Hotel Terminology

The number of rooms a hotel has available to be sold ...

What is a hotel brand? A hotel brand is referred to as the hotel chain (such as Holiday Inn, or Hilton) that a hotel joins with. A hotel can change their brand (i.e. switch from a Hilton to a Holiday ...

What does hotel cut off days mean? Cut Off Days (or sometimes also called Cut Off Hours or Cut Off Date) allows inventory to be closed out, or appear unavailable to the customer, starting at a certain number of days ...

What does CTD or Closed To Departure mean? When CTD aka “closed to departure” is set for a date, a guest can not book this date if their stay ends on this date. If their stay includes this date, but ...

What does CTA or Closed to Arrival mean? When CTA aka "closed to arrival" is set for a date, a guest can not book this date if their stay begins on this date. If their stay includes this date, but ...

What is a hotel distribution channel? A hotel distribution channel is an intermediary or company that creates the reservation on behalf of the hotel. Another way to look at a channel is a specific stream of booking revenue for a ...

What is a hotel extranet? The "front end" of a hotel sales website (i.e. Expedia.com or Booking.com) displays the hotel's information to allow guests to book stays with the hotel. The hotel extranet is the "back end" of a hotel ...

What is a GDS or Global Distribution System? A GDS, or Global Distribution System, is a company that provides computer hardware and software to travel agencies for airplane, hotel, and car reservations. The four big GDS companies are Amadeus, Sabre, ...

What does hotel max nights (aka max los, or maximum length of stay) mean? A maximum length of stay is a booking restriction that only shows the stay as bookable if the stay is equal to or less than the ...

What does hotel min nights (aka MLOS, or minimum length of stay) mean? A minimum length of stay restriction only shows the stay as bookable if the stay is equal to or greater than the minimum nights setting. If the ...

What does hotel margin or hotel markup mean? Hotel markup and margin are terms used to calculate how much a sales website collects as their fee from booking one of your hotel's room nights. These two can be a little ...

What does hotel net rate mean? The net rate is the amount the hotel collects from an OTA when a room night is sold on the OTAs website. So if the guest pays $100 for a room night (which the ...

What does a hotel PMS or Property Management System mean? This is the software that is used to manage all operations of a hotel on site ...

What does hotel rate parity mean? You achieve rate parity for your hotel when the same rate structure exists across all of your hotel's distribution channels. This is important for many reasons. It increases your hotel's rate integrity, so the ...

What does hotel stop sell mean? This is the act of stopping the sales of your hotel's room nights on your distribution channels. A stop sell (aka closeout) prevents your hotel from being bookable. This is typical when a hotel ...

What does hotel sell rate mean? When your hotel's room nights are sold via one of your distribution channels, the amount the guest has to pay for your hotel's room night is the sell rate ...

What is a hotel wholesaler? This is a third-party organization that purchases hotel accommodations in bulk at discounted rates from your hotel and often resells them to other travel service providers, often bundled with other travel services. There are many ...