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 Cancellation – A confirmed booking that has been withdrawn by the guest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.
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