Hotel Management Glossary

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There are currently 55 Glossary Items in this directory beginning with the letter F.
F&B
Shortened term for "food and beverage." Used, for example as in the following: "Please let the F&B Director know about the changes the guest has requested."

Fade Rate
A reduced rate authorized for use when a guest seeking a reservation exhibits price (rate) resistance. Sometimes called as flex-rate.

FAM Tours or Trips
Short for familiarization tours. Complimentary visits sponsored by the lodging property that host representatives of travel organizations, bus associations, social and nonprofit organizations, and local corporate traffic managers. In Central & Eastern Europe is much in evidence as Study Tour.

Family Rate
A special room rate for parents and children in the same room.

Fax (Facsimile)
A copier-like machine which transmits full-page documents over telephone lines.

Feasibility Study
A determination that a proposed (hotel) development will (or will not) meet the expectations of its investors. The study should include the estimated market demand for the property, as well as its economic viability.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
The FTC enforces federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. It also seeks to ensure that the nation's business markets function competitively and are free of undue restrictions caused by acts or practices that are unfair or deceptive. [US]

Feedback Control
Provides managers with information concerning outcomes from organizational activities.

FF&E
The term used to refer to the furniture, fixtures, and equipment used by a hotel to service its guests. FF&E Reserve Funds set aside by management today for the future furniture, fixture, and equipment replacement needs of a hotel.

Fiduciary
A relationship based upon trust and the responsibility to act in the best interest of another when performing tasks.

First Tier
Management companies that operate hotels for owners using the management company's trade name as the hotel brand. Hyatt, Hilton, and Sheraton are examples.

FIT
(Free Independent Traveler our Foreign Independent Tour): A guest coming to the hotel as an individual and not part of a group. (a traveler who is not group affiliated)

Fixed Costs
Fixed costs are expenses that have to be paid by a company, independent of any business activity (such as occupancy). It is one of the two components of the total cost of a good or service, along with variable cost.

Fixed Labor Costs
The minimum number of labor hours and associated labor costs that are required to operate the food service operation whenever it is open regardless of the number, if any, of guests that are served.

Flag
A term used to refer to the specific brand with which a hotel may affiliate. Examples of currently popular flags include brands such as Comfort Inns, Holiday Inn Express, Ramada Inns, Hampton Inns, Residence Inns, Best Western, and Hawthorn Suites. The hotels affiliated with a specific flag are sometimes referred to as a chain.

Flash Report
Daily information provided to the GM that reports key financial information from the previous day (often accumulated for the month and/or year-to-date and compared to actual data from previous years).

Flat Organization Chart
The collapse/combination of positions within an organization to reduce the number of management layers in efforts to improve communication, increase operating efficiencies, and reduce costs.

Flat Rate
Flat rate, refers to a pricing structure that charges a single fixed fee for a service, regardless of usage. Rarely, it may refer to a rate that does not vary with usage or time of use.

Flextime
A program of flexible work hours which allows employees to vary their times of starting and ending work.

Float
The delay in payment from an account after using a credit card or personal check.

Floor Attendant
See floor supervisor or inspector.

Floor Supervisor
The individual(s) responsible for physically checking the room status of guest rooms, as well as other tasks as assigned by the executive housekeeper.

Floppy Disk
An external storage medium for a computer. Also called a diskette.

Flow-Through
The relative change in profit dollars expressed as a percentage of the change in revenue dollars.

FOC (Franchise Offering Circular)
A franchise disclosure document that is prepared by a franchisor and then is registered and filed with the state governmental agency responsible for administering franchise relationships in that date.

Folio
The detailed list of a hotel guest's room charges, as well as other charges authorized by the guest or legally imposed by the hotel.

Folio Tray
A bin used to store guest folios. In non-automated and semi-automated properties, folios remain in the tray throughout occupancy, except when they are used in posting transactions. Also called a folio bucket.

FOM
Short for front office manager.

Food and Beverage Director
The individual responsible for the operation of a hotel's F&B program(s).

Foot-candle
A measure of illumination. One foot-candle equals one lumen per square foot. (The European counterpart of the foot-candle is the Lux, a light intensity of one lumen per square meter.)

Forecasting
Projecting room sales for a specific period.

Foreclose
The process in which a lender terminates the borrower's interest in a property after a loan is defaulted.

Foreseeable (Legal Concept)
The concept that the liability of a party should be limited to acts that a reasonable would be able to predict or expect as the results of his or her actions.

Franchise
An arrangement whereby one party (the brand) allows another (the hotel owners) to use its logo, name, systems, and resources in exchange for a fee.

Franchise Agreement
The legal contract between the hotel's owners (the franchisee) and the brand managers (the franchisor), which describes the duties and responsibilities of each in the franchise relationship.

Franchisee
Those who own the hotel and buy the right to use the brand name for a fixed period of time and at an agreed-upon price.

Franchisor
Those who manage the brand and sell the right to use the brand name.

Fraud
Purposeful deception (deceit) that results in legal injury to a person.

Free-to-Guests
A service provided at no additional charge (beyond normal room rental charges) to the hotel guest. Examples could include making local telephone calls, access to premium cable television channels such as HBO or Showtime, and use of the hotel's pool or workout facilities. (Ultimately, the hotel must absorb the cost(s) of providing these services to guests, but guests are not charged on a per usage basis. Therefore, the term does not mean that the services that are provided are free to the hotel.)

Fringe Benefits
Fringe Benefits are various non-wage compensations provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. Examples of these benefits include: housing (employer-provided or employer-paid), group insurance health, dental, life etc.), disability income protection, retirement benefits, daycare, tuition reimbursement, sick leave, vacation (paid and non-paid), social security, profit sharing, funding of education, and other specialized benefits.

Front Desk
The area within the hotel used for guest registration and payment.

Front Desk Agent
A front office employee whose responsibilities centre on the registration process, but also typically include preregistration activities, room status coordination, and mail, message, and information requests.

Front of The House
The functional areas of the hotel in which employees have extensive guest contact, such as food and beverage facilities and the front office.

Front Office
A department of rooms division which is the most visible department in a hotel, with the greatest amount of guest contact. Traditional front office functions include reservations, registration, room and rate assignment, room status, maintenance and settlement of guest accounts, and creation of guest history records. Also, the physical location at which front-of-the house activities are coordinated.

Front Office Accounting Formula
The formula used in posting transactions to front office accounts: Previous balance+ Debits-Credits= Net outstanding balance.

Front Office Applications
Computer software designed for specific front office uses. Typical front office applications include reservations, rooms management, guest accounting, and general management modules.

Front Office Cash Sheet
A form completed by front office cashiers which lists each receipt or disbursement of cash during a work shift. It is used to reconcile actual cash on hand with the transactions which occurred during the shift.

Front Office Cashier
A front office employee whose responsibilities centre on the guest accounting cycle.

Front Office Ledger
see Guest ledger.

FSD (Franchise Services Director)
The representative of a franchise hotel brand who interacts directly with the franchised hotel's GMs.

Full-Service Hotel
A hotel is considered "full-service" when it provides guests with extensive food and beverage products and services.

Fully Automated
A computer-based system of front office record keeping which eliminates the need for many handwritten and machine-produced forms common in non- and semi-automated systems.

Function Room
Public space such as meeting rooms, conference areas, and ballrooms

Futon
Japanese sleeping arrangement made of many layers of cotton-quilted batting that is rolled up when not in use.

Future Data
Data related to events that have yet to occur and will not be found in the PMS. While this data is unknown, it can be estimated.