KEY TERMS

1.Housekeeping: - Housekeeping is an operational department of the hotel which is

responsible for cleanliness, maintenance and aesthetic upkeep of the rooms, Public areas, back
areas and surroundings. Also it can be defined as the provision of a clean, comfortable, safe
and aesthetically appealing environment.

2. Front Office: - Front Office is the department that handles check in and check out where information
regarding the guest maintained.

3. Back Of the House: - The functional areas of the hotel in which employees have little or no guest
contact, such as the engineering and maintenance department, laundry and so on.

4. Front of the House: The functional areas of the hotel, In which employees have extensive guest
contact, such as food and beverage facilities and front office .

5. Amenity: - A service or item offered to guests or placed in guestroom for convenience and comfort at
no extra cost

6. Check In: - The arrival and registration of a guest at the hotel. The term is also used for a guest who
has arrived and taken possession of a room and used the hotel services.

7. Check Out: - An American term adopted by hotels in India to mean a guests departure from the hotel.

8.Back-to-Back :- Heavy rate of check-out and check-in activities on the same day,so that as soon as the
room is made up, a new guest checks into it.

9. Departure Room: - A Room from which the guest has departed, settled the account, returned the
room keys, and left the hotel. It is also called a Check out room OR vacated (vacant) Room.

10. Double Lock (DL) :- An occupied room in which the deadbolt has been turned to prohibit entry from
the corridor. On a Grandmaster key or an emergency key can open it.

11. DND Card: - A ‘Do Not Disturb’ card is hung outside the room to inform hotel staff or visitors that the
occupant does not wish to be disturbed.

12. Double Locked (DL):- An occupied room in which the deadbolt has been turned to prohibit entry
from the corridor. only a Grandmaster key or an emergency key can open it.

13. Faucet: - Another terms of tap.

14. Floor Pantry: - A Service room provided on each floor for GRAs to store cleaning agent, equipments,
guestroom linen and maid’s cart .

15. GRA: - Guestroom Attendant

16. Job Description: - A job description is detailed document identifying all the likely duties of a job
position as well as reporting relationships, additional responsibilities, working condition and any
knowhow necessary about equipment and materials.

17. Job Specification: - This document stipulates the minimum qualities and traits required by an
individual to perform a particular job as defined by its job description.

18. Occupancy Report: - A Report prepared each night by the front office, which lists the rooms
occupied that night and indicates guests who are expected to check out the following day.

19. OOO: - ‘Out Of Order’ is the status of a guestroom that is not rentable because it is been repaired or
redecorated.

20. Preventive Maintenance: - A systematic approach to maintenance in which situations are identified
and corrected on a regular basis to control cost to control costs and keep larger problems from
occurring.

21. Room Status Discrepancy:-A situation in which the housekeeping departments description of room
status differs from the room status information with the front office.

22. Room Status Report: - A report that allows the housekeeping department to identify the occupancy
or the condition of the property’s room. It is generated daily through a two way communication
between housekeeping and front office

23. Scheduled Maintenance: - Activities related to the upkeep of the property, which are indicated
through a formal work order or similar document.

24. Stay over :- A Room status indicating a room occupied by a guest who is not checking out today and
will remain at least one more night.

25. Upholstery: - Textiles, Padding, springs and other materials used for decorating furniture and
rendering it more comfortable.

26. Water Closet (WC):- A reservoir to hold the right amount of water required flushing the toilet. It is
also called waste water preventer (WWP). A European term for toilet bowl and water closet.

27. Cleaning Supplies: - Cleaning agent and small cleaning equipment that are used in cleaning the
guestroom and public area in hotel.

28. Hand Caddy: - A Portable container for storing and transporting cleaning supplies carried on a room
maid’s cart.

29. Horticulturist: - Horticulturist lead a team of gardeners to maintain the landscaped areas and
gardens of a hotel.

30. House Telephone: - A telephone kept in the lobby for visitors to call up guests in hotel room.
31. Occupancy : - The number of rooms actually in use/occupied.

32. OPL: - On – Premises Laundry. An in house area in the hotel where uniforms and linen are washed,
dry cleaned and pressed.

33. Organization chart: - A Schematic representation of the relationships between positions within an
organization,showing where each position fits into the overall organization and illustrating the divisions
of responsibility and lines of authority.

34. Performance standard: - A required level of performance to meet quality standard set by the
organization.

35. Productivity Standard: - An acceptable amount of work that must be done within a specific time
frame according to an established level of performance.

36. Janitorial Services: -This refer to the cleaning of bathrooms and toilets, primarily.

37. SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) :- A Document of a standing nature that specifies a certain
method of operating or a specific procedure for the accomplishment of a task. SOPs can be developed
for all important housekeeping activities and tasks.

