Hospitality and Tourism vocabulary

149 vocabulary entries in our Hospitality and Tourism study dataset. These are study definitions, not official wording.

Accommodation: A room, group of rooms, or building in which someone may live or stay.
Adjoining Rooms: Two hotel rooms with a connecting door between them.
ADR (Average Daily Rate): A metric used in the hospitality industry to indicate the average revenue earned for an occupied room on a given day.
Advance Purchase Rate: A discounted room rate offered to guests who book and pay for their stay a certain number of days in advance.
Agritourism: Tourism in which tourists take part in farm or village activities.
All-Inclusive: A type of resort or travel package that includes all meals, drinks, and activities in the price.
Allocation: The process of assigning hotel rooms or airline seats to a travel agent or tour operator.
Allotment: A block of rooms or airline seats reserved by a travel agent or tour operator for a specific period.
Amenity: A desirable or useful feature or facility of a building or place.
Back of House (BOH): The areas of a hotel or restaurant where staff work behind the scenes, such as the kitchen and administrative offices.
Banquet Event Order (BEO): A document that outlines the details of an event, including food and beverage, room setup, and audio-visual requirements.
BAR (Best Available Rate): The lowest unrestricted rate offered by a hotel for a particular day, available to the general public.
Bed and Breakfast (B&B): A small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast.
Booking Engine: The technology that allows customers to make reservations directly on a hotel's or airline's website.
Boutique Hotel: A small, stylish hotel, typically situated in a fashionable urban location.
Bucket List Travel: Traveling to specific destinations or having unique experiences that someone wants to do before they die.
Business Travel: Travel undertaken for work or business purposes, as opposed to other types of travel.
Cabin Crew: The members of an aircraft crew who attend to passengers.
Cancellation Policy: The terms and conditions under which a guest can cancel a reservation without penalty.
Casual Dining: A restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere.
Catering: The business of providing food service at a remote site or a specific site such as a hotel, public house (pub), or other location.
Chain Hotel: A hotel that is part of a series of hotels owned by the same company.
Check-in: The process of arriving and registering at a hotel or airport.
Check-out: The process of leaving a hotel and settling one's bill.
Chef: A professional cook, typically the chief cook in a restaurant or hotel.
Commission: A sum of money paid to an employee upon completion of a task, usually selling a certain amount of goods or services.
Complimentary: Provided free of charge. Often referred to as \
Complimentary (Comp): A service or item provided free of charge.
Concierge: A hotel employee whose job is to assist guests by booking tours, making theater and restaurant reservations, etc.
Consolidator: A wholesaler who buys airline tickets or hotel rooms in bulk at a discount and resells them to travel agents.
Continental Breakfast: A light breakfast, typically consisting of coffee, juice, and bread or pastries.
Convention: A large meeting of people who come to a place for a common purpose.
Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB): A non-profit organization that promotes a city or region to attract tourism, conventions, and events.
Corkage Fee: A fee charged by a restaurant to guests who bring their own bottle of wine to consume.
Corporate Rate: A special discounted room rate offered to business travelers.
Cost Per Occupied Room (CPOR): A metric that calculates the average cost to service one occupied room.
Cruise Line: A company that operates cruise ships for passenger voyages.
Cruise Ship: A large passenger ship used for voyages on which the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are a part of the experience.
Culinary Tourism: The pursuit of unique and memorable eating and drinking experiences.
Customer Satisfaction: A measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation.
Customs: The official department that administers and collects the duties levied by a government on imported goods.
Dark Tourism: Tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy.
Day Guest: A guest who arrives and departs on the same day.
Day Rate: A reduced rate for a hotel room used only during the day, not for an overnight stay.
Departure Tax: A tax levied on individuals when they are leaving a country.
Destination: The place to which someone or something is going or being sent.
Destination Management Company (DMC): A professional services company possessing extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources, specializing in the design and implementation of events, activities, tours, transportation and program logistics.
Destination Marketing Organization (DMO): See Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).
Direct Booking: A reservation made directly with the hotel or airline, bypassing third-party channels.
Double Booking: The situation where a reservation is made for two different parties for the same room or space at the same time.
Eco-friendly: Not harmful to the environment.
Ecotourism: Tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments, especially to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife.
ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival): The time when a plane, vehicle, or person is expected to arrive.
ETD (Estimated Time of Departure): The time when a plane, vehicle, or person is expected to depart.
European Plan (EP): A hotel rate that includes the room only, with no meals.
