A - E

A

Affiliate - An organization that helps independent hotels attract business through additional branding and industry relationships. They typically charge a membership fee. Examples include the Associated Luxury Hotels International, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, and Historic Hotels of America.

Agenda - The schedule of activities, such as check-in, sessions, or cocktail hour, that planners detail in an Advanced RFP to communicate space needs. When suppliers respond, the agenda, or meeting room grid, lets them assign rooms to activities. Also known as a program or programme.

Attendees - The number of people the planner anticipates at the event. Also known as pax or delegates. Attrition Clause - When a group doesn’t live up to the room-block commitment, a payment is required to make up for the rooms not used, per the terms of the contract.

Average Room Rate - Sleeping room revenue divided by occupied rooms for a given time period. Also known as the hotel's Average Daily Rate (ADR).

Award - When a planner awards an RFP, every supplier who bid receives an email, notifying them whether they won or lost. Planners can award an RFP to multiple venues. This action is synonymous with confirm, close, and contract.

B

Being Walked - This is when a hotel walks their guests to another hotel accommodation because they have overbooked by a small percentage.

C

Cancellation Clause - This is a provision in a contract that outlines damages to be paid to the non-canceling party if a cancellation occurs. Notwithstanding any language in the contract to the contrary, a party may always cancel a contract; the issue is whether damages are owed for the cancellation and, if so, how much.

Cancelled Space - Credit toward a future booking that venues offer instead of a refund for post-contract cancellations.

Contracted Rate - The cost per room night that the hotel provides event attendees in exchange for the planner's bulk room purchase. The contracted rate could differ based on room type or hotel.

CMP - A Complete Meeting Package (CMP) is a pricing bundle offered by suppliers that often includes all sleeping rooms, meals, and support services. This is more common in international properties and all-inclusive resorts.

Cutoff Date - The date in advance of the meeting until which the hotel is legally obligated to hold rooms on behalf of the group at the group rate. Once the cutoff date passes, the hotel can release rooms for general sale. Typically that date is 30 days in advance of the meeting.

CVB - Convention and Visitors Bureaus

D

DDR- A Daily Delegate Rate (DDR) is typically a per-person per-day pricing bundle offered by suppliers that typically includes sleeping rooms, meeting space, food and beverage, and other services.

DMC - The Destination Management Company (DMC) for a city or country specializes in organizing tours, transportation, activities, and entertainment for events hosted in their area.

Double Book - A hotel makes two reservations for a guest room or event space to be certain of obtaining one.

E

Event Order (EO) - An agreement that details each day of the conference and for each meeting room. It also outlines the costs and includes: food and beverage ordered, audio visual ordered, room setup, staffing requirements, service fees and taxes, timeline of room setup, AV setup and food. Be certain to review this document in advance of your meeting with your Catering or Conference Services Manager while you are on-site after that portion of the conference is over. At the end of each day, it is best to review that day’s banquet checks to ensure your charges and the hotel’s line up.

F - O

F

Food and Beverage Minimum Guarantee - This is the number of servings or a flat rate your company will pay regardless of how many individuals come to your event. In other words, if your guarantee is for 5,000 people and 4,500 show up, you will be paying for the full 5,000 because that is your minimum. This is usually due three to five business days prior to the event.

Food and Beverage Open Bar - This is a bar in which the drinks have been paid for by the host or are prepaid through an admission fee. If you decide to utilize this option, be certain the bartenders and wait staff are trained in understanding when a guest should not be served any longer, have limited hours to deter intoxication and ensure there are alternative transportation options available if guests are planning on driving home from the venue.

Force Majeure Clause- This is a contract provision that allows a party to suspend or terminate the conference when certain circumstances beyond their control arise, making it inadvisable, impracticable, illegal or impossible to hold the meeting.

H

Hold Space - The act of reserving a meeting room or function space for longer than the actual meeting time, often for 24 hours, to allow for set up or tear down. Also known as a 24-hour hold.

