APAC
Asia/Pacific (including Australia). Different from Aus-Pac and Oceania.

Access code
Unique identifying code that is used to securely book a predefined rate. These codes are determined by the individual company advertising the special rate.

Accounts
User accounts are created by individual users and can be removed at the user’s convenience.

Add-on
A platform extension that adds extra features and is chosen by the end user. It may extend certain functions within the application, add new items to the application's interface, or give the program additional capabilities. It may or may not have a cost associated.

Advanced purchase
Refers to an offering an accommodation provider may make, in which a customer booking outside a specified range of dates receives a specified discount. Most often seen as 30-day advanced purchase specials, these may be as low or high with as little or as much discount as a hotelier pleases.

Airport code
A three-letter identifier designating a specific airport. Properties are often referenced to airport codes in the global distribution system (GDS).

Allotment
It is a block of pre-negotiated hotel rooms which have been bought out and held by third parties, such as tour operators, wholesalers, online travel agencies or travel agents.

Alt attribute (commonly known as alt tags)
Text descriptions for your images, used to describe them for accessibility reasons. This is useful for people who suffer from vision impairment. They also help search engines understand your content, which helps you rank higher by following search engine optimisation (SEO) best practices.

Americas
North, Central and South America.

Analytical market segmentation
A rule-based process used to create optimal revenue management segmentation from reservation data to support both the best basis for forecast and optimisation and key organisational reporting and business intelligence requirements.

API key
An application programming interface (API) key is a code used to identify and authenticate an application or user.

App (short for application)
A computer program that performs a special function.

Application programming interface (API)
A set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. They clearly define methods of communication among various components.

Aus-Pac (also called Oceania)
Australia, New Zealand and all Pacific Islands.

Availability
The number of vacancies possible for a specific type of accommodation for a specific set of dates.

Availability and rates interface (ARI)
A system for transferring a property's room availability and pricing details between systems, such as a channel manager and booking channels.

Availability grid
The grid where room availability is managed in the product’s extranet, displaying the availability, price, and inclusions of a rate plan/room rate.

Average booking value per available room (ABVPOR)
Calculated by subtracting your cost per occupied room (CPOR) from your average daily rate (ADR), then multiplying it by the number of rooms occupied.

Average daily rate (ADR)
Figure derived by dividing actual daily revenue by the total number of rooms sold.

Average length of stay (ALOS)
The total room nights in an accommodation provider divided by the number of reservations made. It is used to keep track of property’s performance in attracting and keeping guests in house. Formula: Total occupied room nights divided by the total number of reservations.

Average room rate (ARR)
Figure derived by dividing actual accommodation revenue (daily/monthly/weekly/annually-defined period of time) by the total number of rooms sold.

Bankers’ automated clearing services (BACS)
An electronic transfer of funds between banks.

Base allocationRefers to a fixed allocation which a property has pre-agreed to make available at all times with a specified party. For example, if a hotel has agreed to a guaranteed allotment of 3 double rooms with an online travel agency, which in turn, will always have a fixed number of 3 double rooms available to book, in addition to whatever dynamic allotment comes from SiteMinder. Importantly,

Best available rate (BAR)
The lowest non-restricted rate bookable by all guests. This rate can change several times a week up to several times a day. Also called “Best flexible rate” (BFR).

Best rate guarantee (BRG)
The promise that hotels or online travel agencies will display the best rates on their own site as compared to any other site for the same product.

Blockout dates

A feature which will make the selected room unavailable for many different reasons (renovations/cleaning/fumigation) during the blockout period. Simply by clicking on the reservation or required day to process a blockout day and entering required details.

Board plan
It is a plan where a guest is provided with an accommodation, as well as meals on a comprehensive basis. “Half board” is where the host provides only breakfast and dinner meals. “Full board” is where the host provides all three daily meals.

Booking (or reservation)
An arrangement to have a room held for your use at a later time.

