Explore by hotel role
Night Auditor
A practical reading path for night auditor responsibilities.
This path contains 17 articles arranged as a practical learning sequence. Begin with the first topics, then continue into department-specific and advanced operating context.
What Is Night Audit?
Night audit is the hotel’s end-of-day process for reviewing and finalizing the business day in the property management system. It commonly verifies reservation and folio status, posts scheduled charges such as room and tax, produces reports, resolves exceptions, and advances the hotel’s business date.
Front Office · Guest Accounts and PaymentsWhat Is a Guest Folio?
A guest folio is the itemized account record showing charges, credits, payments, transfers, adjustments, and balance associated with a guest stay or reservation account.
Front Office · Guest Stay ManagementWhat Is a No-Show?
A hotel no-show is a reservation for which the guest does not arrive by the hotel’s applicable cutoff or end-of-day process and has not completed a recognized cancellation or approved change.
Technology & Data · Core Hotel SystemsWhat Is a Hotel Property Management System (PMS)?
A hotel property management system (PMS) is the central operating system used at the property level to manage reservations, room inventory and status, guest profiles, check-in and check-out, folios, charges, housekeeping coordination, and end-of-day processing.
Revenue Management · Hotel Performance MetricsWhat Is ADR?
Average daily rate (ADR) is the average rooms revenue earned for each revenue-generating room sold during a specific period. It is generally calculated by dividing rooms revenue by rooms sold.
Revenue Management · Hotel Performance MetricsWhat Is Hotel Occupancy?
Hotel occupancy is the percentage of available rooms that are occupied or sold during a defined period. A common formula is occupied rooms divided by available rooms, multiplied by 100.
Revenue Management · Hotel Performance MetricsWhat Is RevPAR?
Revenue per available room (RevPAR) is a hotel performance metric that shows rooms revenue generated for each available room, whether the room was sold or not. It can be calculated as rooms revenue divided by available rooms, or as ADR multiplied by occupancy expressed as a decimal.
Front Office · Room Status and InventoryWhat Is Hotel Room Status?
Hotel room status is the operational condition assigned to a guestroom so teams can understand whether it is occupied, vacant, clean, dirty, inspected, blocked, out of order, or otherwise available for assignment.
Front Office · Guest Accounts and PaymentsWhat Is a Hotel Incidental Hold?
A hotel incidental hold is a temporary card authorization or other approved deposit used to establish funds for estimated room charges and possible incidentals during a stay; it is not necessarily a completed charge.
Front Office · Shift OperationsWhat Is a Hotel Shift Handover?
A hotel shift handover is the controlled transfer of current operating information, unresolved work, accountable items, and decision ownership from one employee or team to the next shift.
Front Office · Guest RelocationWhat Is a Walked Guest?
A walked guest is a guest with a valid reservation whom a hotel cannot accommodate and must relocate to another property under the hotel’s applicable policy, contract, brand standard, and legal obligations.
Safety, Security & Risk · Security FundamentalsWhat Is Hotel Security?
Hotel security is the coordinated protection of people, property, information, and operations from intentional threats, unlawful activity, unauthorized access, theft, disruption, or misuse through awareness, access controls, reporting, response, and cooperation with appropriate authorities.
Safety, Security & Risk · Incident ReportingWhat Is a Hotel Incident Report?
A hotel incident report is a factual internal record of an injury, event, complaint, loss, damage, security concern, near miss, or operational issue, documenting what was observed, when and where it occurred, who was involved, actions taken, notifications, and required follow-up.
Safety, Security & Risk · Access and Key ControlWhat Is Hotel Key Control?
Hotel key control is the authorization, issuance, tracking, use, return, review, and high-level lost-credential response process for physical keys, electronic guestroom credentials, employee keys, master keys, vendor credentials, and emergency access.
Safety, Security & Risk · Cash and Financial ControlsWhat Is Hotel Cash Handling Control?
Hotel cash handling control is the system of authorization, custody, recording, receipts, reconciliation, review, exception handling, and secure transfer used when receiving, returning, depositing, or otherwise managing cash in hotel operations.
Safety, Security & Risk · Emergency PlanningWhat Is a Hotel Emergency Action Plan?
A hotel emergency action plan, or EAP, is a property-specific controlled plan that defines high-level roles, communication, accountability, evacuation or shelter considerations, guest assistance, emergency contacts, authority coordination, and continuity actions for foreseeable emergencies.
Safety, Security & Risk · Guest SafetyWhat Is Hotel Guest Safety?
Hotel guest safety is the coordinated prevention of reasonably foreseeable harm to guests through safe rooms and public areas, maintenance, housekeeping observations, accessible communication, food and recreation controls, emergency readiness, privacy, access management, and appropriate incident response.