Hotel Front Office Glossary

Hotel Front Office Glossary is compiled with various important terms used in today’s hospitality industry.

1. Account Balance – Difference between charge and credits in an account
2. Account – Summary of all cash and credit transactions
3. Accounts receivable – Amounts due to the hotel
4. Airline Contract Rate – A special negotiated rate for airline crews
5. All Inclusive – A billing arrangement under which room charges include the guestroom, meals, beverages and activities. Front Office Glossary [FOG 15]
6. Allowance – A benefit given to the guest in cash or credit
7. American Plan – Charges for room and all meals
8. Arrival – A guest who has come for check-in
9. Back of the house – The functional areas of the hotel in which staff have little or no guest contact, such as engineering, accounting.
10. Bed & Breakfast Plan – Charges for room and English breakfast
11. Blocking – To reserve a room on the reservation chart for a guest expected to arrive
12. Call Accounting System (CAS) – A device linked to the hotel telephone system that accurately accounts for guest telephone calls by identifying each phone number dialed from guestroom telephones and tracking charges
13. Cancellation – A confirmed booking that has been withdrawn by the guest
14. Cancellation hour – the hour after which a property may release for sale all unclaimed non-guaranteed reservations, according to property’s policy.
15. Casino Hotel – A hotel designed with all gambling facilities for 24 hours
16. Check-in – A guest who has registered at the front desk
17. Check-out – A guest who has completed his billing formalities and departed
18. City Ledger – The collection of all non-guest accounts including house accounts and unsettled departed guest accounts. Front Office Glossary [FOG 11]
19. Complimentary – Free use of room or services
20. Confirmation – A room reservation confirmed in writing by a guest
21. Continental Plan – Charges for room and Continental Breakfast
22. Convention – A large gathering of people of the same vocation
23. Corporate Rate – A rate for business houses that guarantee a minimum number of room nights per year
24. Credit – A facility that enables a guest to use goods and services now but paid later
25. Crew – Airline flight and cabin crew
26. Crib Rate – A cradle provided in the room for infants
27. 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 given to the general rooms’ inventory for sale.
28. Daily Sales Recapitulation – A transcript of all sales of the hotel
29. Day Rate – A rate for guests who are not staying overnight
30. Debit – Charge to an account
31. Departure – A guest checking out of the hotel
32. Diplomatic Rate –Do-not-Disturb – A guest requesting not to be disturbed
33. Double Occupancy – Room occupied by two persons
34. Due Back – Cash amount owed to the cashier
35. Due Out – An occupied room expected to be vacated
36. European Plan – Charges for the room only
37. Family Rate – A rate found mostly in resorts for families on holiday
38. FIT – Free Individual Traveller, an independent guest, who books the rooms directly in the hotels
39. Floor Limit – A limit assigned to hotels by credit card companies indicating the maximum amount in credit card charges the hotel is permitted to accept from a card member without special authorization
40. Forecast – A studied anticipation of room business
41. Frequent Traveller Rate – A rate that gains discounts for frequent use of the property under a Frequent Traveller Program
42. Front of the house – The functional areas of the hotel in which staff have extensive guest contact, such as the food and beverage and front office
43. GIT – Group Inclusive Traveller
44. Government Rate – A negotiated discounted rate with government bodies for their travelling officials and foreign visitors
45. Group Rate – A discounted rate for groups in view of volume business
46. Group – 15 or more guests travelling together
47. Guest Folio – A master bill of a resident guest
48. Hotel Federation Rate – A courtesy rate to all members of the hotel federation
49. Housekeeping Status Report – A report prepared by the housekeeping department indicating the current housekeeping status of each room, based on a physical check. Front Office Glossary [FOG 132]
