Antique – Antique furniture belongs to the period before 1840, though
nowadays any pieces of furniture that is more than 100 years old is considered
an antique.
Amenity – A service or item offered to guests or placed in guestrooms for
convenience and comfort, at no extra cost.
Area inventory list – A list of all items and surfaces within a particular area that
require the attention of the housekeeping personnel.
Back of the house – The functional areas of the hotel in which employees have little
or no guest contact, such as the engineering and maintenance department,
laundry room and so on.
Back to back – Describes a heavy rate of check outs and check ins on the same
day, so that as soon as room is made up, a new guest checks into it.
Banquet – A term used to describe catering for specific numbers of people
at specific times, in a variety of dining layouts.
Bath linen – Include bath towels, hand towels, face towels, washcloths and
fabric bath mats. Machine.
Budget – A budget is a plan that projects both the revenue that the hotel
anticipates during the period covered by the budget and the expenses required
to generate the anticipated revenues.
Buff – To smooth the floor with a low speed floor polishing.
Burnishing – Polishing the floor with a high speed floor machine to achieve
an extremely high gloss.
Breakfast knob cards – Card hung by guests on the knobs of guest room doors to pre
order breakfast at night so that the order reaches the staff on time and the
guest is not disturbed for placing the order early in the morning.
Bonsai – Literally meaning “a plant in a tray” this refers to a tree or a plant
whose typical growth in nature has been copied exactly in a miniature style
within the confines of a container.
Capital budgets – These allocate the use of capital assets that have a life span
considerably in excess of one year, these are assets that are not normally used
up in day to day operations.
Cabana – A room adjacent to the pool area, with or without sleeping
facilities, but with provision for relaxing on a sofa. It is mainly used for
changing.
Coverlet – A bedspread that just covers the top of the dust ruffle but does not
reach down to the floor.
Cleaning supplies – Cleaning agents and small cleaning equipment used in the
cleaning of guestrooms and public areas in the hotel.
Condominiums – hotels similar to timeshare hotels. The
difference between the two lies in the type of ownership. Units in condominium
hotels have only one owner instead of multiple owners, each for a limited
amount of time each year.
Convention – A formal assembly of representatives sharing a common field of
interest, come together to air their views.
Crib – Cot for babies, provided to guests on request.
Damp-dust – A method of cleaning where the item to be cleaned is wiped with
a damp cloth.
Deep cleaning – intensive or specialized cleaning undertaken in guestrooms or
public areas, often conducted according to a special schedule or on a special
project basis.
DNCO – This room status means that the guest made arrangement s to
settle his/her account but has left without informing the front office.
DND Card – A do not disturb card is hung outside the room to inform hotel
staff or visitor that the occupant does not wish to be disturb.
Double Locked (DL) – An occupied room in which the deadbolt has been turn to prohibit
entry from the corridor. Only a grandmaster key or an emergency key can open it.
Dutch wife – Another term for the sewing kit provided as a guest amenity.
Duplex – A two storey suite with parlour and bedrooms connected by a
stairway.
Duvet – Quilts filled with down feather or synthetic fibres. Many hotels
use duvets with a decorative duvet cover in lieu of both blankets and
bedspread. They are sometimes referred to as comforters.
Dry Cleaning – The cleaning of fabrics in a substantially non-aqueous liquid
medium.
EPABX Operator – Electronic Private Automatic Branch Exchange operators.
These are the hotel switchboard operators who answer calls and connect them to
the appropriate extensions. These operator also relay telephone charge incurred
by guests to the front office cashier.
Exhaust vent – An opening for ventilation, sometimes fixed with an exhaust fan
to facilitate of fresh air.
FFE – Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment.
Fix assets – These are tangible assets of a long term nature, such as land or
large pieces of machinery and equipments.
Fixture – Hardware items present in guestrooms that cannot be moved or are
difficult to move as a whole since they are fixed in position. For example;
wash basin, baths and lighting fixtures.
Floatels – Hotel establishments being operated on large water bodies such
as seas and lakes. Cruise liner and some houseboats are typical examples of
these.
Front of the house – The functional areas of the hotel in which employees have
extensive guest contact, such as food and beverage outlets and front office
areas.
Floor pantry – A service room provided on each floor for GRAs to store cleaning
agents, equipments, guest supplies, guest room linen and maid’s cart.
Gate pass – An authorization given to an employee to take guest or hotel
property out of the hotel.
