The hospitality operator's
dictionary.

An à-la-carte feature module (Hotel Central Payment Processing tipping, Marketplace, Ship-to-Guest, etc.) added on top of a Plan Tier for a separate per-month fee. Hotels can pay-now and cancel or refund any add-on within a 7-day refund window — designed for experimentation without commitment.

Total room revenue divided by the number of paid occupied rooms over a given period. The headline pricing metric for any hotel. Excludes complimentary rooms, day-use, and out-of-order inventory. Pairs with Occupancy to produce RevPAR.

Hotel Central's local-recommendations workspace for turning nearby restaurants and activities into a staff-reviewed guest guide. Staff selects the venues, reviews optional welcome copy, prints the handout, and can add an expiring QR portal with available directions, phone, or website links. See AI Concierge.

Total room-nights divided by total arrivals. A higher ALOS reduces turnover cost (one stay-over costs ~30% of what a Checkout (room-status)/check-in cycle costs in housekeeping labor). Group bookings typically lift ALOS.

A platform fee taken on each Direct Charge (Hotel Central Payment Processing) payment. Hotel Central's application fee is 1% on tip transactions. Set per-payment, not per-month, so hotels only pay when staff are actually being tipped.

Authorization = the card issuer holds funds against the guest's available credit without moving money. Capture = the merchant actually pulls those funds. Hotels typically authorize at check-in (incidentals) and capture at Checkout (room-status). Unused authorizations expire and fall off the guest's statement in 5–30 days depending on the card network.

The lowest publicly available unrestricted rate at the hotel for a given date. The reference rate that OTAs, GDS, and corporate negotiated rates are anchored against. Often dynamically priced by an RMS.

A dated Fahrenheit temperature entry for a configured hotel boiler. Hotel Central's Boiler Readings keeps entries separated by boiler, compares them with optional minimum and maximum temperatures, supports notes and history filters, and plots the recorded temperatures over time. The current page does not capture pressure, water level, photos, signatures, or a dedicated PDF export.

An email rejection from the recipient mail server. Hard bounces (invalid address, blocked domain) auto-suppress the address forever. Soft bounces (mailbox full, temporary failure) are retried automatically for up to 72 hours.

Capex (capital expenditure) = big multi-year investments (renovations, FF&E purchases, building systems). Opex (operating expenditure) = day-to-day spending (linens, cleaning supplies, repair labor). Hotels track them separately because they hit P&L and tax differently.

A staff drawer session with opening and closing coin and bill counts, recorded cash transactions, notes, and variance review. Marketplace cash sales can link to the selling staff member’s open drawer. Staff still counts physical cash and verifies the record; closing does not guarantee a balanced drawer.

The middleware that syncs rates and availability between the PMS/CRS and every OTA/booking channel. Prevents overbookings by debouncing inventory updates across 20+ channels in near-real-time.

When a cardholder disputes a charge with their bank, the bank can reverse the payment while the claim is reviewed. Signed authorizations and supporting stay records may form part of the hotel's response. Hotel Central's Digital Authorizations keeps those records and dispute-response tools in one workflow.

A room being vacated today that needs a full turn: strip, complete the checkout clean, restock, and inspect. Hotels track that daily turn separately from scheduled Deep Clean work. It is usually one of the most labor-intensive housekeeping assignments.

Industry term for software that tracks Work Order records and PM schedules. Hotel Central's Maintenance module is built for hotel operations, with work orders, recurring schedules, checklists, projects, equipment records, and maintenance history alongside the property's daily workflows.

A pre-approved schedule of remedies (refund X dollars, comp Y night, upgrade to Z) that front-desk staff can apply without manager approval for specific complaint types. Speeds up service recovery and bounds liability.

The system that distributes inventory and rates outward to OTA, GDS, and brand websites, and pulls bookings back into the PMS. Often bundled with the PMS in modern stacks.

A scheduled detailing service that goes beyond daily housekeeping — moving furniture, treating upholstery, descaling fixtures, washing baseboards. Hotels plan it on the cadence required by the property or brand. In Hotel Central, deep cleaning and a checkout on the same room and date are separate work records that can coexist. See Deep Cleaning.