Booking channel
A method or system for distribution on which travellers can search for and book rooms at accommodation providers. Also referred to as channel, booking website, online travel agency (OTA), travel website and distribution channel.

Booking engine
A booking engine (also known as Online booking engine, Internet booking engine or direct booking engine) is an application that supports reservations through the Internet - most commonly the hotel's own website.

Booking summary (also known as Reservation summary)
A summary of the guest’s reservation details provided by the accommodation to the guest. It may include the accommodation's contact details, amount of guests under the reservation, check-in and check-out dates, room type, amounts charged, owed and paid, etc.

Bounce/Bounce rate
A bounce is calculated specifically as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server, such as when a user opens a single page on a website and exits without performing a specific action.
​Boutique hotel
It is a small hotel which has between 10 and 100 rooms, offering a unique decor and personalised service.

Bulk update
A tool within the extranet which allows multiple updates to be made at the same time to a room rate.Business mixThe blend of different market segments that occupy a hotel, measured as a value or percent of occupancy.

CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language describing how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen, such as design, colour, layout for different devices and screen sizes, etc.

CSV
A Comma Separated Values (CSV) file is a plain text file. Each line of the file is a data record.

CVV or CVC
Credit-card verification value (CVV) or Card verification code (CVC). It is a security code typically located on the back of credit cards (front for American Express) which is used by many payment systems as a security validation.

Call to action (CTA)
A piece of content, generally in the form of a button, intended to induce a viewer, reader, or listener to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive (e.g., “book now” or “click here”).

Campaign
A strategic sequence of steps and activities that promote a company's product or service, with a specific goal in mind.

Cancellation policy
The set of rules that the hotel applies in case of cancellation of a reservation.

Canonical name record (also known as Cname record)
A canonical name record maps one domain name to another. This is useful when you want to map your domain to a service such as SiteMinder’s website builder.

Central reservation system (CRS) (also known as computer reservations system)
The application used to manage a property’s distribution and hotel reservations. It stores, distributes and disburses information of properties across an online network; typically will be used to reach guests via multiple distribution channels such as travel agencies (via GDS), online travel agencies (such as Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline and others), direct to the hotel website, and telephone (either via call centre, direct to property or both). Predominately used by hotel groups and chains.

Chain code
An identifier code of two characters, used by global distribution systems (GDSs) to identify hotel chains.

Chalet
A kind of farmhouse, low and with wide eaves, common in Alpine regions, having a particular architectural style.

Channel inclusions
Refers to what has been included as part of a room rate (i.e. Wi-Fi connection, breakfast, etc.).

Channel management
The controlling of the allocation of hotel inventory and rates across all distribution channels including website, third parties and the global distribution system. Effective channel management solutions should reduce labour costs and improve efficiency by providing a centralised way to control multiple channels.

Channel manager
A channel manager allows properties to manage inventory, rates, availability, restrictions, etc. on a number of sales channels, allowing properties to manage their rooms and reservations, reduce time, increase revenue, and prevent duplicate bookings, by continually updating data across all of the distribution channels they may use including direct online bookings, travel wholesalers, contact centres, and online travel agencies to name a few.

Churn/Churn rate
The churn rate, also known as the rate of attrition or customer churn, is the rate at which customers stop doing business with an entity.

Closed to arrival (CTA)
A functionality used to control inventory. It indicates that guests may stay over this date and check out on this date, but they may not make a booking which checks in on this date. This is very common to see during busy holiday periods, where hotels do not want to close the property altogether, but do not want to employ reservation staff at holiday rates. Often used in conjunction with “close to departure (CTD)”.

Closed to departure (CTD)
A functionality used to control inventory. It is a restriction by which the hotel can restrict any check-outs on a specific day. Guests may stay over this date and check in on this date, but they may not make a booking which checks out on this date. Often used in conjunction with “close to arrival (CTA)”.

Cloud platform
Cloud: COMPUTING
A network of remote servers hosted on the Internet and used to store, manage, and process data in place of local servers or personal computers.

