C

Definition

Removing one or more nights from an existing reservation without losing the room or rate.

Changing a reservation in a way that requires the original reservation to be cancelled and rebooked. This is usually done to change locked fields such as IATA number or requalify the reservation for a specific rate.

The maximum quantity of a product that can be sold without overbooking that product.

A specific IHG Reservations and Customer Care (RCC) office, providing global, round the clock guest services, including reservations, sales and service related requests coming through web, chat, and voice channels (e.g. IHG Salt Lake City CRO).

Acronym: CRO

Two character code used within the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) to represent a hotel chain.

A group of hotels which belong to the same company or owner, or are associated in some way.

A system that enables the distribution and reservation of IHG inventory.

The ability to price all room types, channels and dates independently of each other to maximise revenue without having to close any off.

Synonym(s): Open Pricing

The setup and maintenance of connections between the Guest Reservation System (GRS) and channels. Also, the act of controlling the allocation of hotel inventory and rates across all channels.

The process and or point where the guest converts from pre-stay to active stay consumption.

Acronym: C/In

The process and or point where the guest converts from active stay consumption to post stay status.

Acronym: C/O

Synonym(s): Departure

Term used by the PERFORMSM system to indicate the selling of one class of room at a lower class price.

A room inventory control function that prevents reservations from arriving on a particular date. Reservations can include this date as long as the arrival date is different.

Acronym: CTA

A promotional rate that is exclusive to a specific set of people (e.g. Loyalty members) and not transferrable to others.

Acronym: CUP

A commission over and above the normal base commission percentage sometimes called an overriding commission - it is negotiated with agents on the basis of their achieving agreed targets.

A fee charged by travel service providers in exchange for booking-related services. The commission amount may vary by provider and is typically paid after the guest pays for the stay.

Rates upon which a hotel agrees to pay a commission for that booking.

A utility computing model in which multiple companies share a common, external technology platform for the execution of commodity transaction processing, creating economies of scale and lowering individual investment in the platform. The model allows for the segregation of community and proprietary intellectual property (e.g. Revenue Management, Customer Relationship Management, etc.) affording companies the opportunity to focus on those technology systems that offer them market or brand differentiation.

A group of hotels against which an IHG hotel compares itself to assess its performance. A hotel may use different competitive sets to measure performance within different segments.

Acronym: COMP set

A reservation that contains multiple products, offers, or stays.

A product or service which is given or supplied free of charge.

Acronym: COMP

Synonym(s): House Use

Combination of Conditions of Sale and Conditions of Product rules that are unique to groups and affect group price and/or availability.

Acronym: COG

A rule that applies to a product and effect the availability of a product or service. These rules are conveyed to the customer during search, availability, booking, and confirmation processing.

Acronym: COP

Synonym(s): Fence

A rule that affects the price of a product or service (e.g. book 10 days prior to arrival and get 3% discount).

Acronym: COS

Combination of multiple conditions of sale that create one condition of sale. For example, if you book 7+ days to arrival AND pre-pay 100% AND no refund policy then you get 13% discount.

The two sales segments relating to conference and incentive group travel.

Acronym: C&I

Synonym(s): "MICE" Meetings Incentives, Conferencing & Expositions, Meetings & Events (M&E), M&I

The settings and information that cause a system to behave in a specific way. For example, the Guest Reservation System (GRS) allows users to configure many things including the list of regions and brands, inventory rules, and pricing policies.

An acknowledgement by the Guest Reservation System (GRS) that the booker has accepted the terms and conditions of an offer.

Synonym(s): Reservation

A unique identifier that represents a reservation with an IHG hotel.

Synonym(s): Reservation Number, Reservation ID, Electronic Confirmation Code

The total demand for a product or service that a hotel has the supply to meet.

The date that a product or service is available to be consumed (i.e., sell a room today June 1st for a consumption date of December 1st).

The offer has been used by the guest.

