Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

FRONT OFFICE SEMANTICS
Global Distribution System (GDS):
System of companies (Sabre, Galileo, Apollo, Amadeus, and Worldspan)
that connects hotels offering rooms for sale with individuals and travel professionals worldwide who will
potentially purchase them.
MANAGING FORECAST DATA
The FOM in Action: The Challenge
“Renee, please recall that I need your estimate of
next October’s transient revenue by Tuesday,” said
Josephine McCullough, general manager of the
175-room Santa Clara Suites. “I’ve got to blend
your information with the numbers from the sales
department and then send everything to Mr.
Zollars by next Friday.”
Renee Monteagudo is the FOM at the Santa
Clara and Mr. Zollars is the regional manager for
Holyfield Management, the management group
that operates the Santa Clara. Transient revenue,
as defined by Renee’s company, is that generated
by any reservation for 10 or fewer guests and, on
most months, for the Santa Clara, transient rev-
enue is about 60 percent of the hotel’s total room
revenue. Sometimes, however, it is much higher,
and sometimes it is much lower.
When the sales department books nearly all of
the rooms, the hotel does well, but the percentage of
transient business then falls far below 60 percent. If
there are no groups in-house, transient business
represents 100 percent of the hotel’s revenues.
Renee realizes that Josephine doesn’t want to know
just the percentage of revenues from transient sales;
her boss requires the total dollar amount as well.
It is only February, so October is eight months
away. “How can I tell Josephine what’s going to
happen in October,” thought Renee, “when I’m not
even positive about what’s going to happen next
month?”
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