Guest Loan Items – Guest supplies not normally found in a guestrooms but available
upon request. For example; ironing board.
Guest essentials – items that are essential to the guestrooms and are not expected
to be used up or taken away by guest.
Guest expendables – Guest supplies that are expected to be used up or taken away by
guest on leaving the property.
Graveyard shift – Night shift.
Guest supplies – These are items placed in the guestroom free of cost for the use
and comfort of guest.
Handle with care ( HWC ) guest – Guest who may have had some unpleasant experiences in the hotel
or had some complaints, genuine or otherwise, are labeled as “ handle with care
“ guest by the hotel for the reminder of their stay or future sojourn.
Hard water – Water that contains more than 60 ppm ( part per million ) of
calcium and/or magnesium is called hard water.
Hand caddy – A portable container for storing and transporting cleaning
supplies, carried on a room maid’s cart.
Hollywood Twin room – A room with two twin beds but a common headboard, which is meant
for two people. If the need arises, the beds can be bridged together to make it
appear a single bed.
Hospitality – The cordial and generous reception and entertainment of guests
or strangers, either socially or commercially.
Inventory – Stock or merchandise, operating supplies, and other items held
for future use in a hotel. For example; linen, cleaning supplies and so on, are
important housekeeping inventories.
Jacuzzis – Whirlpool ; small pools in which alternate jets of warm water
bring about therapeutic effect.
King-size bed – The largest size of bed available, with dimension of 78 inches x
80 inches ( eastern king ) or 72 x 80 inches ( California king )
Lanai – A room overlooking a landscaped area, a scenic view, a water
body or garden. It may have a balcony, a patio or both.
Laissez faire – A style of leadership where a leader believes in delegating
assignments and important task to others in the team.
Landscape area – An area where trees, plants, turf, deck, walks, ponds and so on
have been used to create a natural looking outdoor space that is functional and
visually appealing.
Luggage rack – A furniture item provided in guestrooms for placing the guest’s
luggage on.
Linen chute – A passage in the form of a tunnel for sending soiled linen from
the floor pantries of all floors to a central place near the laundry, from
where it can be collected by the laundry staff.
MICE – Meeting, incentives, conventions, exhibitions. This segment is
now a big revenue generator for the hotels. Certain hotels cater specially to
the MICE customer.
Motels – Hotels that are located primarily on highways. They provide modest
lodgings to highways travelers. Most motels provide ample parking space and may
be located near a petrol station.
Make up – servicing of the room while a guest is registered in the room.
Mini bar – A fixture in modern guestrooms, this is a miniature refrigerator
stocked with juices, liquor, and snack for the convenience of guests.
Murphy bed – This refers to a bed that folds up into the walls and looks like
a bookshelf or cupboard when folded away, being named for a leading
manufacturer of such beds. It may also be called a Sico bed ( after another
leading manufacturer of foldaway or wall beds )
Nightstand – A nightstand is a small stand or cabinet designed to stand
beside a bed or elsewhere in a bedroom, as a place to put anything likely to be
required during the night; also called night table.
Operating Budgets – These forecast the expense and revenues for the routine
operations of the hotel during a certain period.
Operating expenses – Those cost that the hotel incurs in order to generate revenue in
the normal course of doing business.
Operating supplies – The items essential to day-to- day housekeeping operations,
including guest supplies and cleaning supplies.
OOO – Out of Order is the status of a guestroom that is not rentable
because it is being repaired or redecorated.
OPL – On premises laundry. An in house area in the hotel where linen
and uniforms are washed, dry-cleaned and pressed.
On change room – A room in need of housekeeping service before it can be registered to
an arriving guest.
Open section – A group of rooms that is not part of a room section for cleaning
purposes.
Porch – A covered approach to the entrance of a building.
Pat stock / par number – A multiple of the standard quantity of a particular inventory
item that must be on hand to support daily, routine housekeeping operations.
Par level – The standard number of each inventoried item that must be in
hand to support daily, routine housekeeping operations.
Performance standards – The quality level that employees’ performance is required to
meet.
Productivity standards – The quantity of work expected to be completed by each department
employee.
Pre-Opening Budgets – These budget allocate resources for opening parties,
advertising, initial generation of goodwill, liaisons and PR. Pre-opening
budgets also include the initial costs of employees’ salaries and wages,
supplies, crockery, cutlery and other such items.