38. Vanity Area: - A unit comprising a wash basin and mirror, surrounded by flat area where soaps,
dental kits, shaving kits and tooth glasses are kept

39. Outsourcing: - A conscious business decision to move internal works to an external provider.

40. Damp Dust: - A Method of cleaning where the item to be cleaned is wiped with a damp cloth.

41. Frequency Schedule: - A schedule that indicates how often the item listed in area inventory lists are
to be cleaned or maintained.

42. Guest Loan Items:- Guest Supplies not normally found in guestroom, but available upon guest
request for example, hair dryers and ironing board.

43. Inventory: - The stock of purchased operating supplies equipment and other items held for future
use in housekeeping operations.

44. Non Recycled inventory: - items that are used up during the course of routine housekeeping
operations.non recycled items include most guest amenities, cleaning supplies and smaller pieces of
equipment.

45. Operating Supplies: - The items essential to carry out day to day housekeeping operations. These
include guest supplies and cleaning supplies.

46. Par: - The standard number of each inventoried item that must be in hand to support daily, routine
housekeeping operation.
47. Par Number (stock): - A multiple of the standard quantity of a particular inventory item that must be
on hand to support day to day housekeeping functions.

48. Planning: - The specification of goals and the means to accomplish those goals (these are to be
defined by housekeepers).

49. Sani- bin :- Small metal or plastic containers with lids, kept in toilets for the collection of soiled
sanitary towels.

50. Tooth Glass: - A glass placed on the vanity unit as a guest supply and used for gargling or to keep the
guests tooth brush, dentures, or similar items in.

51. Abrasives: - Substances or chemical that depend on their rubbing or scratching action to clean dirt
and grit from hard surfaces for e.g. – sandpaper , steel wool , powdered pumice and so on.

52. Buffing: - Polishing of the floor with a low speed polishing machine.

53. Banquet Function Prospectus (BFP) :- This document gives prior information of various conferences
and parties to be held in the hotel and chalks out the responsibilities all support departments, including
housekeeping, are expected to take on for the same.

54. Briefing :- A briefing is held for all the employees at the beginning of a work shift, usually presided
over by the HOD to facilitate two way communication between the management and the staff.

55. Debriefing: - A debriefing session or meeting is held at the end of the shift by managerial staff to
discuss problems, share ideas and evolve solutions.

56. Crib :- Cot for babies, provided to guests on request.

57. Emergency Key: - A key that can open all the guestrooms of the hotel even if they are double locked.

58. Housekeeping room status report: - A report generated by the housekeeping department that
indicates the current housekeeping status of each guestroom, based on physical check.

59. Linen Chute: - A passage in the form of tunnel for sending soiled linen from the floor pantries of all
floors to a central place near the laundry, from where it can be collected by the laundry staff.

60. Skipper: - A room status that indicates the guest has left the hotel without making arrangement to
settle his/her account.

61. Sleeper: - This room status means that the guest has settled his/her account and left the hotel, but
the front office staff has failed to update the room status.

62. Murphy Bed: - This refers to that folds up into the walls and looks like a bookshelf or cupboard when
folded away, being named for a leading manufacturer of such beds.it may also be called Sico bed.
63. Shoe Mitt: - Flannel cloths, usually in the shape of mitten, kept in hotel rooms as a guest supplies for
cleaning shoes.

64. Zed bed: - Fold away beds with slatted wood frame that folds into a double-hinged shape of three
sections when used as sofa, named after the later Z which it resembles because of its three jointed
parts.

65. Dirty Dozen: - A checklist of 12 areas identified in guestrooms that elude (escape) the GRA’s
attention and tends to accumulate dust. These are mostly hard-to-reach areas and are hidden from the
guest’s eye. The state of cleanliness in these areas reflects the standard of cleanliness in hotel.

66. Night Report: - A report prepared each night by the front desk attendant that indicated the rooms
occupied that night and the ones that are to become check-outs the following day.

67. Housekeeping Control Desk: - The nerve center of the entire housekeeping department for
dissemination (distribution) of information and communication to and from the department.

68. PPE: - Personal Protective Equipment.

69. MSDS: - Material Safety Data Sheet. It contains detailed safety information about the chemical.

70. Pick up room: - Rooms from the open section assigned to different GRAs to balance out the
workload.

71. Burnishing – Polishing the floor with a high speed floor machine to achieve an extremely high gloss.

72. Breakfast knob cards – Card hung by guests on the knobs of guest room doors to pre order breakfast
at night so that the order reaches the staff on time and the guest is not disturbed for placing the order
early in the morning.

73. Bonsai – Literally meaning “a plant in a tray” this refers to a tree or a plant whose typical growth in
nature has been copied exactly in a miniature style within the confines of a container.