Commission
That payment that a booking channel (such as Agoda or Booking.com) receives from a supplier (property) for selling accommodation or other services.

Competitive set (also known as Comp. set)
A group of a hotel’s direct competitors.

Conversion rate
The ratio of website visitors converted into paying customers.

Concierge
A hotel employee whose job is to assist guests, including booking tours, making restaurant reservations, etc.

Cost per click (CPC) (also called pay per click)
An Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked on.

Cost per occupied room (CPOR)
The formula for CPOR calculates the average cost per occupied room. It is used to analyse if the operating cost for each room is profitable. CPOR formula: Total, gross operating profit divided per number of rooms sold.

Cottage
A small, modest house at a lake, mountain resort, etc., owned or rented as a holiday home.

Currency conversion
The process of converting one form of currency into another country's usable currency. It is based on the country's currency current exchange rates.

Customer relationship manager (CRM)
The name given to increasingly sophisticated programs to maintain close, lasting relationships between a company and its customers, between a hotel and its guests.

Dashboard
A dashboard provides at-a-glance views of key performance indicators, ability to manage property and user settings in one location.

Deal
An advantageous purchase, especially one acquired at less than the usual cost. A marketing tool used to draw attention to a specific rate plan that offers discounted rooms and specials.

Demand based pricing (DBP)
A technique for applying revenue management principles to move rate based upon demand within the marketplace and what the market will bear.

Deposit
A specified amount or percentage of the total bill due to a hotel on a specified date prior to arrival or a certain number of days prior to arrival.

Distribution channel
See Booking channel.

Distribution strategy
Determines when and through what channels to sell rooms based upon the cost of acquisition of the individual channel. By driving business to lower cost acquisition channels during high demand periods, properties can maximise their profitability.

Domain
An internet domain is an administrative structure for organising, delivering and accessing services on the internet.

Domain name
A domain name is usually a memorable web address that is used to access your website.

Domain name system (DNS)
The domain name system (DNS) works like an Internet telephone book. It is a hierarchical and decentralised naming system for computers, services, or other resources connected to the Internet or a private network. DNS translates web browser requests for plain text names like www.siteminder.com into actual websites connected to the Internet.

Dormitory room
A shared room with multiple beds. Shared rooms are sold "per bed" as opposed to “per room”. Not all channels support per-bed sales.

Dynamic packaging
An online reservations process including demand-based hotel rooms pricing and flights and other non-hotel package components such as car hire, tours, etc. It is a term used to describe the ability for consumers to create their own packages by choosing the components of the package as they shop, where the individual component prices are not shown to the consumer.

Dynamic pricing
Also known as fluid pricing, market-driven pricing and demand-based pricing. It is dynamic because rates change with forecasted demand rather than being static. Automated pricing strategy whereby prices are derived from a base rate and altered based on strategic configured settings. Dynamically based prices are distributed through a channel manager from a property management system.

Dynamic room mapping
A channel manager’s room mapping functionality that allows multiple channel rates to be mapped to and managed by a single room rate.

EMEA
Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Early bird
A promotion only available for advanced bookings where a minimum number of days are left between the reservation and the date of check in, often a discounted rate with fencing.

Electronic direct mail (eDM)
They are part of a marketing campaign to promote the sale of products or services and build customer relationships.

End of day (EOD)
A procedure usually performed on PMS software to mark the end of the financial business day of the hotel.

Estimated time of arrival (ETA)
The guest’s estimated time of arrival for check-in.

Extended stay
When a guest stays at a hotel for more than five consecutive days. These hotels quote weekly rates.

Extra guests rate
If there are extra guests above the included occupancy, an extra fee is added to the rate.

FIT
Stands for “flexible independent traveller” or “foreign individual traveller”. It is an individual traveller, not part of a tour group or package stay.

Feature
Distinguishing characteristics of a product, solution or service that help boost its appeal to potential buyers, and might be used to formulate a product marketing strategy that highlights the usefulness of the product to targeted potential consumers.