Event Management: The application of project management to the creation and development of large-scale events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, weddings, formal parties, concerts, or conventions.
Excursion: A short journey or trip, especially one engaged in as a leisure activity.
Extended Stay Hotel: A type of lodging with features of a traditional hotel but with more space, and in-suite kitchens.
F&B (Food and Beverage): A department in a hotel or restaurant that is responsible for all food and drink services.
Familiarization (FAM) Trip: A trip offered to travel agents at a reduced rate to promote a destination or travel product.
Familiarization Trip (Fam Trip): A trip offered to travel agents or media at a reduced cost to promote a destination or property.
Feeder City: A city from which a significant number of travelers originate for a particular destination.
Fine Dining: A restaurant experience that is typically more sophisticated, unique, and expensive than at a casual dining restaurant.
Flagging Out: When a hotel chain removes its brand affiliation (flag) from a property.
Folio: A guest's account at a hotel.
Front of House (FOH): The areas of a hotel or restaurant where guests interact with staff, such as the lobby, dining room, and bar.
Full Board: A hotel rate that includes accommodation and all three meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).
Function Sheet: See Banquet Event Order (BEO).
GDS (Global Distribution System): A worldwide computerized reservation network used as a single point of access for reserving airline seats, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other travel-related items by travel agents, online reservation sites, and large corporations. Examples include Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport.
Global Distribution System (GDS): A worldwide computerized reservation network used as a single point of access for reserving airline seats, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other travel-related items by travel agents, online reservation sites, and large corporations.
Green Hotel: A hotel that is environmentally friendly.
Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room (GOPPAR): A key performance indicator for the hotel industry which measures the total revenue of the hotel less expenses.
Group Rate: A discounted room rate offered for a block of rooms reserved for a group.
Guest Cycle: The four stages of a guest's experience with a hotel: pre-arrival, arrival, occupancy, and departure.
Half Board: A hotel rate that includes accommodation, breakfast, and one other meal, typically dinner.
Half Board (Modified American Plan): A hotel rate that includes the room plus two meals per day, typically breakfast and dinner.
Heads in Beds: An industry term referring to the number of guests staying in a hotel at a given time; a measure of occupancy.
High Season (Peak Season): The time of year when a destination receives the most visitors and prices are highest.
Hospitality: The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.
Hostel: An establishment which provides inexpensive food and lodging for a specific group of people, such as students, workers, or travelers.
Hotel: An establishment providing accommodation, meals, and other services for travelers and tourists.
Housekeeping: The department of a hotel charged with cleaning and maintaining rooms and public spaces.
I-R: Expenses other than the room rate that a guest incurs during their stay, such as mini-bar purchases or laundry service.
In-room Dining (Room Service): The service of providing meals to guests in their hotel rooms.
Incentive Travel: A trip offered as a reward for excellent performance to stimulate an employee's or a business partner's productivity.
Incidental Charges: Expenses other than the room rate that a guest incurs during their stay, such as mini-bar purchases or laundry service.
Independent Hotel: A hotel that is not affiliated with a major chain or brand.
Itinerary: A planned route or journey.
Jet Lag: Extreme tiredness and other physical effects felt by a person after a long flight across different time zones.
King Room: A hotel room with a king-sized bed.
Layover: A period of rest or waiting before a further stage in a journey.
Leisure Travel: Travel in which the primary motivation is to take a vacation from everyday life.
Length of Stay (LOS): The number of nights a guest stays at a hotel.
Limited-Service Hotel: A hotel that offers fewer amenities than a full-service hotel, often lacking an on-site restaurant.
Load Factor: A percentage of how much of an airline's passenger carrying capacity is used.
Lobby: The entrance area of a hotel.
Lodging: A place in which someone lives or stays temporarily.
Low Season (Off-Season): The time of year when a destination has the fewest visitors and prices are lowest.
Loyalty Program: A marketing program that rewards customers for their repeat business.
MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions): A type of tourism in which large groups, usually planned well in advance, are brought together for a particular purpose.
Mini-bar: A small refrigerator in a hotel room stocked with drinks and snacks for purchase.
Minibar: A small refrigerator in a hotel room, stocked with a range of drinks and snacks.
Motel (Motor Hotel): A roadside hotel designed primarily for motorists, typically having the rooms arranged in a low building with parking directly outside.
Net Rate: A wholesale rate for a hotel room or other travel service that is given to a travel agent or tour operator, who can then mark it up for sale to the public.
No-show: A person who has made a reservation but neither uses nor cancels it.