Revenue reported for each day the product or service is consumed.

Content is anything the customer sees, feels, touches or hears.

Indicates that the quoted rate includes a continental breakfast.

Acronym: CP

A written or spoken agreement, especially one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law. IHG engages in numerous contracts including Key Negotiated Rates, Groups and Meetings, Employment, Franchise and Channel.

The specific dates of the contracted period.

Synonym(s): RFP date, Event date

The act of creating or updating a contract in the Guest Reservation System (GRS). While contract loading can be performed manually in the GRS, the phrase more often refers to the automated process of loading contract details as initiated by an external system.

Synonym(s): Rate loading

Meeting space metric that considers profitability as well as revenue in measuring the usage of available space over a specific time period.

Calculation: Contribution / (Available Space x Time) where Contribution = Total Revenue – Total Variable Costs.

Acronym: ConPAST

Meeting space metric that considers profitability as well as revenue in measuring the usage of sold space over a specific time period

.

Calculation: Contribution / (Occupied Space x Time) where Contribution = Total Revenue – Total Variable Costs.

Acronym: ConPOST

Revenue reported at checkout.

The transition of a guest from one stage of the guest journey to another. For example, when a guest finishes shopping and books a reservation, the guest has converted. Similarly, when a guest decides to eat dinner at his hotel, this too is a type of conversion.

Number of bookings converted from one status to another.

Synonym(s): Conversion Rate

Table used to convert inbound and outbound data from the HOLIDEX® Plus system to the channels.

Corporate created conditions of product that hotels can modify to create conditions of product.

Corporate created conditions of sale that hotels can modify to create conditions of sale.

A list created by corporate containing all available terms and conditions which can be modified by a user of the Guest Reservation System (GRS).

An indicator that specifies the type of corporate account.

A performance-based pricing programme offered to some of IHG’s managed accounts. The programme offers discounts ranging from 5% to 14.5% depending on the number of room nights consumed by the account. Unlike negotiated contracts (e.g. KNRs), this programme is available at most (if not all) IHG hotels.

Acronym: CG

Synonym(s): Key Account

A 9 digit number used to identify a Corporate Account in the Global Reservation System (GRS).

Acronym: CD, CID

Synonym(s): Account ID

An amount that has to be paid or spent to buy or obtain something.

A pricing strategy determined by adding a profit element on top of the cost of making the product.

Costs that are directly incurred via the selling process.

Acronym: COS, COS/COGS

Synonym(s): Cost of goods sold

A fee structure for online marketing where a specified amount or percentage is paid by the advertiser for an agreed upon action, for example 5% of the booking amount per sale. Most commonly used in affiliate programmes.

Acronym: CPA

A fee structure for online marketing where a specified amount is paid every time a user clicks on an advertisement. Most commonly used by search engines (e.g., Google) and price comparison sites (e.g., Sidestep).

Acronym: CPC

The ability for inventory to be held for a specified amount of time without the customer being obligated to purchase, according to defined business rules.

Synonym(s): 24 Hour Privilege, 24 Hour Hold

A block of rooms contracted for a defined period and used for airline personnel.

Selling a product or service to a guest which is outside the realm of their initial request, e.g. to a hotel of a different brand, from one location to another, or to a product or service from a different provider, or to a product or service with a better fit for the guest.

The changing of elements in the user interface to better reflect the culture of a specific user. For example, changing the spelling from US to UK English, or distances from miles to kilometres.

Any entity that contracts with IHG or hotels to consume products or services.

Synonym(s): Partner, Account, Booker, Guest

Focuses on meeting our customers’ needs through Guest Relations, IHG® Rewards Club and Social Care channels. The Loyalty team assists members with their account management needs, while the Guest Relations and Social teams engage in service recovery for our guests when necessary.

Acronym: CC

Synonym(s): Online Customer Care, Reservations and Customer Care

A date when any unsold inventory within a specific contract is returned to general (or house) inventory for general sale.