50. House Count – The number of guests residing in the hotel
51. House Limit – A guest credit limit established by the hotel’s management
52. Incidental Charges – Charges made to a guest account other than the charges and tax for the guestroom
53. Late Charge – Amount posted to a guest account after check-out.
54. Late Check-out – A guest who has requested a departure beyond the official check-out time of the hotel
55. Left Luggage – Guest baggage that is temporarily kept with the hotel, to be claimed later
56. Master Folio – Common statement of account maintained generally for groups
57. Modified American Plan – Charges for room plus breakfast and lunch or dinner
58. No Baggage – A guest with no luggage
59. Non-group displacement – the turning away of transient guests for lack of rooms due to the acceptance of group business. Front Office Glossary [FOG 149]
60. Non-guest Account – Account of transactions of companies, groups and non-resident individuals
61. No-show – a guest who made a room reservation but did not register or cancel.
62. Occupancy – The number of saleable rooms occupied by guests
63. Occupancy Report – A report prepared each night by a front desk agent that lists the rooms occupied that night and indicates those guests expected to check out the following day
64. Outstanding Postings – The charges and credits awaiting entry in the guest folio
65. Overbooking – Booking rooms that are beyond the hotel room capacity
66. Package Rate – A rate quoted when there are events in the city and includes the price of access to the events
67. Paid-in-advance (PIA) – A guest who pays his or her room charges in cash during registration. PIA guests are denied in-house credit.
68. Paid-Out – Authorized cash payment made on behalf of a guest and charged to the guest’s account as a cash advances
69. Point-of-sale(POS) system – An automated network that allows electronic cash registers at the hotel’s points of sale to communicate directly with a front office system
70. Posting – Entry made in the guest folio
71. Rack Rate – The official rate of a particular category of a room established by the hotel on a given day
72. Revenue Centre – A hotel division or department that sells products or services to the guests and thereby directly generates revenue for the hotel such as the front office, food and beverage outlets, room service and retail stores
73. Room Allocation – Assigning a room to a guest after he has registered into the hotel
74. Room Discrepancy Report – A report listing any discrepancies between front desk and housekeeping room status. Front Office Glossary [FOG 159]
75. Room Night – A charge for a one night occupation, spanning two days from noon to noon
76. Room Plan – A package proposal of room and meals in a single price
77. Room Revenue Day – 12 noon to 12 noon of the next day
78. Room Status Discrepancies – A situation in which the housekeeping department’s description of a room’s status differs from the room status information that guides front desk employees in assigning rooms to guests
79. Room Tariff – Room rate
80. Sales Summary Sheet – A record of all cash and credit sales made in a revenue outlet
81. Scanty Baggage- A guest with small hand luggage
82. Seamless connectivity – the ability of travel agents to book reservations directly into hotel reservation systems as well as verify room availability and rates. Front Office Glossary [FOG 157]
83. Self-registration – A computerized system that automatically registers a guest and dispenses a guestroom key, based on the guest’s reservation and credit card information
84. Skipper- A guest who has departed without settling the bill.
85. Sold Out – It is a status in which all the rooms in the hotel are sold
86. Support Centre – A hotel division or department that does not generate revenue directly but support the hotel’s revenue centres such as food production department, housekeeping, accounting, engineering and maintenance and human resources
87. TDD – Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf is a specially designed piece of equipment which looks like a small typewriter
88. Tourist Huts – An independent suite A negotiated discounted rate to attract diplomatic business detached from the main hotel lobby. They are generally found in resorts for greater privacy and exclusivity. Some huts or cottages have independent mini kitchens.
89. Trade Rate – A negotiated discounted rate with trade organizations that guarantee a minimum number of room nights
90. Transaction – Exchange of cash or credit for services purchased
91. Travel Agents Rate – A negotiated rate for volume business through travel agents
92. Travel Writers Rate – a discounted rate to encourage them to write about the hotel and facilities
93. Under stay- A guest who has checked out before his expected date of departure.
94. Upgrade – Change of room status to a higher rate and standard
95. Upselling – A sales technique where a guest is offered a more expensive room than what he/she reserved or requested and is then persuaded to rent the room based on the room’s features and benefits and his/her needs
96. Wake-up Call – A system to awaken guests at a time requested by them
97. Walk-ins – Guests who arrive at hotel without prior reservation
98. Walking (a guest) – Turning away a guest because of a lack of rooms
99. Wash down – blocking fewer rooms than the number requested by a group based on the group’s history.