74. DNCO(Did Not Check Out) – This room status means that the guest made arrangement s to settle
his/her account but has left without informing the front office.

75. Dutch wife – Another term for the sewing kit provided as a guest amenity.

76. EPABX Operator – Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange operators. These are the hotel
switchboard operators who answer calls and connect them to the appropriate extensions. These
operators also relay telephone charge incurred by guests to the front office cashier.\

77. FFE – Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment.

78. Gate pass – An authorization given to an employee to take guest or hotel property out of the hotel.
79. Guest Loan Items – Guest supplies not normally found in a guestrooms but available upon request.
For example; ironing board.

80. Guest essentials – items that are essential to the guestrooms and are not expected to be used up or
taken away by guest.

81. Guest expendables – Guest supplies that are expected to be used up or taken away by guest on
leaving the property.

82. Graveyard shift – Night shift.

83. Handle with care ( HWC ) guest – Guest who may have had some unpleasant experiences in the
hotel or had some complaints, genuine or otherwise, are labeled as “ handle with care “ guest by the
hotel for the reminder of their stay or future sojourn.

84. Hard water – Water that contains more than 60 ppm ( part per million ) of calcium and/or
magnesium is called hard water.

85. MICE – Meeting, incentives, conventions, exhibitions. This segment is now a big revenue generator
for the hotels. Certain hotels cater specially to the MICE customer.

86. Floor Par: The quantity of each type of linen that is required to outfit all rooms serviced on that
floor.

87. On-change: The guest has departed, but the room has not yet been cleaned and ready for re-sale.

88. Buffing: To smooth the floor with a low speed floor polishing.

89. Vacant and ready: The room has been cleaned and inspected and is ready for an arriving guest.

90. Lockout: The room has been locked so that the guest cannot re-enter until a hotel official clears him
or her.

91. Sleep-out: A guest is registered to the room, but the bed has not been used.

92. AFFILIATED HOTEL:

A hotel that is a member of a chain, franchise, or referral system. Membership provides special
advantages, particularly a national reservation system

93. BAY:

The principal compartment, generally of a suite, that is the space equivalent of a standard guestroom. A
suite may have a single-bay or multiple-bay living room
94. CALL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM:

A system that is part of the telephone equipment that prices telephone calls made by hotel guests and
sends the information to the property management system (PMS) for billing.

95. DAY RATE:

A special room rate for less than an overnight stay

96. DOORKNOB MENU:

A type of room service menu that a housekeeper can leave in the guest room. A doorknob menu lists a
limited number of breakfast item sand times of the day that the meal can be served. Guests select what
they want to eat and the times they want the food delivered, and then hang the menu outside the door
on the doorknob. The menus are collected and the orders are prepared and sent to the rooms at the
indicated times.

97. GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM (GDS):

A network of internet reservation systems that provide a central place where travelers and travel agents
can check availability and reserve travel related products like hotels, airline, car rentals, cruises, rail.
Formed and managed by the airline industry and includes system like Sabre, Apollo, Amadeus, and
Pegasus.

98. HOSPITALITY:

The cordial and generous reception of guests. Derived from the Latin term hospes, "a guest

99. POINT OF SALE SYSTEM (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).

100. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (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.

101. SERVICE CHARGE: A percentage of the bill (usually 10% to 20%) added to the guest charge for
distribution to service employees in lieu of direct tipping.

102. Due outs - Guests expected to check out on a given day who have not yet done so.

103. Upselling - A sales technique whereby a guest is offered a more expensive room than what he or
she reserved or originally requested, and then persuaded to rent the room based on the room's
features, benefits, and his or her needs.
104. Tentative Booking - When reservation is waiting booker’s confirmation.

105. No-Show - A guest who made a room reservation but did not register or Check in.

106. Wash down - Blocking fewer rooms than the number requested by a group, based on previous
group history.

107. Guest Folio - A form ( paper or electronic ) used to chart transactions on a account assigned to an
individual person or guest room.

108. No Post - Special funcationality on Property management systems (PMS) to activate a 'NO post' on
reservations this will stop any extra charges from other outlets or connected systems to be charged to
the guest room. Example a No Post flag can be activated for interfaces like Telephone, Wifi or Internet,
Point of Sale (POS), SPA systems etc.

109. Jeweller`s Rouge :- Chemically this is fessic tetroxide,apinkish powder used for polishing silver.

110.Lineseed oil :- Thid id obtained from crushed seeds from flax plants. It is a constituent of furniture
polishes and paints. It darkens unpainted wood slightly.

111.Methylated spirit :- This is used for cleaning window panes and mirrors to a shine it is a constituent
for varnish.

