Hotel software comes with its own language, and when a salesperson fires off five acronyms in a row it’s easy to nod along and Google them later. Better to learn them once. Here are 60 terms you’ll hear in demos, contracts and daily work, grouped by where they show up in your hotel. The definitions are short on purpose.
I’ve put the terms in the order a guest’s stay roughly moves through the hotel, starting at the front desk and ending in the back office, so it’s easier to remember where each one lives. Some of them overlap a little, and that’s normal. Hotel people use these words loosely, which is another reason to ask for a plain example whenever one comes up. It’s fine to say “show me” in a demo.
Front desk and reservations
Property management system (PMS) is the main software that runs reservations, rooms and billing. Reservation is a booking held for a guest on set dates. Check-in is the moment a guest is registered and given a room. Check-out is when the guest settles the bill and leaves. Folio is the guest’s running bill with all charges, and most billing disputes start here.
Night shift and arrivals
Night audit is the end-of-day routine that closes the books and rolls the date. Walk-in is a guest who arrives with no booking. No-show is a guest who books and never turns up.
Pricing at the desk
Rack rate is the full published price before any discount. Early check-in means arriving before the normal time, sometimes for a fee. Late checkout lets a guest stay past the usual time.
Groups and capacity
A group block is a set of rooms held for a group. Overbooking is selling more rooms than you have. A complimentary room is a free stay, often called comp.
Room status
Room status shows whether a room is clean, dirty or occupied. Front desk teams use these every day, so it’s the section to learn first.
Distribution and bookings
A channel manager is the tool that syncs rates and availability across all your booking sites. OTA means online travel agency, like Booking.com or Agoda. A booking engine is the booking tool on your own website. Direct booking is a reservation that comes to you without a middleman. Commission is the fee an OTA charges per booking. Rate parity means keeping the same price across channels. Inventory is the number of rooms you have available to sell. Allotment is a fixed number of rooms given to one partner. Metasearch is a site like Google Hotels that compares prices from many sources. GDS is the global distribution system used by travel agents. A rate plan is a pricing package, such as with breakfast or non-refundable. Minimum stay is the fewest nights a guest must book. Stop sell closes a room type on a channel. Channel mix is the share of bookings from each source. Cancellation policy sets the rules for refunds and changes.
Most of these show up in channel manager screens, so you’ll meet them quickly.
Revenue and pricing
Occupancy rate is the share of rooms sold. ADR is average daily rate, the average price paid per sold room. RevPAR is revenue per available room, which is ADR times occupancy. TRevPAR adds in all revenue, not just rooms. GOPPAR is gross operating profit per available room. Dynamic pricing changes rates automatically with demand, and a revenue manager does the same by hand, only slower. A revenue management system is software that sets those prices from data. Yield is how much revenue you squeeze from your inventory. Pickup is how many bookings arrive in a set period. Lead time is how far ahead guests book. Length of stay is the number of nights per booking. Seasonality is the pattern of busy and slow periods. Demand forecast is a guess at future bookings. Comp set is the group of competitor hotels you compare yourself to. BAR means best available rate, the lowest public price for a date.
Don’t worry if the revenue ones feel dense at first. RevPAR and ADR make more sense after you’ve looked at your own numbers a couple of times.
Operations and back office
POS is the point-of-sale system for restaurant, bar, or spa charges. The housekeeping module assigns and tracks room cleaning. Maintenance logs repairs and blocks rooms that aren’t ready. Inventory control tracks stock like linen or kitchen supplies. A purchase order is a written request to buy from a supplier. The accounting module records income, expenses, and tax. HR module handles staff records, shifts and payroll data. CRM stores guest details and history to help repeat business, and repeat guests cost far less to win than new ones. Banquet management handles events, halls, and catering. Multi-property lets one login manage several hotels. Reputation management collects and answers guest reviews. A payment gateway is the service that processes card payments. API is a connection that lets two systems share data, and vendors with open APIs are easier to connect with other tools. Role-based access limits what each staff member can see or change. An audit trail is the record of who changed what and when.
Put those last three together, and you’ve got most of what keeps guest data safe, which owners tend to forget until something goes wrong.
What to do with all this
You don’t need to memorise every term. Keep the list handy during demos and stop the salesperson when something doesn’t make sense. A good vendor will explain it in plain words without making you feel silly. When you’re comparing systems, pay special attention to how the PMS, channel manager, and revenue tools connect, since that’s where most daily headaches live.
Aiosell puts all of these pieces, from the booking engine to dynamic pricing and housekeeping, under one login, which makes it a useful reference when you’re trying to see how the terms fit together in one product. Try the 15-day free trial and click through each module with this glossary open next to you. Ask your team which terms they use differently, too, because every hotel has its own shorthand. Share the list with new staff on their first day as well.