Self-serve sandbox accounts pre-seeded with a fictional hotel ("Sunset Boulevard Inn"), realistic operations data, and live AI features. Lets prospects experience the product without onboarding their own data. Demo accounts are clearly flagged and excluded from real billing.

A grouping of staff by function (front desk, housekeeping, maintenance, F&B, management). Used for task routing, notification fan-out, scheduling, and permissions. See the five Departments we built the product around.

A guest-facing form delivered by email or SMS where the guest completes card verification, uploads documents requested by the hotel, and e-signs an authorization. Hotel Central keeps the signed record, timestamps, requested documents, audit PDF, and related Chargeback response tools together.

A payment made directly on a hotel's connected Hotel Central Payment Processing account, where Hotel Central takes only an application fee. Used for tips and other staff-facing funds where 100% of the payment (minus our 1% application fee) needs to be available for payout to staff rather than swept to the hotel's bank.

Guest-set signal (door hanger, mobile app, in-room button) that suppresses housekeeping, room service, and turn-down for the day. Tracked because consecutive DND days are a service-quality and welfare flag.

Real-time tracking of every outbound email (sent, delivered, opened, bounced, or marked as spam), surfaced as delivery-status badges in the app so staff can see whether a guest actually received a message.

The chip-card standard (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) that shifted liability for in-person card-present fraud from issuers to merchants in 2015. Online and keyed-in (card-not-present) transactions like digital authorizations carry separate fraud-handling rules.

A feature flag tied to a hotel's plan tier and active Add-On set. Determines which sections, capabilities, and automations are available to the hotel. Upgrade the plan or add an add-on and the matching features unlock immediately.

The depreciable physical assets in a hotel that aren't part of the building structure — beds, desks, lamps, TVs, art. Replaced on rolling cycles (5–10 years for most items). Tracked because brand standards require minimum quality and condition levels.

A Hotel Central bundle combining Night Audit Intelligence and Revenue Pulse. Supported PMS reports stay attached to the review workflow, then feed available hotel-day KPIs, comparisons, source-dependent forecasts, review signals, the GM Morning Briefing, and CSV exports. It is not an accounting system or general ledger. See Financial Hub.

The guest's running bill — room charges, taxes, F&B charges, incidentals, less any pre-payments and deposits. Closes at Checkout (room-status). The number people argue about at the front desk.

Pre-internet B2B booking networks (Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport, Worldspan) used primarily by corporate travel agents and TMCs. Smaller volume than OTA today but higher-rate, higher-ADR business.

Gross operating profit (revenue minus operating expenses, excluding fixed charges) divided by available rooms. Tells you whether revenue growth is actually profitable after labor, utilities, and operating costs. A high RevPAR with low GOPPAR means you're buying revenue with discounts or labor.

Rooms set aside for a wedding, conference, or corporate stay, usually at a negotiated rate. Cutoff and release rules depend on the agreement. Hotel Central records nightly blocks and pickup from its group reservation rows; it does not automatically hold or release PMS inventory.

A Hotel Central staff workflow for documenting guest misconduct with category, severity, description, resolution, outcome, and available photo or video attachments. Eligible administrators can separately run a manual guest-name search across Hotel Central hotels. It does not automatically screen reservations, verify identity, compare photographs, block check-in, or create a record from Incident Reports.

A passwordless, link-based mini-app the guest receives for self-service tasks during their stay — check-in, room-ready notification, maintenance request, lost-item report, post-stay survey. No download, no account, expires after the stay.

The housekeeping role that walks every "clean" room before it goes "ready," catching missed dust, hair, or restock errors that a tired room attendant might let slip. The last line of defense before a guest enters.

The number of complete linen sets a hotel keeps on hand per room — usually 3 (one on the bed, one in the laundry cycle, one in the linen closet). Drop below par and you stop being able to turn rooms.

A shared hotel workflow for recording items left behind by guests. Hotel Central keeps item details, photos or video, found location, guest information, notes, status, and recorded actions together. Guests with an active portal can submit a missing-item report for staff review. Staff can then coordinate pickup, record an outside shipment, or use optional guest-paid return shipping.

A hotel lobby sales workspace for itemized sales, recorded payment methods, tracked retail stock, restocks, adjustments, and sales review. Its stock is separate from operational Inventory and Procurement. An optional room reference does not post a charge to a PMS folio.