112. Min cream :- It is used for cleaning, polishing & protecting the surface. It has multipurpose utilities
such as furniture polish, wooden articles, laptop cleaning, mobile cleaning, home appliances, car polish,
bike polish.

113. Drugget :- These are made up of course linen, fine canvas or clear plastic,They may be a soize of
carpet square or runner. They are placed on the floor in doorways to prevent excessive dirt being
trekked or out during bad weather and during redecorating projects.

114.chamois leather :- real chamois leather is the skin of the chamois goat antemope,can be used wet
for cleaning windows and mirrors,when dry it is used as a polishing cloth for silverand other metals.

115.Dustette :- These are small lightweight vaccum cleaners used for cleaning curtains ,upholstery
,carpet edges ,mattresses .

116. Johney mop :- A mop (such as a floor mop) is a mass or bundle of coarse strings or yarn, etc., or a
piece of cloth, sponge, or other absorbent material, attached to a pole or stick. It is used to soak up
liquid, for cleaning floors and other surfaces, to mop up dust, or for other cleaning purposes.

117.Errand card :- Errand card is used to track the guest luggage movements in the hotel.
Separate errand card is filled up at the time of check in and check out of the guest.

118. Duvet :- a soft quilt filled with down, feathers, or a synthetic fibre, used instead of an upper sheet
and blankets.
119. E.P.N.S. :- Electro Plated Nickel Silver, also known as EPNS or silver plate is the finest cutlery
available.

120. CIP – Commercially Important Person

121. UR – Under Repair

122. Dust Sheet: - A large piece of cloth used to cover furniture that is not in use for long period.

123. Swab Cloth: - These are all-purpose cloths made of soft, absorbent material. They are used for
wet cleaning and damp dusting of all surfaces above floor level. They can be also used for cleaning
sanitary fittings such as bathtubs and wash basins.

124. Maid`s Cart: - also called as a room attendants trolley, or chamber maid’s trolley, this is perhaps
the most significance piece equipment in the housekeeping department. it is like a giant tool box,
stocked with everything necessary to service a guest room effectively.

125 :- PAX :- No. of People/ Guest .

126 :- FOC – Free Of Charge

127 :- Napery - It refers to all the table linens in the hotel.

128 :- OSHA - (It means Occupational safety Health act) the rules or act that protects from the
unsafe condition.

129 :- Sewing kit - A kit that contains sewing supplies such as needles, thread, a button for
emergency purpose.

130 Tent card - The card placed in as tent style for promotion and publicity of hotel products.

131. Warp - In weaving, the warp is the threads which are held in a frame or machine called a
loom while another thread is passed across through them.

132. Warp and weft - Warp and weft are terms for the two basic components used
in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric.

133. Monogramming – A design composed of one or more letters, typically the initials of a
name, used as an identifying mark.

145. Self-checkout (also known as self-service checkout and as semi-attended customer-

activated terminal, SACAT) machines provide a mechanism for customers to process their own
purchases from a retailer. They are an alternative to the traditional cashier-staffed checkout.

146. VPO – (Visitors paid out) Receipts samples used in hotels (Paid Out / Petty
cash) Paid outs are expenses made by the hotel on behalf of the guest and the same is later
charged to the Guest room account or Invoice .Eg:- Doctor fees paid , Medicines purchased ,
Cash against Credit card , Stamp / Postal charges etc.
147. Walking - Turning away a guest who has a reservation because of a lack of room
availability.

148. Cut-off date - The date agreed upon between a group and a hotel after which all
unreserved rooms in the group's block will be released back to the general availability.

149. Late Charge - A transaction requiring posting to a guest account that does not reach the
front office for posting before the guest had checked out or done the final settlement.

150. ARR - Average Rack Rate (Average Room Rate (ARR) = Total Room Revenue / Total
Rooms Sold)

151. ADR - Average Daily Rate (Average Daily Rate (ADR) = Total Room Revenue / Total
Rooms Sold)
152. AGR - The Average Rate Per Guest (Average Rate Per Guest= Total Room Revenue /
Total Number of guests)
153. APR - Average Guest Per Room (Average Guest Per Room = Total Number of Guests /
Number of Rooms Sold)
154. Rev. Par - Revenue Per Available Rooms ( Rev PAR = Total Room Revenue / Total
Number of Available Rooms for sale).
155. Sleep-out: A guest is registered to the room, but the bed has not been used.

Adhering to rules and regulations of Ministry of Tourism Govt. of India.

 HRACC – Hotel Restaurant Approval and Classification Committee.

 FHRAI – Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India.

 HAI – Hotel Association of India.

 IATO – Indian Association of Tour operators.

 TAAI – Travel Agent Association of India.

 IHHA – Indian Heritage Hotel Association of India