Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

FRONT OFFICE SEMANTICS
Rack rate:
Price at which a hotel sells its rooms when no discounts of any kind are offered to the guest.
Often shortened to 
rack.
Lodging properties are also frequently classified by guestroom rental charges.
Classifications fall along a range such as that suggested in Figure 4. However, these
classifications do not correlate easily with the rate structure suggested in Figure 3.
It is difficult to classify hotels strictly by rack rates, because room charges vary sig-
nificantly in different geographic regions. For example, the most expensive hotel
available in a small, northern, Midwest town in the United States may be half (or
less) of the rate charged for the least expensive, safe, and clean hotel room in a major
East Coast or West Coast city.