The unique ID assigned by a payment processor to a merchant for routing and settlement. Hotel Central Payment Processing gives each hotel its own connected-account MID so funds (including Tip Pool direct charges) land directly in the hotel's balance.

Staff-initiated guest check-in flow on the guest's phone before arrival. A secure link collects contact and stay details, ID images, card-on-file setup, and policy acknowledgments for the front desk to review. The PMS and key-encoding workflow remain separate. See Mobile Check-In.

Average elapsed time from a Work Order being opened to it being resolved. Tracking status, assignment, room or location, and optional issue media in one queue helps managers see aging work and coordinate follow-through.

Portfolio gives hotel Admins and Owners with access to more than one hotel an attention-ranked view of accessible properties. Filter hotels, inspect module signals and availability, then enter the right hotel for follow-through. Supported analytics must be read with their coverage context. See Multi-Property.

An administrator-facing Financial Hub inbox for supported PMS reports. Eligible hotels can forward reports to a dedicated address or upload supported PDF and CSV files, then review processing status, available hotel-day KPIs and history, parser notes, quality checks, and the original attachment. Coverage depends on the assigned PMS, report type, file format, successful processing, and source fields. It does not write back to the PMS or create the GM Morning Briefing. See Night Audit Intelligence.

A reservation where the guest never arrives and never cancels. Hotel typically charges the first night per the cancellation policy. The reason credit card guarantees exist.

Survey metric: "How likely are you to recommend us, 0–10?" Promoters (9–10) minus Detractors (0–6) = NPS, expressed as a number from -100 to +100. Industry benchmark for hotels is +30 to +50; brand flags want +50+. Correlates with repeat bookings more than star ratings.

Paid occupied rooms divided by available rooms, expressed as a percentage. Excludes house use and out-of-order rooms from the denominator at most hotels (definitions vary). Pairs with ADR to compute RevPAR.

A room intentionally pulled from inventory for a longer-term reason — major renovation, asbestos abatement, room held for the GM's family. Usually excluded from the Occupancy denominator.

A room temporarily unavailable due to a maintenance issue (broken AC, plumbing, carpet damage). Counts against revenue (RevPAR denominator) and tracked as a Work Order until resolved.

Third-party booking sites like Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Agoda. Take 15–25% commission per booking but deliver discoverability and conversion the hotel can't replicate alone. The eternal tension: dependence vs. cost.

The process of comparing available OTA-side reservation facts with PMS-side folio facts and recording the staff decision. Hotel Central's OTA Reconcile includes a manual cancelled/no-show tracker and, for configured hotels, deterministic candidate generation from sanitized Channex events and supported PMS report data. A candidate, confidence score, recommended action, or estimated recovery is not proof of a billing error, recovered funds, or an automatically filed dispute.

The handoff between outgoing and incoming shifts: open guest issues, operational exceptions, and context the next team needs. In Hotel Central, a hotel-defined Shift Log can prompt staff for that context, save it as a draft, and publish it into Daily Notes when the staff member is ready.

The security standard for organizations that store, process, or transmit payment-card data. A hotel's PCI scope and validation duties depend on how card data is collected, transmitted, and stored across its payment setup. Hotels should confirm those obligations with their processor, brand, and qualified advisors.

The base subscription level (Essentials, Pro, Enterprise on the Pricing page). Determines core feature access, room-count caps, and per-month base price. Tier upgrades and downgrades take effect immediately with prorated billing.

Scheduled work done before something breaks — quarterly HVAC filter changes, annual elevator inspections, monthly fire-extinguisher checks. A consistent PM program can reduce reactive repairs and the risk of OOO revenue loss. Hotel Central supports recurring schedules, checklists, generated work orders, linked completion, and maintenance history.

The hotel's system of record for reservations, room assignments, folios, and billing. Hotel Central is not a PMS — it sits alongside your PMS and handles the operational layer (Maintenance, Housekeeping, Guest Hub, Lost & Found, Deep Cleaning) that PMSs handle poorly or not at all.

A dated property record for manual pool or spa readings. Hotel Central's Pool & Spa Log can capture optional pH, chlorine, total alkalinity, water temperature, calcium hardness, cyanuric acid, total dissolved solids, bromine, and notes, then filter loaded entries, plot four trends, and export a selected date range as PDF or CSV. It does not attach photos or signatures, schedule readings, send chemical alerts, calculate doses, or certify compliance.