Feedback
Information about reactions to a product, a person's performance of a task, etc. which is used as a basis for improvement.

Fenced
Rates that a property uses to provide a series of options to guests. The rate is determined by which fences a guest accepts, which might include non-refundable and non-cancelable reservations, advanced purchase reservations, and staying over a weekend.

Flash sales
A promotional sale by an accommodation that is available for purchase by the customers for a limited time only.
​Floor rate
The lowest acceptable amount that an individual or group can be charged, regardless of conditions, demand or yield. The property’s operating cost and revenue budget are factors in setting the floor rate.

Folio
A folio is a collection of charges and payments incurred or made by a guest or corporate account, or in-house account, etc.

Forecasting model
The statistical patterns used for predicting demand, occupancy and revenue.
​Freesale
The practice of selling rooms at a negotiated/confidential/contracted rate with no set allotment or number of rooms, until such time as the rate code is closed. Freesale basis is an excellent option to sell negotiated (discounted) rates in a “yieldable” fashion, as the contract rate may be opened and closed based on forecasted demand. Rooms sold under freesale basis still comply with all rate conditions and applicable contract terms. They utilise an “elastic” group block code in Opera PMS.

Full rate (also called Rack rate)
The official or advertised price of a room, on which a discount can be negotiable. Typically the maximum seasonal charge the property uses for the room.

Full/Fixed pattern length of stay (FPLOS)
A pricing pattern indicating whether a rate is open (available) for the arrival date and length of stay. Calculated and deployed by automated revenue management systems (IDeaS, Duetto, EzRMS, etc.).

Function room occupancy
The measure of how efficiently hotels are utilising their function room space. It is recorded as an occupancy percentage. Formula: Total occupied function room space divided by total square footage/meterage of function room space available.

Funnel
A model of the customer journey. It represents the buying stages people go through after becoming aware of a business, service, or product.

General data protection regulation (GDPR)
A regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. The GDPR aims primarily to give control to individuals over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU.

General sales agent (GSA)
A person or company contracted by a hotel chain to promote that chain in a city or country where the hotel chain does not have offices. In some cases, general sales agents accept hotel reservations.

Geocoding
The process of indexing locations using degrees longitude and latitude.

Global distribution system (GDS)
A reservation platform started by code sharing airline partners to enable reservations for airlines. Hotels, cars and cruise companies were later included. There are four major GDS companies. Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus and WorldSpan (Galileo and WorldSpan are owned by Travelport) offering a comprehensive travel shopping and reservation platform to travel agents worldwide. Agents use one of these systems to book airline, car, hotel and other travel arrangements for their customers. Online travel agencies also use one or more GDS to power some or all of their content on their site.

Google Analytics
A service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website's traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales.

Gross margins
The figure you arrive at after dividing your gross profits by net sales.

Gross operating profit (GOP)
Basically, bottom line in financials – operating revenues minus costs of goods sold.

Gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR)
It is a revenue management term, which is calculated by room revenue minus expenses, divided by the total rooms available.

Group booking
A booking made for multiple rooms/people travelling together. It may require group billing.

Group rate
A discounted rate given to large groups of guests.

Guaranteed reservations
Room reservations booked with a guarantee of payment. They normally require a credit card at the time of booking or deposit within a specified period. The property guarantees availability and if it does not have a room available must arrange alternate comparable accommodation.

Guest
A person staying at an accommodation (i.e., client, paying guest, person staying, hotel customer, patron, etc.).

Guest engagement
A strategy that can be used to influence potential guest behaviour, especially to drive bookings and increase brand loyalty and retention rates.

Hosted payment system
The system that presents a web page where payment information is securely collected.

Hotel chain/group
The hotels that are part of a chain or group and trade under the same brand and management.

Housekeeping asset
A consumable item used to maintain a room type, such as toilet paper, cleaners, soaps, shampoo, etc. All items are not accounted for.