L

Lead Catchers - Individuals specified by a venue to receive email notifications when a lead is sent to that particular property.

M

Meeting Space - Also known as meeting rooms or function space, suppliers can add size, setups, descriptions, and images of meeting rooms to their venue profile. This also lets them quickly assign rooms to agenda items when responding to RFPs.

N

Northstar Ratings - The five-star ranking used by the independent ratings company, Northstar Travel Media, to rate hotels based on indicators including level of service and experience.

NSO - Sales managers that represent a given chain or band for increased sales and marketing assistance. These individuals help planners find the best venues within their network and ensure reasonable response times from venues. Planners can add their NSO contacts in their account so they can quickly copy them on RFPs. NSOs are also known as National Sales, Global Sales, GSO, group sales, key account manager, or brand or chain contact.

O

Occupancy Rate - Occupied sleeping rooms divided by available sleeping rooms. This figure is generally expressed as a percentage.

Open Rate - The percentage of contacts who opened an email. If you send 100 emails and 28 recipients open them, the open rate would be 28%.

Optional Item - Raffle tickets, T-shirts, and memberships are examples of optional items, which are anything that can be purchased or added during registration and in one of these four categories: quantity items, membership items, group items, and donation items.

Optional Session - A presentation, discussion, or activity that an invitee must sign up for, unlike included sessions, which are automatically added to every registration. Optional sessions can have a different capacity and fee than the event itself.

Other Fees - These charges can be included in your contract if you do not negotiate them out or come up with a reasonable fee before the contract is signed. Be sure to ask about all of these fees: airport shuttle, resort fee, in-room bottled water and snacks, early/late hotel room checking in and out, meeting room energy surcharge, grounds keeping fee, in-room safe, porterage, and internet.

P - Z

P

Participants - Someone who has checked in or been marked as a participant for an event or session.

Peak Night - The night during an event when the most sleeping rooms are occupied. See rooms on peak.

Proposal - A response to an RFP. Also known as a bid, quote, or offer.

R

Rack Rate - The full price at which rooms are sold before a discount is applied. Generally, group rates are negotiated down from this rate.

RFP - Planners send a Request For Proposal (RFP) to obtain group rates and availability from suppliers. Also known as lead, request, event, program, or enquiry.

Room Block – The number of sleeping rooms set aside for a particular event or group or a portion of a hotel’s inventory of rooms set aside for a particular period of time for a group. The room block rate is no longer available after the cutoff date.

Room Nights - The total number of rooms a planner commits to occupy at the hotel in exchange for a specific contracted rate. The number of room nights does not equal the number of attendees. One attendee could occupy three room nights for a three night hotel stay.

Room Pickup - The number of sleeping rooms actually occupied from the total reserved.

Rooms on Peak - The day during an event when the most meeting rooms are booked. Also known as peak rooms.

Run of House - Any type of room available, including single, double, king, queen, etc.

Registrant - An invitee that has successfully registered for an event.

S

Shoulder Dates - Dates directly before or after the official event dates where sleeping rooms or meeting space may be available to book at the negotiated rate.

Single High Rate - The highest rate for a single-occupancy sleeping room.

Single Low Rate - The lowest rate for a single-occupancy sleeping room.

Sleeping Rooms - Rooms that planners book for their guests during the event. Also known as bedrooms, sleep rooms, and guest rooms. Session - A presentation, discussion, or activity you've added that invitees can register for or that's included automatically with registration.

Session Category - Designed to organize your agenda based on topics, session categories lump related sessions together so that invitees can more easily find the ones that interest them while registering.

T

TPP - Third-Party Planners (TPPs) are not directly employed by the organization hosting the event, but are contracted separately. They generally charge a negotiated commission to the venue where the event takes place.

Turndown – A nightly service during which a housekeeper prepares the bed for use.

V

Venue - Also known as a supplier, vendor, hotel, or property.

Venue Code - A unique identifier for each property on the Supplier Network