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60+ Hotel acronyms & hospitality terms every manager should know

by Kinga
60+ Hotel acronyms & hospitality terms every manager should know

If you've ever sat in a revenue meeting and nodded along while someone rattled off ADR, GOPPAR, and MLOS in the same sentence, this guide is for you. Hospitality runs on abbreviations. Knowing them cold makes you faster in meetings, sharper with your team, and more credible with OTAs, GDS partners, and ownership groups alike.

Below is a comprehensive glossary of 60+ hotel acronyms and terms, organized by department, so you can find exactly what you need.

Technology & systems

The software stack behind modern hotel operations.

  • PMS (Property Management System): The central nervous system of a hotel — manages reservations, check-in/check-out, room assignments, billing, and reporting. Examples include Opera, Mews, and Cloudbeds.
  • CM (Channel Manager): Syncs your room availability and rates across all distribution channels in real time, preventing overbooking.
  • BE (Booking Engine): The direct-booking widget on your own website. A good Booking Engine reduces OTA dependency and commission costs.
  • CRS (Central Reservation System): Manages room inventory and rate distribution across all channels from a single hub. Often integrated with the PMS.
  • RMS (Revenue Management System): Uses demand data and algorithms to recommend optimal pricing. Helps you stop leaving money on the table during high-demand periods.
  • GDS (Global Distribution System): Networks like Sabre, Amadeus, and Galileo that connect hotels to travel agents worldwide. Essential for corporate and group travel segments.
  • CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Manages guest profiles, communication history, and loyalty data. Drives personalization and repeat bookings.
  • CDP (Customer Data Platform): Consolidates guest data from multiple sources into a single profile, enabling more targeted marketing than a standard CRM.
  • POS (Point of Sale): Processes transactions at the bar, restaurant, spa, and other outlets. Should integrate with your PMS for seamless folio management.

Revenue & performance metrics

The KPIs ownership, management, and investors actually care about.

  • ADR (Average Daily Rate): Total room revenue divided by rooms sold. The primary measure of your pricing power. Formula: Room Revenue ÷ Rooms Sold.
  • RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room): ADR multiplied by occupancy rate. Combines pricing and fill rate into one number — the most widely used hotel performance benchmark.
  • GOPPAR (Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room): GOP divided by total available rooms. Shows true profitability across the whole property, not just rooms.
  • TRevPAR (Total Revenue Per Available Room): Total revenue from all departments (rooms, F&B, spa, etc.) divided by available rooms. A fuller picture than RevPAR alone.
  • RevPAB (Revenue Per Available Bed): Used mainly in hostels and shared accommodation.
  • ADR vs ARR: ADR (Average Daily Rate) is the standard; ARR (Average Room Rate) is sometimes used interchangeably, though ARR can refer to an annual figure.
  • ARI (Availability Rate Indicator): Measures room availability against the competitive set.
  • ALOS (Average Length of Stay): Total occupied room nights divided by total bookings. Longer ALOS typically means lower distribution costs per booking.
  • MPI (Market Penetration Index): Your occupancy divided by the competitive set's occupancy. A number above 1.0 means you're winning market share.
  • OTB (On the Books): Total confirmed reservations for a future date — your starting point for every revenue meeting.
  • MTD / YTD (Month to Date / Year to Date): Periods used to benchmark current performance against prior years or budget.
  • GOP (Gross Operating Profit): Revenue minus operating expenses, before fixed costs like debt service and depreciation.
  • GOR (Gross Operating Revenue): Total revenue before any expenses are deducted.
  • CPR (Cost Per Room): The operating cost per available room, including labor and maintenance.
  • KPI (Key Performance Indicator): The metrics you track to measure performance against targets.

Distribution & booking channels

  • OTA (Online Travel Agency): Third-party booking platforms such as Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb. Convenient for demand, but commissions (typically 15–25%) erode margin.
  • BAR (Best Available Rate): The lowest publicly available rate for a given night. Your baseline from which other rates (corporate, group, package) are derived.
  • RFP (Request for Proposal): A formal document from a corporate account or event planner asking for your rates and availability for a contracted period.
  • LNR (Local Negotiated Rate): A discounted rate agreed with a local business in exchange for guaranteed room nights. Common for airports, hospitals, and corporate campuses nearby.
  • Net Rate: The base room rate given to wholesalers or agents before they apply their own markup.
  • IBR (Internet Booking Rate): The rate published specifically through your direct online channel.
  • Extranet: The back-end portal OTAs provide for you to update availability, rates, and property information.

