OTA Industry Glossary

ADR (Average Daily Rate) is a core hotel performance metric that measures the average revenue earned per occupied room o...

ALOS (Average Length of Stay) is the average number of nights a guest books per reservation. It's a key demand indicator...

ARI (Average Rate Index) measures a hotel's ADR performance relative to its competitive set. It shows whether the proper...

Agency Model (also called the commission model) is an OTA distribution model in which the OTA acts purely as a booking a...

Allotment is a pre-negotiated block of rooms that a hotel agrees to make available to a distribution partner — typically...

Ancillary revenue is all revenue a property earns beyond the room rate itself: food and beverage, spa and wellness, park...

Attribute-Based Selling (ABS) is a distribution model in which a hotel sells individual room characteristics — floor, vi...

Attribution Window (also called a lookback window or conversion window) is the defined period of time between a traveler...

BAR (Best Available Rate) is the lowest publicly available, non-restricted rate a hotel offers for a given date. It is t...

BAR by Day is a pricing approach in which a hotel sets a distinct Best Available Rate for each individual arrival date r...

BRG (Best Rate Guarantee), also called a price match guarantee, is a public promise — made by a hotel brand or an OTA —...

Bedsonline is the retail travel agent booking platform of Hotelbeds (part of HBX Group), one of the world's largest acco...

Booking Curve is the cumulative shape of demand for a single future arrival date, plotted against lead time. Where a pac...

Booking Engine (also called an Internet Booking Engine, or IBE) is the software that powers reservations on a hotel's ow...

Booking Window (also called Lead Time) is the number of days between when a reservation is made and the guest's arrival...

Brand search refers to queries in which a user explicitly searches for a hotel or hospitality brand by name — for exampl...

CDP (Customer Data Platform) is a system that ingests guest data from every operational and marketing source a hotel run...

CPA (Cost per Acquisition) is the marketing cost incurred to generate one booking (or one new customer). It is the most...

CPC (Cost per Click) is a digital advertising pricing model in which the advertiser pays each time a user clicks on the...

CPOR (Cost per Occupied Room) is an operational efficiency metric that expresses a hotel's total departmental operating...

CRS (Central Reservation System) is the system that stores and distributes a hotel's rates, availability, and inventory...

CTA (Closed to Arrival) is a revenue management restriction that prevents new reservations from beginning on a specific...

CTD (Closed to Departure) is a revenue management restriction that prevents reservations from ending on a specific date....

CTR (Click-Through Rate) is the percentage of users who click on a given listing, ad, or link out of the total who saw i...

A CUG (Closed User Group) is a restricted audience — such as logged-in members, app users, or email subscribers — to who...

Cancellation Rate is the percentage of confirmed reservations that are cancelled before arrival. It is one of the most i...

Carbon per Room Night is a sustainability intensity metric that expresses a hotel's greenhouse gas emissions per occupie...

Channel Manager is the software layer that synchronizes a hotel's rates, availability, and restrictions across every con...

Channel mix describes the distribution of a hotel's bookings — typically measured by room nights or revenue — across all...

Chargeback is the forced reversal of a card payment, initiated by the cardholder through their issuing bank rather than...

Commission Override is any program or arrangement in which a hotel pays an OTA a higher commission than the standard con...

Comp Set (Competitive Set) is the group of hotels that a property considers its direct competitors and benchmarks itself...

A compression night is a night on which demand in a market significantly exceeds available supply, pushing market-wide o...

Consortia are networks of independent travel agencies that band together to negotiate preferred hotel rates, commissions...

Content Score is a metric used by OTAs (most prominently Expedia, where it's called the "Content Score" or property scor...

Conversion Rate is the percentage of website visitors (or OTA listing viewers) who complete a booking. It is the most di...

Cost of Distribution (also called cost of sale or acquisition cost) is the total amount a hotel spends to acquire its bo...

DAC7 is the seventh amendment to the EU's Directive on Administrative Cooperation, adopted as Council Directive (EU) 202...

The DMA (Digital Markets Act) is a European Union regulation (Regulation 2022/1925) that entered into full effect in Mar...

DSA (Digital Services Act) is a European Union regulation (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) that came into full effect for all...

The dark funnel refers to the portion of a hotel's or OTA's customer acquisition journey that is invisible to standard a...

Day-Use Rate is a room rate for occupying a room during daytime hours only — typically a window such as 9:00 to 18:00 —...

Demand 360 is a forward-looking market intelligence product from CoStar (formerly STR) that provides hotels with aggrega...

Demand Calendar is a forward-looking calendar view that maps out anticipated demand drivers — events, holidays, conventi...

Denials and regrets are the two categories of demand a hotel didn't convert, recorded so that revenue managers can estim...

Direct Bookings are reservations made directly with a hotel — typically through the brand website, mobile app, call cent...

Disintermediation is the strategy of bypassing OTAs and selling directly to the consumer. The Billboard Effect is the re...

Dynamic Pricing is the practice of adjusting hotel rates in real time — often multiple times per day — based on demand s...

