Glossary

Hotel PMS glossary: ADR, RevPAR, night audit and more

Plain-language definitions of the hotel operations and revenue terms used across bedsKey — from ADR and RevPAR to city ledger, CTA and rate parity.

In-depth guides:

Jump to a term:

PMS (property management system): Software a hotel uses to run daily operations: reservations, check-in and check-out, room status, billing and reporting. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
ADR (average daily rate): Room revenue divided by the number of room nights sold in a period. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
RevPAR (revenue per available room): Room revenue divided by the number of rooms available in a period; equivalently, ADR multiplied by occupancy rate. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Occupancy rate: The share of available rooms (or beds) that were sold in a period, expressed as a percentage. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
BAR (best available rate): The standard public rate for a room on a given night, often used as the parent from which other rates are derived. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Derived rate: A rate plan that follows a parent rate by a percentage or fixed amount, such as a non-refundable rate set at BAR minus 10%. How bedsKey handles it
Closed to arrival (CTA): A restriction that prevents new stays from starting on a given date while allowing stays that span it. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Closed to departure (CTD): A restriction that prevents stays from ending on a given date. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Length-of-stay restriction: A minimum or maximum number of nights required for a booking on particular dates or rate plans. How bedsKey handles it
Yield management: Adjusting prices according to demand, such as raising rates as occupancy climbs or arrival approaches. How bedsKey handles it
Stop-sell: Closing a room type or date range so it can no longer be booked. How bedsKey handles it
Group hold (allotment): A block of rooms reserved for a group at an agreed price until a cut-off date, after which unused rooms return to sale. How bedsKey handles it
Rooming list: The list of guest names an organiser supplies to fill the rooms in a group hold. How bedsKey handles it
Bed-level inventory: Selling individual beds inside a shared room, as hostels do with dorms, rather than whole rooms only. How bedsKey handles it
Walk-in: A guest who arrives without a reservation and is booked and checked in on the spot. How bedsKey handles it
No-show: A guest with a confirmed reservation who neither arrives nor cancels. How bedsKey handles it
Guest folio: The running statement of every charge, tax and payment for a stay. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
City ledger: Accounts receivable for companies and agents who are billed after the stay rather than paying at check-out. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Night audit: The end-of-day process that posts room and tax charges, reconciles the day, flags no-shows and moves the business date forward. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Out of order / out of service: Room statuses for rooms that cannot be sold: out of order removes the room from inventory for repairs; out of service marks a short-term issue. How bedsKey handles it
OTA (online travel agency): A third-party website that sells hotel rooms to travellers, usually for a commission. How bedsKey handles it
Channel manager: Software that sends rates and availability to booking channels and brings their reservations back into the PMS. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Rate parity: Keeping the price of the same room consistent across channels, or checking bookings against the rate each channel was sent. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Booking engine: The booking tool on a hotel’s own website that lets guests book directly, without an intermediary’s commission. Full guide · How bedsKey handles it
Pickup: The number of new bookings added for future dates over a recent period, such as the last 1, 7 or 30 days. How bedsKey handles it
Pace report: A report showing how bookings for future dates are building over time. How bedsKey handles it
Idempotency: A property of an API where repeating the same request has the same effect as sending it once, so retries never create duplicate bookings. How bedsKey handles it

Last updated October 2026. Also see hotel software comparisons.

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