Hurdle rate
A hurdle rate is a threshold (expressed as a monetary value) that will only allow a reservation if the total value of the reservation is greater than the total value of the hurdle rate for the same length of stay. Hurdle rates are used when a room is better off being left unsold than being sold at a lower value.

Hypertext markup language (HTML)
It is a text-based markup language that tells a web browser how to display text, images and other multimedia on a webpage. It is the standard markup language used across the web.

Hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS)
The encrypted communication protocol used to securely transfer information, such as websites’ information, between two systems over a computer (or Internet) network.

Included occupancy
The number of people that a room can be occupied for the price advertised.

Independent hotel
Every hotel that is not part of a hotel group or chain.

Info card
A type of digital identification that allows users to control the sharing of their personal information with third-party applications and services.

Integration
The synchronisation of data, with other software companies (e.g., PMSs, RMSs, hotel applications, etc.) in order to enhance the platform and provide a richer customer experience.

Inventory
The rooms available that the property has to distribute or sell across all channels. It can occasionally be used with reference to the inventory grid, which includes both availability and rates.

Inventory grid
Where day-to-day availability, pricing and restrictions are managed.

Invoice
An invoice is a request for payment made by the property to a company with which it does business.

KioskA device customers can use to self-check-in.

Landing page
A web page which serves as the entry point for a website or a particular section of a website.

LatAm (Latin America)
Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Western Hemisphere where Romance languages such as French, Portuguese and Spanish are predominantly spoken.

Lead time
The time taken between when a customer makes a booking and their actual arrival is called the lead time.

Length of stay (LOS)
Number of nights booked on a reservation.

Licence key
A licence key, also known as a product key, is a unique code that is used to activate a software program. It is a form of digital licence that verifies that the user of the software has purchased a legitimate copy and is entitled to use the program.

Linen asset
A linen asset is an item used to maintain a room type that is reused after laundering such as sheets, blankets, towels, etc. These items quantities are tracked, but not the individual assets.

Listing
A listing is an advertisement to sell the rooms during a certain time period.

Lodge
A large house or hotel.

Lookers to bookers
Refers to the conversion of online shoppers to actual buyers; often communicated in a ratio.

Lose-it rate (also commonly referred to as a walk-away rate)
Refers to a rate where the hotel would be better off leaving the room unsold than sell at this rate. This could be because the hotel expects to find a better group at a rate high enough to take the chance of waiting for it to come along. It is often true if the dates requested are in a peak group season, and if there is significant time left in the group booking window for those dates.

Loyalty
A measure of a customer's likelihood to do repeat business with a company or brand.

Loyalty programme
A marketing programme that offers rewards to guests for regular or frequent business. A loyalty programme may also be a partnership with loyalty programmes of other businesses (e.g. airlines such as Qantas, and hotels such as Hilton Honors or Marriott Rewards). Loyalty may be tracked by points, revenue spend, number of stays, or other means.

Maintenance asset
An item used by the facilities maintenance staff such as a light bulb, caulk, bolts, screws, brooms, carts, mops, etc. Some of these items are traceable/accountable and some are not.

Mark-up
The difference between the supplier’s selling price and merchant’s price offered to the consumer.

Master rate
The main rate from which the linked rates are derived; whenever there is a change on the master rate, it is reflected on the derived rates linked to it.

Maximum length of stay (MaxLOS)
A room inventory control function that limits the number of nights a reservation can stay when arriving on a certain date.

Maximum occupancy
The maximum number of people to occupy the room.

Meal plan
See Board plan.

Merchant model
The merchant model is a business model, usually used by online hotel distribution sites. This business model requires the hotel to offer net rates so that the merchant can mark up the rates for sale to the public. Normally, the consumer must prepay their entire stay at the hotel to the website, who is the merchant of record.

Metasearch engine
Enables users to search for hotels on multiple sites simultaneously from one location and book the best available rate. Examples include TripAdvisor, Trivago, and Google Hotel Finder.