EBITDAR is a profitability metric used in hotel valuation and financial analysis. It represents operating earnings befor...

Expedia TAAP (Travel Agent Affiliate Program) is Expedia Group's B2B booking platform for retail travel agents. Instead...

An extranet (OTA extranet) is the secure, web-based partner portal an OTA provides to hotels and other accommodation pro...

FIT (Free Independent Traveler) refers to individual leisure guests who plan and book their travel independently, withou...

Fair Share is the share of market demand a hotel would receive if all hotels in its competitive set captured demand stri...

Flow-Through (also called drop-through) measures the proportion of incremental revenue that converts into incremental Gr...

Forward STAR is a forward-looking benchmarking dataset produced by STR (now part of CoStar) that provides hotels with ag...

Free booking links are the unpaid listings Google shows in its hotel booking module, alongside the paid Google Hotel Ads...

Free Sale is an inventory availability status in which a hotel makes rooms available for booking without a pre-committed...

Funnel Drop-off refers to the loss of potential guests at each successive stage of the booking journey — from initial se...

GDS (Global Distribution System) is a worldwide computerized reservation network that connects travel suppliers — hotels...

GIT (Group Inclusive Tour) refers to pre-packaged travel arrangements sold to a group of travelers — typically 10 or mor...

GOPPAR (Gross Operating Profit per Available Room) measures a hotel's gross operating profit per available room. Unlike...

Genius is Booking.com's loyalty and discount program for travelers. Members get discounted rates and additional perks at...

Google Hotel Ads is Google's hotel metasearch product, displaying real-time rates and availability from OTAs and hotel b...

Green Key is one of the world's leading eco-labels for the tourism and hospitality industry, awarded by the Foundation f...

Group displacement is the opportunity-cost analysis a revenue manager performs when evaluating whether to accept a group...

Guest sentiment analysis is the use of natural-language processing to automatically read guest reviews, survey responses...

HTNG (Hotel Technology Next Generation) is a non-profit trade association and standards body that develops open technolo...

Hard Block is a room allotment commitment in which a hotel guarantees a specific number of rooms to a distribution partn...

HotStats is a hotel benchmarking service that provides profit-and-loss performance data, allowing properties to compare...

House Count is the total number of guests (or, in some properties, the total number of occupied rooms) physically in-hou...

An Internet Booking Engine (IBE) is the booking system or widget embedded on a hotel's website that allows guests to sea...

KYC for Hosts refers to the identity and business verification checks that OTAs and short-term rental platforms must run...

LRA (Last Room Availability) is a distribution agreement in which a hotel guarantees that a negotiated rate remains book...

Last-Click Attribution is a digital marketing measurement model that assigns 100% of the credit for a completed booking...

Look-to-Book Ratio is the ratio of search or browse sessions to actual bookings on a website, OTA listing, or booking en...

MPI (Market Penetration Index) measures a hotel's occupancy performance relative to a defined competitive set (comp set)...

Merchant Model is an OTA distribution model in which the OTA acts as the merchant of record: it charges the guest's cred...

The Merchant of Record (MoR) is the legal entity that sells the booking to the guest and is responsible for processing t...

Metasearch engines aggregate hotel rates and availability from multiple sources — OTAs, hotel brand websites, and wholes...

MinLOS (Minimum Length of Stay) and MaxLOS (Maximum Length of Stay) are revenue management restrictions that control how...

Multi-Touch Attribution (MTA) is an analytical framework that distributes credit for a booking across every marketing to...

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an XML-based data transmission standard developed by IATA (International Air Transp...

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a guest loyalty and satisfaction metric that measures the likelihood of guests recommending...

NRevPAR (Net Revenue per Available Room) is a profitability-focused performance metric that measures the net room revenu...

Net ADR Yield measures how much of a hotel's advertised room rate actually reaches the property after all channel costs...

No-show is a guest with a confirmed reservation who fails to arrive on the scheduled check-in date and does not cancel b...

OBT (Online Booking Tool) is a corporate travel booking platform that allows business travellers to search, compare, and...

ORM (Online Reputation Management) refers to the strategies, processes, and tools that hotels and accommodation provider...

OTA (Online Travel Agency) is a third-party website or app that sells travel products — hotels, flights, car rentals, va...

Occupancy Rate is the percentage of a hotel's available rooms that are sold over a given period. It is one of the founda...

One Key is Expedia Group's unified loyalty program, launched in 2023, which merged the previously separate rewards schem...

Opaque Model is a distribution model in which the consumer doesn't see the hotel's brand name until after booking is com...

Open Pricing is a modern revenue management approach in which each rate plan, room type, and channel is priced independe...

OpenTravel Alliance (OpenTravel) is a non-profit, member-driven organization that develops and maintains open, XML-based...

Out of Order (OOO) is a room status designation in hotel operations indicating that a specific room or unit is physicall...

Out of Service (OOS) is a housekeeping/front-office status for a room that is temporarily unsellable for a short-term, m...

