Glossary
Hospitality and channel management glossary
The difference between ADR and RevPAR, the two readings of minimum stay, payout confused with collection… Most misunderstandings in hospitality start with terms. Short definitions with a real-world meaning.
20 terms
- OTA (online travel agency)
- Online platforms that sell accommodation, such as Booking.com, Airbnb and Agoda.
- The property supplies its own rates and availability; the channel takes a commission on the sale.
- Channel manager
- Software that pushes availability, rates and restrictions from one place to many sales channels and pulls reservations back.
- Without one you manage the same room separately on each channel — the most common cause of overselling.
- Overbooking
- Taking more reservations than there are units available.
- In some chains it is a deliberate revenue strategy; in smaller properties it is usually an accident caused by separately managed calendars.
- ADR (average daily rate)
- Room revenue divided by the number of room nights sold.
- It says nothing about occupancy: a half-empty property can still have a high ADR.
- RevPAR (revenue per available room)
- Room revenue divided by available room nights; equal to ADR × occupancy.
- Because it folds rate and occupancy into one number, it is more honest than ADR when comparing periods.
- Occupancy rate
- Room nights sold as a share of room nights available.
- Rate plan
- A set of rates under which a room type is sold with specific conditions (refundable, breakfast included, early booking).
- Rates and restrictions belong to the rate plan while availability belongs to the room type — the same split channel managers use.
- Minimum stay
- The fewest nights a booking must cover to be accepted for a given date.
- It has two readings — applied on arrival, or required through the stay — and channels expect the distinction to be declared.
- Closed to arrival / departure (CTA / CTD)
- Blocking a stay from starting (CTA) or ending (CTD) on a given date.
- Used on busy dates to stop one-night bookings from fragmenting the calendar.
- Stop sell
- Closing a room or date range to sale across every channel.
- No-show
- A guest with a reservation who neither cancels nor arrives.
- Whether the amount is collected depends on the booking's cancellation policy; without a record the revenue quietly disappears.
- Double booking
- The same unit sold to two different guests for the same dates.
- Not to be confused with controlled oversell: one is an accident, the other a deliberate decision.
- iCal (.ics calendar link)
- The common file format calendars use to share which days are busy.
- It carries only busy days — no guest name, amount or booking code — sends no rates, and lags because it works by polling.
- ARI (availability, rates, inventory)
- The umbrella term for the three data sets exchanged between a channel manager and a sales channel.
- PMS (property management system)
- Software that runs in-house operations: check-in/out, room status, folios and invoicing.
- Not the same as a channel manager: one runs the inside of the property, the other the outside sales channels.
- Booking window (lead time)
- The time between the day a booking is made and the arrival date.
- A shortening window signals rising last-minute demand and usually calls for a different pricing strategy.
- Dynamic pricing
- Letting the rate change date by date with demand, occupancy, season and competitor pricing.
- Channel commission
- The share a sales channel takes from a realised booking.
- The gross amount the guest pays is not what reaches the property: the channel commission and payment fee are deducted first.
- Payout
- The amount owed to the property after a stay has taken place.
- Not the same as collection: collection is money taken from the guest, payout is money paid to the property.
- Stay nights
- The nights from the arrival date up to the day before departure.
- The departure day is free; counting it as occupied closes a night that could still be sold.
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