Occupancy Rate: The ratio of rented or used space to the total amount of available space.
Online Travel Agency (OTA): A web-based marketplace that allows consumers to research and book travel products and services, including hotels, flights, cars, cruises, activities and more, directly with travel suppliers.
Overbooking: The practice of confirming more reservations than available seats or rooms in the expectation that some passengers or guests will be no-shows.
Package Tour: A pre-arranged trip that includes transportation, accommodation, and sometimes other services such as meals and sightseeing.
Passenger Name Record (PNR): A record in the database of a computer reservation system (CRS) that contains the itinerary for a passenger, or a group of passengers travelling together.
Pax: An industry term for passengers or guests.
Per Diem: A daily allowance for expenses, a fee paid to a person for each day they are employed on a particular job.
Point of Sale (POS) System: The place where a customer executes the payment for goods or services and where sales taxes may become payable.
Property Management System (PMS): A software application for the operations of hospitality accommodations or commercial rental properties.
Rack Rate: The official or advertised price of a hotel room, on which a discount is usually negotiable.
Red-Eye Flight: An overnight flight that arrives early the next morning.
Request for Proposal (RFP): A document that a business or organization sends to potential suppliers (like hotels or event venues) to solicit bids for a specific project or event.
Resort: A place that is a popular destination for vacations or recreation, or which is frequented for a particular purpose.
Restaurant: A place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premises.
Revenue Management: The application of disciplined analytics that predict consumer behavior at the micro-market level and optimize product availability and price to maximize revenue growth.
RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room): A performance metric in the hotel industry, calculated by multiplying a hotel's average daily room rate by its occupancy rate.
Room Block: A specific number of rooms that have been reserved for a group at a discounted rate.
S-Z: The period between the high and low seasons, often offering a balance of good weather and lower prices.
Shoulder Season: The travel period between peak and off-peak seasons.
Sommelier: A wine steward.
Spa: A location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths.
Staycation: A holiday spent in one's home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.
Suite: A set of rooms designated for one person's or family's use or for a particular purpose.
Sustainable Tourism: Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.
Timeshare: An arrangement whereby several joint owners have the right to use a property as a vacation home under a time-sharing agreement.
Tour Operator: A business that typically combines and promotes travel services to sell them as a package.
Tourism: The commercial organization and operation of vacations and visits to places of interest.
Tourist: A person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure.
Transfer: Transportation provided between two locations, such as from an airport to a hotel.
Travel Agency: A private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the public on behalf of suppliers such as activities, airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, travel insurance, and package tours.
Travel Agent: A person whose job is to make arrangements for people who want to travel, such as buying tickets and booking hotel rooms.
TrevPAR (Total Revenue Per Available Room): A performance metric that considers all hotel revenue streams (rooms, F&B, spa, etc.) divided by the total number of available rooms.
Turn-down Service: A hotel service in which a housekeeper prepares a guest's room for the night.
Upgrade: To give a customer a better seat or a better room than the one they have paid for.
Upsell: To persuade a customer to buy something additional or more expensive.
Upselling: A sales technique where a seller persuades a customer to purchase a more expensive item or an upgrade.
Valet: A hotel employee who performs personal services for guests.
Valet Parking: A parking service offered by some hotels and restaurants, where an attendant parks the car for the guest.
Visa: An endorsement on a passport indicating that the holder is allowed to enter, leave, or stay for a specified period of time in a country.
Voluntourism: A form of tourism in which travelers participate in voluntary work, typically for a charity.
Voucher: A document that can be exchanged for goods or services, often used in package tours.
Walk-in: A guest who arrives at a hotel without a reservation.
Wholesaler: A company that buys travel services in bulk and sells them to travel agents.
Yield Management: A variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, time-limited resource.

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About this study catalogue

This reference uses DecA(I)de's bundled deca-pis.json and decaidevocab.json study datasets. Counts are entries, not unique indicators or terms; the same item can appear in multiple groups. Code punctuation and display formatting are normalized.

Personal Financial Literacy uses benchmark-style codes such as 4-1a, distinct from business performance-indicator codes such as BL:003. The bundled files do not include an edition, source-document citation or licensing record. We have not verified every entry against current official wording. Consult DECA's competitive-event resources and your advisor for the current requirements for your event.

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