DECA Hotel and Lodging Management Vocab – Flashcards

A food and drink menu in which each item is listed and priced separately.

A hotel that is a member of a franchise, chain or referral system. Membership usually provides special advantages, such as the use of a national reservation system.

A travel plan which includes all meals, drinks, tips, service charges, accommodations, and possibly other activities.

The total room revenue for a given period (day, month to date, month, year to date), divided by the number of rooms occupied for the same period. Frequently used as a measure of economic performance.

The support areas that are behind the scenes in a property, they include: housekeeping, laundry, engineering, foodservice. Includes individuals who operate behind the scenes to make a guest's experience pleasant and safe.

The online reservations system that enables guests to check room availability and rates, and book rooms.

The research process your potential guests go through

The term casual employee is not a familiar one to many Americans. Instead "temporary worker" or "independent contractor" is used. Defining what a casual employee is can get somewhat confusing, since the term can differ from country to country. In the US, the term___ is often used in universities. It refers to people, often students, who work less than 1000 hours per 12-month calendar year, on an irregular, infrequent or "as-needed" basis." Because the worker is considered a casual employee, he or she does not have access to benefits like worker's compensation, disability, company retirement plans, or health insurance.

The ability of guests to make a reservation for one out of a number of hotels by contacting one agency, contracted by the hotels acting as a group, to operate this "central" reservation service.

This is a low-rent form of accommodation consisting of a kitchenette, a living area, and a sleeping area combined into one single room. These types of rooms are common in extended-stay hotels, also known as "apartment hotels."

Indicates that a certain feature(s) is directly in the room, or adjacent to that room.

Generally, a hotel stay of seven or more nights.

Core physical features: accommodation, restaurants, bars, and meeting rooms.

All areas the guests will contact, including: the lobby, corridors, dining room, meeting rooms, and restrooms. Employees who staff these areas have an emphasis on customer service.

Global Distribution System

A negotiated hotel rate for convention, trade show, meeting, tour or incentive groups.

Not to be confused with "amenities", this is the term given to the range of disposable items provided in guest room bathrooms and includes such items as shampoo, lotion, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, shower caps, etc... The cost of these items are built into room rate.

Industry slang referring to the primary marketing objective of accommodations and most destinations - increasing the number of overnight stays.

The period of consecutive months during which optimum revenues, room/suite occupancy and average room rates are generated.

Manager on Duty

A customer with a reservation at a hotel who fails to show up and does not cancel.

A situation in which more room reservations have been taken by a hotel than what the hotel is able to accommodate.

A marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale together. For hotels this could be effectively implemented through the booking engine for upsells, services, event tickets, or other amenitities suchs as Internet access, meal plans, partking, etc. The price of the pricing may be bundled together so there is opacity to the individual prices of the products.

The full, undiscounted published room rate (price).

A real estate investment trust, or REIT, is a company that owns and usually operates income-producing real estate. The shares of many REITs are traded on major stock exchanges. Congress created REITs in the U.S. in 1960 as a means for investors to make investment in large-scale, income-producing real estate through the purchase and sale of liquid securities, a familiar investment opportunity. Prior to the creation of REIT's, investing in commercial real estate was available only to institutions and wealthy individuals. Through the sale of shares in a REIT, this investment opportunity is much more accessible. To qualify as a REIT, a company must have most of its assets and income tied to real estate investment and must distribute at least 90 percent of its taxable income to shareholders annually in the form of dividends. A company that qualifies as a REIT is permitted to deduct dividends paid to its shareholders from its corporate taxable income. As a result, most REITs historically remit at least 100 percent of their taxable income to their shareholders and therefore owe no corporate tax. Taxes are paid by shareholders on the dividends received and any capital gains. A REIT cannot pass any tax losses through to its investors.

RevPAR is arguably the most important of all ratios used in the hotel industry. Because the measure incorporates both room rates and occupancy, it provides a convenient snapshot of a how well a company is filling its rooms, as well as how much it is able to charge. It should be noted that RevPAR, by definition, is calculated on a per-room basis. Therefore, one company can have a higher RevPAR than another, but still have lower total revenues if the second firm manages more rooms. Revenue per available room, or RevPAR for short, is a ratio commonly used to measure financial performance in the hospitality industry. The metric, which is a function of both room rates and occupancy, is one of the most important gauges of health among hotel operators. There are two ways to calculate RevPAR. The first formula is: Total Room Revenue in a Given Period, Net of Discounts, Sales Tax, and Meals --------------------------------------------- # of Available Rooms in Same Period Alternately, the same figure can be arrived by calculating Average Daily Room Rate x Occupancy Rate. Consider the following results from Company XYZ's latest quarter: Number of Rooms: 1000 Average Room Rate: $90 Average Occupancy Rate: 75% Total Room Revenue ((1000 rooms x $90/room x 75% occupancy) x 90 nights in the quarter): $6,075,000 Using the first formula and the information above, we can calculate that Company XYZ's RevPAR was: ($6,075,000/90,000) = $67.50 Using the second formula, we can arrive at the same answer: $90 per night x 0.75 = $67.50 Therefore, we can conclude that Company XYZ generated approximately $67.50 in revenue per day from each of its hotel rooms.

It is a performance provided in the luxury hotels and it consists in preparing the rooms for the next night. Concretely, it is the bed opening, the presence of a chocolate on the pillow and softened lights.

Computer based system that monitors all outgoing calls and presents collected information in a format that serves the user's needs.

A group of hotels that are non-competing often owned by the same company.

A hotel reservation that is paid in advance.

How guests will pay for their room. Credit card, cash, and check are common options.

An average amount.

a private telephone system that designed to facilitate communication between employees while allowing adequate access to external phone lines.

Service provided by many hotel restaurants that allow guests to order food and drinks to have delivered to their room.

Special room rates often take the standard room rate and apply discounts, such as AARP and government.

Rate charged daily for a hotel room.

Employees paid on an hourly basis.

Employees paid on an hourly basis.