedspread. They are sometimes referred to as comforters.
Floor pantry – A service room is provided on each floor for GRAs to store cleaning agents, equipment, guest supplies, guest room linen, and maid’s cart.
Forecasting – Projecting room sales for a specific period.
Handle with care (HWC) guest – Guests who may have had some unpleasant experiences in the hotel or had some complaints, genuine or otherwise, are labeled as “ handle with care “guests by the hotel for the remainder of their stay or future sojourn.
House count – The number of persons registered in a hotel on a specific night.
Housekeeping room status – Terminology that indicates the availability of guest room such as available, clean or ready ( room is ready to be occupied ), occupied ( guest or guests are already occupying a room ), dirty or stay over ( guest will not be checking out of a room on the current day ), on change ( guest has checked out of the room, but housekeeping staff has not released the room for occupancy), and out of order ( the room is not available for occupancy because of a mechanical malfunction)
King-size bed – The largest size of bed available, with dimensions of 78 inches x 80 inches (Eastern King) or 72 x 80 inches ( California King)
Late charges – Guest charges that might not be included on the guest folio because of a delay in posting by another department.
Luggage rack – A furniture item provided in guestrooms for placing the guest’s luggage on.
Makeup – servicing of the room while a guest is registered in the room.
Manager’s report – A listing of occupancy statistics from the previous day, such as occupancy percentage, yield percentage, average daily rate, Rev PAR, and number of guests.
MICE – Meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions. This segment is now a big revenue generator for the hotels. Certain hotels cater specially to the MICE customer.
Mini bar – A fixture in modern guestrooms, this is a miniature refrigerator stocked with juices, liquor, and snacks for the convenience of guests.
Motels – Hotels that are located primarily on highways. They provide modest lodgings to highway travelers. Most motels provide ample parking space and may be located near a petrol station.
Night Audit – the control process whereby the financial activity of guests’ accounts is maintained and balanced daily.
No-show factor – Percentage of guests with confirmed or guaranteed reservations who do not show up.
Occupancy percentage – The number of rooms sold divided by the number of rooms available.
OOO – Out of Order is the status of a guestroom that is not rentable because it is being repaired or redecorated.
Overbooking – Accepting reservations for more rooms than are available by forecasting the number of no-show reservations, stayovers, understays, and walk-ins, to attain 100 percent occupancy.
Package Rate – Room rate that include goods and services in addition to rental of a room.
Paid in advance (PIA) – Guest who paid cash at check-in.
Queen-size bed – A queen-size bed has the dimensions 5 ft 6 in x 6 ft 6 in.
Rack rate – The highest room rate category offered by a hotel.
Registration card – A form on which the guest indicates name, home or billing address, phone number, date of departure, method of payment, etc.
Room blocking – reserving rooms for guests who are holding reservations.
Room revenue – The amount of room sales received.
Room sales projections – A weekly report prepared and distributed by the front office manager that indicates the number of departures, arrivals, walk-ins, stayovers, and no-shows.
Room status report – A report that allows the housekeeping department to identify the occupancy or condition of the property’s rooms. It is generated daily through two-way communication between housekeeping and the front office.
Runners – In this context, lengths of matting made of synthetic or natural fibers, are placed at entrances to prevent dirt and dust from entering the building. (Another use of the term runner in housekeeping is for a person who is charged with the duty of conveying orders from the housekeeping department to the staff on the guest floor).
Scanty baggage – A room status indicating a room assigned to a guest with small, light, and few pieces of luggage that could be carried away without obviously indicating a departure, should a guest walk out with them.
Self-check-in process – A procedure that requires the guest to insert a credit card with a magnetic stripe containing personal and financial data into a self-check-in terminal and answer a few simple questions concerning the guest's stay.
Skipper – A room status that indicates the guest has left the hotel without making arrangements to settle his/her account.
Sleeper – A room status means that the guest has settled his/her account and left the hotel but the front office staff have failed to update the room status.
Stayovers – currently registered guest who wish to extend their stay beyond the time for which they made reservations.
Vacant – The status of a room in which no guest has slept the previous night and which is not yet occupied.
Walk-in guest – Guest who requests a room rental without having made a reservation.
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