Minimum length of stay (MinLOS)
An inventory control function primarily used to ensure that a peak demand night does not get filled with one-night stays thus blocking the days around it for longer lengths of stay. It requires a reservation to meet or exceed a certain length of stay (two or more) in order to complete the reservation.

Minimum occupancy
The minimum number of people to occupy the room.

Minimum rate
The lowest rate in which a room can be sold. This is set on the property settings.

Minimum stay through (MST)
A restriction that limits availability by specifying a number of nights that must be booked for stays that include the restriction date in any part of the stay date range.

NAm
North America

Negotiated rate
A term used in global distribution systems to describe rates negotiated by a hotel company with a specific client. Viewership of these rates in the GDS by a travel agent or other GDS user is restricted, and the rate may be booked only after entry of either the agent’s or client’s authorisation code.

Net rates/prices
The figure you arrive at after subtracting your costs from your total sales. It is usually used to sell rooms to third-party distribution channels.

Net revenue per available room (NRevPAR)
It is similar to revenue per available room (RevPAR), but it accounts for net revenues, including costs, expenses and commissions.Night auditA night audit is a reconciliation of the previous 24 hours of transactions.No showA guest that, having made a reservation, does not turn up and does not cancel.

Occupancy rate
A measurement of a hotel calculated by dividing the total number of rooms occupied by the total number of rooms available times 100 (e.g. 75% occupancy).

Oceania
See Aus-Pac.

Online travel agencies (OTA)
Websites offering comprehensive travel shopping and reservations solutions to consumers. Examples include Booking.com, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, and many local and regional sites. See Booking channel.

Opaque model
This refers to a business model where the consumer does not know what product/brand they are buying before they purchase it. They know the rate, but not the product. An example site that uses this is Wotif.com’s “Wot Hotel” programme.

Opaque pricing
This refers to prices that a retailer, or meta-search company don’t make available to the public to see. For example, a property might offer their Loyalty/Rewards club members a special price which is not available on public websites or other marketing channels.

Open rate
An email marketing metric that measures the percentage at which emails are opened.

Orders
Expressions of intentions to purchase products or services.

Overbooking
The practice of booking rooms beyond the capacity of the hotel in anticipation that some guests will not show up. This also can occur due to a number of factors including user error or a system malfunction.

Override
To overrule/modify or have dominance over what has been set previously. A substitution of what has been set by a new value/command.

PAX
“PAX” means people/persons/occupants. Pax is the international shorthand version of “passengers”, used almost exclusively by the travel industry.

Package
A collection of components being sold at a single price, where the component prices may or may not be known to the consumer (e.g., a bottle of champagne, breakfast included, etc.).

Partner
All third-party technology providers that work with SiteMinder.

Pay per click (PPC)
See Cost per click (CPC).

Payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS)
PCI DSS compliance is an information security standard for organisations that handle branded credit cards from the major card schemes.

Platform
Single point of entry to a group of technologies and services used as a base upon which applications can be run and integrated to.

Point of sale (POS)
The place where a retail transaction is completed (e.g. restaurant, spa, gift shop, etc.).

Price match guarantee (PMG)
The promise that hotels or OTAs will offer the lowest rates or match the lowest rate available across any channel for the same product.

Product
Application designed to fulfil a particular purpose, solve a particular problem for the end user. Comprising a set of features.

Property ID (also known as Hotel ID)
A unique code assigned to each property.

Property management system (PMS)
The application used by a hotel to control on-site property activities such as check in/out, folios, guest profiles, room status, requests, etc. PMSs can have interfaces between other applications.

QR code
A quick response (QR) code is a type of barcode that stores information and can be read by a digital device, such as a mobile phone.

Radio buttons
Radio buttons are used for answers in multiple choice questions, where the user can choose one option out of a predefined set of options. All available options will display.

