OTA, CRS, FIT, OCC, REVPAR, POS, GDS, F&B, PMS, CRM, POS, LMFAO

As requested by Gwaenynog B&B today's blog is a glossary of terms that large hotels tend to use. The most difficult to get your head around are the ones relating to tech travel industry, that are worth knowing if you are dealing with third party channels. I hope you find them useful, if you don't agree with any or feel I have missed out on anything then please feel free to comment. 

 

While browsing definitions I came across this darts term which I found interesting!

 

Breakfast (or Bed N Breakfast)

A score of 26 made up of a single five, single 20 and single one which comes from the typical price of a bed-and-breakfast in times gone by: 2 shillings and sixpence or 'two and six'.

 

 

Central Reservation System (CRS/CReS)

The ability of guests to make a reservation for one out of a number of hotels by contacting one agency. This agency is contracted by the hotels acting as a group, to operate this 'central' reservation service.

 

Frequent Independent Traveler (FIT)
Designation which applies to visitors who arrive on their own as opposed to being a part of an organized group.

 

Guest Amenities
Not to be confused with 'amenities', this is the term given to the range of disposable items provided in guest room bathrooms and includes such items as shampoo, lotion, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, shower caps, etc… The cost of these items are built into room rate.

 

High (Peak) Season / Shoulder Season
The period of consecutive months during which optimum revenues, room/suite occupancy and average room rates are generated. I

 

Occupancy (Occ. %)  (Occ Rate)
The percentage of available rooms occupied for a given period of consecutive time. This figure is calculated by dividing the number of rooms occupied for a period, by the number of rooms available for the same period and is expressed as a percentage.

 

Rack Rate
The full, undiscounted published room rate (price).

 

Registration Card (Reg. Card)
A form on which arriving guests record their names, addresses, and other details including mode of transportation used, nationality, purpose of visit (usually business or pleasure), method of payment, and length of stay. A space is also provided for signature, room rate and room number. Additional questions may be included as a part of the hotel's market research platform. (Twitter and Facebook details).

 

Revenue Per Available Room (REVPAR)
Revpar is the key measure in the performance of the core business of hotels selling rooms. Revenue per available room (revpar) is the key indicator of performance for hotels and can be broken down into two parts reflecting occupancy and rates:

Revpar = occupancy (percentage of available rooms occupied) × average room rate per night.

Trends in revpar are very important. Revpar can be used to compare companies but only if they have broadly similar hotels - i.e. similarly priced in similar locations. 

 

Point of Sale (POS)

Computerized systems that retail outlets such as restaurants, gift shops, etc, enter orders and maintain various accounting information. The POS generally interfaces with the property management system (PMS).

 

Property Management Systems (PMS)

A computerized front desk system that manages hotel room inventory, guest billing and interfaces with various other systems such as telephone, call accounting, point of sale (POS), entertainment, etc.

 

Average Occupancy Per Room

A ratio that shows the average number of paid guests for each room sold. Calculated by dividing number of paid room guests by number of rooms sold. Measures management's ability to use the lodging facilities. 

 

Proprietary Booking Engine

A internet reservation system that is owned and operated by an individual hotel or group of hotels to allow them to take reservation on their own website without paying a fee to the GDS, third party booking engines, distribution channels or franchise reservation systems.

 

 

Distribution Channel or OTA (Online Travel Agent)

An internet site that provides a booking engine and a marketing/sales service.  A traveller can search a large number of lodging facilities for availability and reserve a room. The lodging facilities are not affiliated with the site and pay a fee for the business that the third party site generates. Examples of third party sites include: hotels.com, priceline.com. Booking.com

 

 

Merchant Model

A business model in which a hotel provides an online company with a net rate that is a fixed discount off the hotel's retail rates, and the online company then sells the room to the customer at a rate of its own choosing and retains the difference. A common alternative to this model is an arrangement under which an online company sells to consumers at the hotel's rate, and the hotel pays the online company a percentage of the revenue generated.

 

REVPAR

Revenue Per Available Room

 

Affinity Leads 

Sales and marketing opportunities related to groups organized around a common interest, such as AARP, AAA, and others.

 

Consortia

Marketing organizations that link together small to medium sized independent travel agencies to leverage purchasing power and marketing opportunities. 

 

CRM - Customer Relationship Management 

A strategy used to learn more about customers' needs and behaviours in order to develop stronger relationships with them and create a value exchange on both sides.

 

F&B 

Food and beverage.

 

GDS

Global Distribution Systems are the original electronic sales systems linking hotel companies and other travel suppliers to travel agencies worldwide. 

