Hotel Management Glossary

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There are currently 62 Glossary Items in this directory beginning with the letter T.
T-account
A two-column account recording format (resembling the letter T) in which charges are posted to the left side and payments to the right side.

T-Commerce
T-commerce denotes television commerce. T-commerce to become the mainstay of business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce, however, anything to do with tablets is m-commerce (mobile commerce).

T&E Card
Short for Travel and Entertainment card; a payment system by which the card issuer collects full payment from the card users each month. The card companies do not typically assess interest charges to consumers. Instead, they rely on fees collected from merchants accepting the cards.

Tacit Knowledge
Knowledge that is difficult to articulate in a way that is meaningful and complete.

Tactic
An action or method used to attain a short-term objective.

Tangible Resources
Organizational assets that can be seen, touched, and/or quantified, such as plants, money, or products.

Team
A group of individuals who place the goals of the group above their own.

Technology
Human knowledge about products and services and the way they are made and delivered

Telephone Operator
The person who handles incoming and outgoing telephone calls, locates registered guests and management staff, deals with emergency communication

Telewriter
A device which transmits handwritten messages using a specially designed writing surface.

Telex
An international communication network often used to communicate reservation requests. Telex communication is faster than the postal service and more reliable than the telephone since the hotel receives a written message. (Facsimile= telefax replaced telex rapidly.)

Tenant (Hotel)
A person who rents a hotel guest room for an extended time period with the intent of establishing a permanent residency.

Terminal
An input/output device of a computer system composed of a keyboard and a display screen or printer.

Terry
A generic term for the bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths washed and dried in the laundry area.

Test Calls
Calls made to a toll-free number or other reservation system to verify the accuracy of information about a specific hotel and/or about the quality of selling done by the reservation center's staff.

Third-Party Check
A check made out to someone who has been signed the check over the person presenting the check.

Third-Party Liability
A legal concept that holds the second party (the hotel serving alcohol) responsible for acts caused by the first party (the drinker), if the drinker subsequently causes harm to a third party (the victim of an accident).

Time Stamp
A device to record the current time and date on folios, mail, and other front office paperwork.

Time-Share Hotel
A group of condominium units whose owners associate and hire a management company to operate their units as a hotel. The condominium units normally contain bedrooms, living room, dining area, and kitchen.

Top-Management Team (TMT)
Typically a heterogeneous group of three to ten top executives selected by the CEO; each member brings a unique set of skills and a unique perspective.

Total Replacement
A parts or equipment replacement plan that involves installing new or substitute parts based on a predetermined schedule. For example, most chief engineers would use a "total replacement" approach to the maintenance of light bulbs in high-rise exterior highway signs.

Tour Group
A group of people who have had their accommodations, transportation, and related activities arranged for them.

Tourism Clusters
Geographic concentrations of competing, complementary, and interdependent firms that work together to provide the tourism experience.

Tourism Clusters
Geographic concentrations of competing, complementary, and interdependent firms that work together to provide the tourism experience.

Tourism Industry
All businesses that cater to the needs of the traveling public.

Tower Concept
See Executive Floor.

Trace System
A methodical process used to record what has been done in the past and what must be done in the future to maximize sales effectiveness. An effective trace system includes a "contact management" component that allows records to be kept for each individual client (contact).

Track Code
Guest types differentiated by traveler demographics.

Traditional Approach to Strategic Management
Analysis of the internal and external environments of the organization to arrive at organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), which form the basis for developing effective missions, goals, and strategies.

Training Objective
A description of a task which a trainee will be expected to demonstrate at the end of a training session.

Transaction
The exchange of merchandise, property, or services for cash or a promise to pay.

Transaction Costs
The resources used to create and enforce a contract.

Transactional Accounting system
An accounting system in which the occurrence of transaction initiates activity.

Transactional Documentation
Paperwork which identifies the nature and amount of a transaction, and is the basis for data input to a front office accounting system.

Transcript
transaction that affected a non-gust account that day, used as a worksheet to detect posting errors.

Transfer Voucher
A voucher used to support a reduction in balance on one folio and an equal increase in balance on another. Transfer vouchers are used for transfers between guest accounts and for transfers from guest accounts to non-guest accounts when they are settled by the use of credit cards.

Transient
Guests that are neither part of a group booking or tour group. Transient guests can be further subdivided by traveler demographic to gain more detailed information about the type of guest staying in the property.

Transient Hotel
See Commercial Hotel.

Transient Ledger
See Guest Ledger.

Transient Sales
Rooms and services sold primarily through the efforts of the front office and its staff.

Transposition
A transcription error caused by reordering the sequence of digits, as when 389 written as 398

Travel Agent
A hospitality professional that assists clients in planning travel. Also known as TA.

Travel Agent Guarantee
A type of reservation guarantee under which the hotel generally bills the travel agency after a guaranteed reservation has been classified a no-show.

Travel and Touris Industry
A variety of interrelated businesses that provide services to travelers; the tourism industry includes a broad range of businesses such as airlines, bars, cruise lines, car rental firms, casinos, entertainment firms, hotels, restaurants, travel agents, timeshares, tour operators, and recreational enterprises

Travel Wholesaler
A large-volume travel industry intermediary who sells to other, smaller- volume travel intermediaries.

Tray Service
The fee charged American plan guests for room service.

Trend Line
The documentation (usually displayed on a graph or chart) of changes in data values. Trend lines may show increases, decreases, or no change in comparative data values.

Trends
Usually capture long-term changes or movements that are substantial to the society and last.

TrevPAR
Short for Total RevPAR. The average rooms and non-rooms revenue generated by each available guest room during a specific period of time.

Trial Balance
A first effort to determine whether a set of debits was posted with a corresponding and equal set of credit postings. (Night Audit)

Tricolumned Statement
An income statement that lists (1) actual hotel operating results from a specific time period, as well as (2) budgeted operating estimates for the same time period, and, finally (3) the actual operating results from the prior year's same time period.

Triple
A room assigned to three people, may have two or more beds.

Turn-Away Report
A report which tracks the number of guests refused because rooms were not available as requested. Also called a refusal report.

Turn-Downs
An evening service rendered by the housekeeping department, which replaces soiled bathroom linen and prepares the bed for use.

Turn(table)
The number of times a table (or seat) is used during the same dining period.

Turnaround Strategies
Sometimes called retrenchment; can involve workforce reductions, selling assets to reduce debt, outsourcing unprofitable activities, implementation of tighter cost or quality controls, or new policies that emphasize quality or efficiency; turnaround can occur at the corporate level of a company or on a property-by-property basis.

Turnaround Time
The time which elapses between data input and information output in the data processing cycle.

Turnover Rate
A measure of the proportion of a workforce that is replaced during a designated time period (i.e., month, quarter, year). Number of employees separated/Number of employees in the workforce = Employee turnover rate.

Twin
A room with two twin beds; may be occupied by one or more people.

Twin Bed
A bed approximately 39 inches by 75 inches (90/100x190/200).

Twin-Double
See Double-double.

Two-Tiered Price
A pricing strategy in which the buyer must pay a price for the ability to make additional purchases.