Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

GLOSSARY
Occupancy tax
Money collected from guests and paid by a hotel to a local taxing authority.
Room revenue (room sales) generated by a hotel determines the amount collected and
paid out. In some areas, this tax is known as the bed tax.
Offer (contract)
Element in a legal contract that indicates what one entity is willing to do
and what that entity expects in return.
Off-the-shelf
Term relating to a generic product (such as a training resource) that is
developed for general use rather than for a unique property.
On-call
Agreement between a hotel employer and a staff member that the staff member,
although not formally scheduled to work, will remain available to work, to answer
questions, or to do both, if necessary, during a specified time period.
On-the-books
Hotel term for cumulative current data. The term is used most often in
reference to reservation data. For example, a 300-room hotel with reservations for 200
rooms on a given (future) date is said to have 200 reservations on-the-books. (The term
originated when hotel reservation data were stored in a bound reservation book rather
than in a software program.)
Opaque model
Internet sales method in which consumers “bid” an amount they are willing
to pay for a room on a specific arrival date, and the operator of the third-party Web site
matches that bid with a hotel willing to sell rooms at that rate.