Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

FRONT OFFICE SEMANTICS
Comp:
Short for 
complimentary or no charge for a product (room) or service.
The result of this scenario is likely to be reduced RevPar for the hotel as well as
an unhappy group organizer (because the reduced pickup in the group block will
yield a reduced number of comp rooms). In addition, imagine the difficulties at the
front desk when arriving group members begin to share information about the two
different rates they are paying. Finally, it is also very likely that conflict will result
between the FOM and the DOSM because each, in attempting to meet individual
goals, has created a difficult situation.
In a very large property the positions of revenue manager, FOM, and DOSM
may be at the level of department head, which may entail supervising staffs of a sig-
nificant size. As shown in Figure 2, room rate management tasks intermingle. Let’s
consider how they can be coordinated.
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Revenue Manager and FOM. Many guests locate a hotel through key word
searches on search engines. Others may first locate a hotel on an Internet travel
site such as Travelocity or Expedia; then they access the hotel’s proprietary