Pick up rooms – Rooms from the open section assigned to different GRAs to
balance out the workload.
Queen size bed – A queen size bed has the dimensions 5 ft 6 in x 6 ft 6 in.
Room assignment sheets – The room assignment sheet indicates the rooms that the
particular GRA has to service, giving their status as indicates in the daily
work report. The sheet also lists any pick up rooms that the GRA has to
service, apart from the rooms in his/her section.
Room status discrepancy – A situation in which the housekeeping department’s description
of a room’s status differs from the room status information with the front
office.
Room status report – A report that allows the housekeeping department to identify the
occupancy or condition of the property’s rooms. It is generated daily through a
two-way communication between housekeeping and front office.
Refurbish – To give a new look to a room by re-docarating, renewing soft
furnishings, and possibly changing the carpet and touching up the furniture.
Room section – A group of 15-16 guestrooms reasonably contiguous to each other.
Runners – In this context, lengths of matting made of synthetic or natural
fibres, placed at entrances to prevent dirt and dust from entering the
building. ( Another use of the term runner in housekeeping is for a person who
is charged with the duty of conveying orders from housekeeping department to
the staff on guest floor ).
Safety stock level – The number of purchase unit that must always be on hand in case
of emergencies, damages, delays in delivery and so on.
Service directory – This is a booklet in which the services offered to guests by the
hotel are listed, along with the intercom numbers to reach the relevant
departments.
Skipper – A room status that indicates the guest has left the hotel
without making arrangements to settle his/her account.
Sleeper – A room status means that the guest has settle his/her account
and left the hotel but the front office staff have failed to update the room
status.
Studio bed – this is dual purpose bed that is used as divan in the daytime
and converts into a bed in the night after the removal of bolsters and covers.
Swab cloth – A soft, absorbent cleaning cloth used for wet cleaning work,
such as for wash basin, baths, and so on.
Sani-bin – These are small metal or plastic containers with lids, kept in toilets
for collection of soiled sanitary towels.
Surveillance equipment – Equipment such as CCTVs ( Closet circuit televisions ) that help
to closely observe suspicious activities and persons.
Scanty baggage – A room status indicating a room assigned to guest with small, light
and few pieces of luggage that could be carried away without obviously
indicating a departure, should a guest walk out with them.
Soft water – Water in which the level of dissolved calcium and/or magnesium
is below 60 ppm.
Soiled linen – Dirty and stained linen that required laundering.
Spotting – The specialized function of stain removal carried out by skilled
personal called spotters, using appropriate equipment and stain-removal agents.
Stain – A spot or discoloration left on fabrics from contact with and
absorption of foreign substances.
Sorting – The process of separating soiled linen into different
categories: those requiring dry-cleaning and those that should be laundered
under different conditions, such as whites and colored. In other words, sorting
is governed construction and the amount and kind of soil.
Stock taking – The physical verification of inventory items by counting up
stocks of all items at periodic intervals. Stock taking is also termed “
conducting inventory “.
SWB – Salaries, Wages and Benefit.
Timeshares – vacation interval hotels. These involve individuals purchasing
the ownership of accommodations for a specific period of time, usually one or
two weeks a year. These owner then can occupy the unit during that time. Owner
may also have the unit rented out by the management company that operates the
hotel.
Tent cards – Hotel publicity cards in the shape of tents placed in guestrooms.
Terrazzo – Flooring which consists of marble, granite and other decorative
chips set in cement.
Turn down service – A special service provided by the housekeeping department in
which a room attendant enters the guestroom early in the evening to re stock
supplies , tidy the room and turn down the covers on the bed in preparation for
the night.
Tooth glass – A glass placed on the vanity unit as a guest supply and used for
gargling or to keep the guest’s toothbrush, dentures, or other similar items in.
Water closet – Sanitary fitting consisting of the toilet bowl and the cistern.
Vanity area – A unit comprising a wash basin and mirror, surrounded by flat
area where soap, dental kits, saving kits, and tooth glasses are kept.
Vacant – The status of a room in which no guest has slept the previous
night and which is not yet occupied.
Wi-fi – Wireless fidelity. This is an amenity provided nowadays by world
class hotels. Wi fi enables guests to access a wide range of information,
applications, and computing resources without connectivity problem.
Zero base budgeting – Zero base budgeting refers to hiring employees while taking into
account the actual occupancy for a specified period of time.
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