Rate fencing
Using restrictions (minimum length of stay, prepayment requirements, non-refundable payments, etc.) to filter out reservations on dates and/or room types which have excess demand. In general, no discount rate should ever be offered without fences, like advance purchase required, minimum stay length, non-refundable, etc.An example of how to use them: If all your business travellers are paying $100 per night, and book within five days of arrival and you need to encourage some extra, non-business revenue, you may want to offer a $79 rate for guests booking two weeks in advance. This advance purchase requirement is a “fence” that keeps the guests already willing to pay $100 from buying your rooms for $79.

Rate linking
Setting room rate to become price dependent on another room rate. When you change the rate/price of the master room rate, then the dependent room rate will change as well.

Rate parity
The strategy that all distribution channels of a hotel should reflect the same rate for the same conditions for a particular room type. Rate parity strengthens customer loyalty and encourages guests to book directly with the hotel where terms/policies may be more flexible, given the same pricing as in other channels.

Rate plan
A deal/package on which a room is sold. For example, room only, room with breakfast included, room with services included, etc.
​Rates
The value a hotel sells their rooms. Also called cost, value, price, tariff, room charge, etc.

Release period
The number of days within which a hotel will not accept bookings from a given source. For example, if a hotel is listed with a three-day release period on an online travel agency (OTA), and today is Monday, customers may not book that hotel's rooms for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday - the first day available is Thursday. This is commonly used for hotels who consistently run near high occupancy, so that they can keep remaining rooms up their sleeve in case of any booking issues, or last-minute important guests.

Restrictions
Controls used as functionalities that can be applied to each room type/room rate to better control reservations and have a successful revenue management strategy.

Retail model
The retail model is similar to the traditional agency in terms of theory. The rates and inventory are “pulled” from one of the global distribution systems (GDSs), or wholesalers, and displayed directly to the consumer to book.

Revenue management (also known as Yield management)
The process of understanding, anticipating and reacting to consumer behaviour to maximise revenue.

​Revenue generation index (RGI)
RGI compares your hotel’s RevPAR to the average RevPAR in the market. It is used to determine if a hotel is gaining a fair share of revenue compared to its competitor set of properties. RGI Formula: RGI = Your Hotel's RevPAR/Hotel Market RevPAR
​When:
RGI = 1 The hotel RevPar is equal to the average RevPar of their comp set
RGI > 1 The hotel RevPar is higher than the average RevPar of their comp set
RGI < 1 The hotel RevPar is less than the average RevPar of their comp set

Revenue management system (RMS)
A software solution which allows hoteliers to carry out important revenue management tasks more effectively. It will make use of data from the hotel and from the market at large in order to help hoteliers to make more informed decisions.

Revenue per available room (RevPAR)
Calculated by taking the average daily room revenue (ADR) of a hotel and dividing it by the total rooms available at that hotel.

Revenue per occupied room (RevPOR)
Calculated by taking the total daily revenue (including ancillary revenues) and dividing it by the total number of occupied rooms at the hotel.

Room block
A group of rooms. Room blocks may be created to organise rooms in various configurations to aid in planning and sales or other management tasks. Examples of room blocks might include: associating rooms with a single fixed price, a single guest, a channel, or a single team of staff members that manage or maintain the rooms in the block.

Room closure
A functionality that closes a physical room for any reason that is not a reservation. A room closure will remove a room from availability.

Room code
A series of alphanumeric characters used in a global distribution system (GDS) to identify a particular room type in a hotel. For example, an A1K is commonly defined as a deluxe room with 1 king bed.

Room rate
The price for your room types. For example: King deluxe, Twin 3-night minimum, Single advanced purchase.

Room type
A room type represents some form of categorisation, set, or collection of rooms with some common element at the hotel that must be managed for marketing purposes within the hotel. For example, a room type might be a suite or a single room with a king bed, poolside or ocean-side. A room may belong to multiple room types (i.e. King room in the honeymoon series).

Search engine optimisation (SEO)
The process of increasing visibility of a website or web page to a web search engine, such as Google. This is used to increase the quality and quantity of website traffic. It involves doing so without the purchase of paid advertisements or other endorsements.