Front office & reservations

  • FO (Front Office): The hub of guest-facing operations — reservations, check-in, check-out, concierge.
  • FOM (Front Office Manager): Responsible for the front desk team, guest satisfaction scores, and room assignment.
  • VIP (Very Important Person): A guest flagged for special attention — could be a loyalty member, a regular, or a corporate account holder.
  • OOO (Out of Order): A room removed from saleable inventory due to maintenance.
  • ETA / ETD (Estimated Time of Arrival / Departure): Used to manage housekeeping schedules and room readiness.
  • DND (Do Not Disturb): Guest preference to not be disturbed — must be tracked in the PMS.
  • LOS (Length of Stay): Total nights in a single reservation.
  • MLOS (Minimum Length of Stay): A restriction that prevents one-night bookings during high-demand periods, protecting the nights around it.
  • PAX: Number of guests in a reservation. From the Latin pax (peace/person), adopted by the travel industry.
  • No-Show: A guest who fails to arrive without cancelling. Should trigger your no-show fee policy.
  • Walk-in: A guest who arrives without a reservation.
  • Overbooking: Deliberately accepting more reservations than available rooms to offset expected no-shows and cancellations.
  • Folio: The itemized bill of all charges against a guest's stay.
  • Rack Rate: The standard undiscounted price for a room — rarely paid, but used as the anchor for all discounting.
  • Cutoff Date: The deadline by which a group block must be released back to general inventory.

Housekeeping & operations

  • HK (Housekeeping): Responsible for room cleaning, turndown service, and linen management.
  • Turnover: Preparing a room for the next arrival after a checkout.
  • Stayover: A room occupied by a guest who is not checking out that day.
  • Turndown Service: An evening service that prepares the room for the night — straightening linens, dimming lights, and placing amenities.
  • SOP (Standard Operating Procedure): Documented step-by-step instructions for recurring tasks. The foundation of consistent service.
  • Night Audit: The daily financial reconciliation of all hotel transactions, typically run overnight. Closes the business day in the PMS and generates key reports.
  • Daily / Monthly Audit: Operational review sessions to track performance, identify issues, and realign the team.

Food, beverage & events

  • F&B (Food and Beverage): The department covering restaurants, bars, room service, and banqueting.
  • MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions): The corporate events segment — often one of the most lucrative for full-service hotels.
  • SMERF (Social, Military, Educational, Religious & Fraternal): A group travel market segment known for booking during shoulder seasons and being rate-sensitive.
  • AI (All-Inclusive): A package covering accommodation, meals, drinks, and activities.
  • HB (Half Board): Accommodation with breakfast and dinner included.
  • FB (Full Board): All three meals included.
  • FIFO (First In, First Out): Inventory management principle ensuring older stock is used before newer stock — critical for F&B to control waste.

Staff, management & general

  • GM (General Manager): The senior leader responsible for all hotel operations and P&L.
  • FOH (Front of House): All guest-facing areas — lobby, reception, restaurant floor.
  • R&R (Rest and Relaxation): Typically used to describe leisure-focused guests or itineraries.
  • FIT (Free Independent Traveler): A guest traveling alone without a group package.
  • GIT (Group Inclusive Tour): A packaged group booking including accommodation and activities.
  • FAM Trip (Familiarization Trip): A hosted visit for travel agents, journalists, or corporate buyers to experience the property firsthand. Generates referrals and media coverage.
  • Shoulder Season: The period between peak and low season — demand is moderate and rates are negotiable.
  • Lead Time: The gap between booking date and arrival date. Short lead times (under 7 days) typically require different pricing strategies than bookings made weeks in advance.
  • Upselling / Cross-selling: Upselling moves a guest to a higher room category or package; cross-selling promotes other services (spa, parking, F&B).
  • Yield Management: The practice of adjusting room rates dynamically based on demand, time to arrival, and competitive positioning — the precursor to modern RMS software.
  • Occupancy Rate: Rooms occupied ÷ rooms available × 100. The most fundamental measure of demand.
  • City Tax: A per-night, per-guest tax levied by local governments — separate from room rate and collected on their behalf.
  • Commission: The fee paid to an OTA, travel agent, or GDS for a booking, expressed as a percentage of the room rate.
  • Pickup: The number of new reservations added for a specific future date within a given period. Tracked daily in revenue meetings.
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): EU data privacy law affecting how you collect, store, and use guest data. Non-compliance carries significant fines.

Understanding this vocabulary is half the battle. The other half is having systems that put these metrics in front of you automatically, so you spend less time pulling reports and more time acting on them.

If you found this glossary useful, share it with your front office and revenue team. And if you think a term is missing, drop us a line at [email protected], we update this list regularly.