 

Look to Book

The ratio of shopping requests versus bookings on a website. 'Convert Lookers to Bookers'.

 

 

LMFAO

Laughing my fat ass off

 

 

 

Channel 4's Undercover Boss Reviewed - David Clarke Chief Exec of Best Western Chain

Normally on a Friday I spend an enjoyable morning on Youtube looking for special treats to entertain for 'Friday Film Day'. This week however I can't do that, because there was a show on last night I have to write about.

Best Western give their name to 4000 hotels in 80 countries. They have 275 hotels in the UK and a 90 million turnover. The fact that a hotel has this recognised name encourages people to book rooms. By being a part of the brand name the hotel gains around 25% more bookings. In order to join this (for want of a better word) syndicate, a hotel needs to be above three star and pass inspections by Best Western to ensure they are up to carrying their brand name.

David Clarke, the Chief Executive took part in the Channel 4 show, Undercover Boss. He visited and worked at three hotels in the disguise of Andy Green, a trainee who was learning how the hotels worked.

The first place he visited was the White House in Oxford, where he spent a day with head (and only) chef Wayne. This guy was absolute gold. He had a mountain of pots, one oven, knackered equipment and worked 80 hours a week. With all this going against him he still provided top nosh that local people were coming to eat. David was shocked at how badly he was treated and amazed by how much he still cared for his work. He had never even seen the owner, no one had ever said thank you to him for working 80 hour weeks, yet he still strived for quality and did a great job.

David stayed over and next day met with maintenance man Michael. This guy was the reverse of Wayne. His attitude was really what you'd expect from someone who has never met his boss. David helped him with a list of to-do's in preparation for an upcoming inspection by Best Western. I laughed out loud at this (or went 'lol', for those people down with the kids). Michael was moving good sofas into the rooms that were being inspected and taking tatty ones out. Though this was 'under instruction' his attitude was pretty lousy.

Next up was Castle Green and Leona, the breakfast supervisor. She was wonderful and very good with the guests. She extolled the virtues of working at a wonderful family run hotel and boasted about gym extras and staying for free. She was everything David wanted in an employee but when David asked her about Best Western she blanked. David naively believed that his £1 million 'Hotels With Personality' ad campaign about what Best Western stands for would be well known to staff.

David's next job was to help Steve, the Green Keeper at Ullesthorpe Court hotel and golf club in Leicester. Steve was working 60 hours a week on his own, for £6 an hour to keep an entire golf course that the hotel had spent 1/4 million building. How can that be right by any company's standards? £6 an hour for skilled labour. Hang your head in shame Ullesthorpe Court.

David's final undercover mission was to clean 72 rooms with Bev and her team of five housekeepers. Bev is paid just over the minimum wage for running a team of housekeepers and has to clean the rooms from 8-2, though she generally works a few hours extra. Her team have to work faster and longer because of two recent redundancies. Again paying a senior person £6 an hour is just not fair.

David called Bev 'unassuming' and was very impressed by her attitude. When he tried to pull up how unfair it was that she was working longer hours, she said, "All that matters is that the guests are happy and if the guests are happy then they will come back and we won't have redundancies."

I love you Bev.

At the end of the show David took all the employers in the office and gave them some encouraging words. Apart from maintenance man Michael who was not able to attend for some reason. Mmmm... He deserved to be sacked to be honest...

This is where I actually shed tears at the time. It was emotional! David gave Steve a holiday at Celtic Manor golf club, Leona a job as face of the company, Wayne a catering course (which was weird and felt like a punishment, why didn't he fix his broken oven!) and Bev £2500 for Great Ormond Street where here son has spent 15 years.

Then I stopped crying (I'm such a wuss) and had a good think about what David did.

It actually made me feel a little ill.

Best Western have recently aired an ad campaign with the slogan 'Hotels With Personality'. Followed by this show, where their Chief Exec finds fantastic personalities and gives them things. 

Call me cynical but what David did was one of the most fantastic PR stunts ever. He didn't help the hotels' with their problems, (if he did it wasn't shown), he didn't shout at their bosses to improve things and pay staff more, he simply made some emotive gestures to make us viewers think he really cared.

If I was a B&B owner like you I'd take good things from this show. It proved that big chains, marketing consortiums, whatever you want to call them simply can't always be there to ensure their hotels provide the level of personal service and attention to detail that you can. David only visited a few places and there were deep-rooted problems.

Small, economical, environmentally friendly B&Bs have to be the way forward for the hospitality industry. The sooner more guests see that, and stop giving their money to these irresponsible chains, the better.