Overbooking is the practice of deliberately accepting more reservations than a hotel has rooms available for a given nig...

PMS (Property Management System) is the operational software that runs a hotel's day-to-day business. It handles reserva...

Pace Report is a revenue management report that compares on-the-books reservations for a future date or period against a...

Pace Variance measures the difference between a hotel's current booking pace and the booking pace recorded at the same p...

Pickup refers to the number of new reservations gained over a given time window — typically the past 1, 3, 7, or 14 days...

Preferred Partner Program is Booking.com's tier-based program that gives participating hotels improved search visibility...

Price Elasticity measures how sensitive consumer demand is to a change in price. In hotel revenue management, it quantif...

RGI (Revenue Generation Index), sometimes called RevPAR Index, measures a hotel's RevPAR performance against its competi...

An RMS (Revenue Management System) is a software platform that automates or assists hotel pricing and inventory decision...

Rack Rate is the standard, undiscounted, published price of a hotel room — historically posted on a printed rate "rack"...

A rate fence is a rule or condition attached to a discounted rate that stops guests who would happily pay more from buyi...

Rate Parity is the practice of maintaining identical room rates and conditions across all distribution channels — the ho...

Rate Plan / Room Type Mapping is the process of matching a hotel's internal rate plans and room categories to the rate p...

Rate Shopper (also called a rate intelligence tool or competitive pricing tool) is software that automatically scrapes h...

Repeat Guest Ratio (also called guest return rate or loyalty rate) measures the proportion of a hotel's guests in a give...

Reputation Score is a composite metric that aggregates a hotel's guest review ratings across multiple online platforms —...

Retail Model is an OTA distribution model in which the consumer-facing rate is identical to (or directly tied to) the ho...

Retargeting (also called remarketing) is a digital advertising technique that shows ads to users who have already intera...

RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) is the single most-watched KPI in hotel performance. It combines rate and occupancy...

RevPASH (Revenue per Available Seat Hour) is the food and beverage equivalent of RevPAR. It measures how much revenue an...

Revenue Management is the discipline of using data, forecasting, and pricing strategy to maximize a hotel's total revenu...

Review velocity is the rate at which a hotel accumulates new guest reviews on OTAs and review platforms over a defined p...

Risk-Free Reservations is a Booking.com programme that shifts the financial risk of guest cancellations and no-shows fro...

SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) is the European regulatory requirement, introduced by the second Payment Services D...

STLY (Same Time Last Year) is a benchmarking reference point used in hotel revenue management to compare current booking...

STR Report is a benchmarking report produced by STR (Smith Travel Research, now part of CoStar) that compares a hotel's...

Scope 3 emissions are the indirect greenhouse-gas emissions that occur across a company's value chain — everything it ca...

Smart Flex Reservations is a Booking.com program in which the OTA automatically offers guests more flexible cancellation...

Soft Block is a hotel inventory arrangement in which a group of rooms is reserved for a specific client — typically a co...

Source market describes the country or geographic region from which a hotel's guests originate. It is one of the most fu...

Stay Pattern refers to the combination of check-in day, check-out day, and length of stay most frequently observed at a...

A stay-over is a room that is occupied on a given night by a guest who arrived on an earlier date and is not departing t...

Stop Sell is a rate or inventory restriction that closes a specific room type, rate plan, or the entire property to new...

Superhost is Airbnb's recognition program for hosts who consistently deliver highly rated stays. The badge appears on th...

A switch (distribution switch) is a middleware layer that sits between a hotel's reservation systems and external distri...

TRevPAR (Total Revenue per Available Room) measures all revenue generated per available room — not just room revenue. It...

Total Revenue Forecast is a forward-looking projection of all revenue a property expects to generate across every depart...

Tourist tax (also called city tax, bed tax, accommodation levy, or visitor tax) is a government-imposed charge collected...

Travalyst is a non-profit coalition founded in 2019 with the goal of making sustainable travel accessible and transparen...

Turnover Day (also called changeover day) is the day on which one guest or group departs and the next arrives in the sam...

Unconstrained demand is the total volume of bookings a hotel would receive for a given date if it had unlimited room inv...

Upselling is the practice of persuading a guest to purchase a higher-value version of what they already booked — a bette...

A VCC (Virtual Credit Card) is a single-use, digitally generated card number that an OTA or travel intermediary issues t...

Visibility Booster is a Booking.com tool that lets hotels temporarily increase their commission percentage on a per-date...

Walk-in is a guest who arrives at a hotel without a prior reservation and asks to book a room on the spot. Walk-ins were...

Wash (often called cancellation wash) is the gap between bookings on the books and the rooms that will actually be occup...

Webhook is a push-based integration mechanism in which one system automatically sends an HTTP message to another system'...

Wholesale (or Net Rate) distribution is a B2B model in which a hotel sells inventory to wholesalers and bed banks at a d...

Wide Parity Ban refers to laws and competition rulings that prohibit OTAs from enforcing wide rate parity clauses — cont...

Yield Management is the original discipline of selling the right room to the right guest at the right time and price to...