A hold placed on the guest's card at check-in to cover incidental charges such as minibar purchases, damage, or smoking fees. The amount and release timing depend on the property's policy, processor, card network, and issuing bank.

A walk-through list of small items that need to be finished or fixed — typically after a renovation, before a brand inspection, or when handing a room back from extended OOO.

The published "full" rate for a room, printed on the back of the door. Almost never the rate anyone actually pays — it's the legal ceiling that all discounted rates must be lower than.

A hotel-day performance view on the Management surface, built from successfully processed PMS and night-audit reports. Revenue Pulse can show available Occupancy, ADR, RevPAR, revenue, comparison deltas, rule-based and report-quality signals, historical trends, report-specific detail, source-dependent forecasts, and an on-demand GM briefing. It is not a continuous two-way PMS feed or a full RMS, and it does not push rates. See Revenue Pulse.

Total room revenue divided by total available rooms (occupied + unoccupied). The single most important top-line metric in revenue management because it captures both rate (ADR) and occupancy in one number. RevPAR = ADR × Occupancy %.

A pricing engine that dynamically adjusts BAR based on demand forecasts, competitor rates, pickup pace, and historical patterns. Standalone (IDeaS, Duetto) or PMS-bundled.

The staff-controlled response to a guest complaint: record the issue, set its priority, take ownership, document what happened, and update the outcome. Hotel Central's Guest Complaints module supports complaint records, staff notes, status updates, and reviewed apology drafting; it does not provide configurable SLA timers or compensation processing.

A hotel-defined set of prompts staff answers during a shift. In Hotel Central, answers can remain in a saved draft until the staff member explicitly publishes the completed Shift Log as one dated Daily Note.

A record of what happened during a shift and what still needs attention. Hotel Central can build that record from hotel-defined Shift Log prompts, then publish it as one dated entry in Daily Notes. Follow-up stays attached to the published note; linked operational records retain their own permissions and access requirements.

A staff-managed hotel task with a priority, due details, assignment, progress status, and completion history. Authorized admins can create one-off work or configure reusable and recurring routines, then assign an individual or department or leave the work unassigned for a team member to claim. See Smart Tasks.

A guest who is staying another night — the room gets serviced but not turned over. Takes ~15 minutes on average vs. ~30+ for a Checkout (room-status). The dominant room-status in long-stay properties.

Carrier-required opt-out and help keywords. Replying STOP to any message must immediately suppress further non-emergency messages; replying HELP must return identifying contact information. Hotel Central honors STOP platform-wide — opt out at one hotel and you're suppressed across every hotel on the platform.

A persistent record that a recipient has opted out and must not be messaged. Hotel Central maintains both SMS suppression (per STOP / HELP) and email suppression (bounces, spam complaints, unsubscribes). Sending to a suppressed contact is blocked by the system, not just discouraged in policy.

US federal law (47 U.S.C. § 227) governing how businesses can call and text consumers. Texting a guest without their prior express consent can carry penalties of $500–$1,500 per message. Hotel Central's SMS Terms and Terms of Service Section 6 spell out the hotel's consent obligations.

Staff-facing balance of tips collected via Hotel Central, payable to individual staff via Hotel Central Payment Processing. Critically, this balance is not the hotel's money — it's pass-through funds owed to staff. The Hotel Central Payment Processing account is set to manual payout to prevent automatic sweeps that would block staff cashouts.

Evening service in upscale properties — bed turned down, slippers placed, curtains closed, soft lighting on. Usually only offered to certain rate plans or loyalty tiers.

When the hotel sells more rooms than it has and has to "walk" the guest to a comparable nearby hotel at the original hotel's expense. Common enough that revenue managers budget for it; expensive enough that they try hard to avoid it.

A guest who arrives without a prior reservation and books at the front desk. Typically pays a higher rate (no OTA commission to absorb), but harder to forecast — walk-ins are noise on top of the booked occupancy curve.

A logged request to fix or maintain something — leaky faucet, burned-out light, broken TV remote. It can capture the problem, optional photos or videos, room or location, priority, requester, assignee, status, completion notes, and resolution. The atomic unit of maintenance operations. See Maintenance.