Secure sockets layer (SSL)
An encrypted protocol designed to ensure security over a computer (or Internet) network.

Segments
Segments represent a form of categorisation that targets different groups of customers. It is a part of marketing strategy.

Sell through
A hotel CRS (Computer reservations systems) room inventory control function. It indicates that arrivals or short multiple night reservations cannot be confirmed for this date, but reservations with arrival on a previous date and a long length of stay can be confirmed.

Service contract
A service contract is a legally binding exchange of services promised and agreements between the hotel and service provider that the law will enforce.
Examples of services are:

Sessions
App sessions are when a user interacts with an app following installation.

Single guest discount
A discount that is applied to a room rate pricing when only one guest occupies it.

Software as a Service (SaaS)
A software delivery model in which the software is centrally hosted on the cloud. SiteMinder is a SaaS provider.

Solution
The use of products and/or services and their features to solve a specific industry need or business problem.

Source of business
The marketing channel through which a guest finds the hotel. A source of business can also be a tourism body, airport kiosk, travel agent account, etc.

SPF
Sender policy framework (SPF) records are a necessary step required to be done to prevent emails being marked as spam.

SPID
A Service Profile Identifier (SPID) is a number assigned to an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) line by the telephone company that indicates which services the ISDN device can access.

Stay
The term used for the hotel establishments to refer to the period a guest stays at the hotel.

Stop sell (also known as a close-out or block)
A restriction feature that allows a hotel to put a “stop” on bookings for a specific rate/room and date on an individual channel, even if there are rooms available.

System of recordA system of record is the system that has the core responsibility for collecting and maintaining a specific type of data or information.

Total revenue per available room (TrevPAR)
A hotel key performance indicator (KPI) that gives a preview of the total revenue from all departments which the room can generate - including the hotel's bar or restaurant, for example. While RevPAR only takes account of the revenue generated by the room rates themselves.

Travel agent
An individual arranging travel for individuals or groups on behalf of suppliers (e.g. hotels, airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, package tours, railways, travel insurance, etc.).

TXT record
A type of Domain Name System (DNS) record in text format, which contains information about a domain.

Unconstrained demand forecast
Defined as the number of customers/guests a hotel could accommodate if its capacity were unlimited. It is the total demand for what the hotel has to offer in the absence of all constraints. It is the sum of customers booked and the potential customers denied.

Unique clicks
The number of unique users that click on a tracking link of a campaign (e.g. a link in an email).

Unique opens
The number of unique users that open an email campaign.

Upsell
An offer to try to convince a customer to purchase something additional, or at a higher cost (upgrade).

User
Refers to a person with login credentials to SiteMinder’s platform.

UTM parameters
Short text codes that you add to URLs (or links) to help you track the performance of webpages or campaigns.

Vacancy
One or more rooms available to accommodate guests.

Valnes device
A door lock that links to software responsible for managing hotel doors online, also offering guests a contactless experience.

Voucher
A document, such as a coupon or ticket, that is redeemable for some good or service.

Walk-in
A guest without a reservation who turns up and requests a reservation.

Wholesale model
These sites contract directly with hotels, mark up the rates and sell the allotted inventory to the consumer at the new marked-up rate. Method of delivery is mostly via fax. It’s hard to find a pure wholesale model, as most of them are a combination with other models.

Wholesaler
A third-party company that buys rooms in bulk and markets them as inclusive tours and individual travel programmes to the customer through travel agents and OTAs.

XLSX file
A file used in Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet application that uses tables to organise, analyse, and store data.

Yield (also called earnings, revenue, takings, income)
Yield can simply mean revenue made. Yield can also refer to the revenue generated from the sales of accommodation as well as from different outlets trading on the hotel's premises, and/or externally connected to the property. In some management infrastructures yield also refers to the profitability of a hotel's departments, measured individually rather than collectively.