Front office Abbreviations

Front office Abbreviations are useful for Hospitality students for First, Second & Third years. References have been taken from various sources.   

§  A.A.U.I.— Automobile Association of Upper India.

§  A.H.M.A.— American Hotel and Motel Association. It publishes a booklet called Red Book. Now AHMA is called AHLA (American, Hotels and Lodging Association) 

§  A.I.I.— Air India International. 

§  A.M.— Antemeridian (before noon)    

§  A.S.T.A— American Society of Travel Agents. 

§  A.D.P.— Automatic data processing.

§  B.A.—British Airways.

§  B.T.A. —British Tourist Authority.

§  BASIC —Beginners all purpose symbolic instruction code.

§  CCTV—Closed Circuit TV.

§  C.I.P.— Commercially Important Person— A person who has influence over a large number of prospective buyers.

§  COBOL—Common Business Oriented Language

§  C.R.T.— Cathode Ray Tube.

§  CPS—Characters Per Second

§  Coy.— Company

§  Cr.— Credit

§  D.G.C.A.— Director General of Civil Aviation.

§  D.N.S.— Did Not Stay.

§  DSS— Decision Support System.

§  D.O.T. — Department of Tourism.

§  D.P.— Data Processing.

§  D.D.P.— Distributed Data Processing.

§  DNA— Did Not Arrive.

§  DND- Do Not Disturb

§  ECO— Express Check Out

§  E.D.P.— Electronic Data Processing.

§  ECR - Electronic Cash Register :-  An electronic cash control device.

§  F.E.R.A.— Foreign Exchange Regulation Act.

§  F.F.I.T.— Foreign Free Independent Traveller.

§  F.H.R.A.I— Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Association of India.

§  F.I.T.— Free Independent Traveller (any individual who is not in a group) or a non-affiliated group member; also called as Free Individual Traveller.

§  F.F. & E.— Furniture, Fixture and Equipment.

§  G.I.T.— Group Inclusive Tour.

§  G.O.I.— Government of India.

§  GIGO— Garbage-in Garbage-out. (A computer term).

§  G.D.S.— Global Distribution System

§  HOTERMAI— Hotel and Restaurant Equipment Manufacturers Association of India.

§  H.S.M.A.— Hotel Sales Management Association. An international organization of marketing which maintains liaison with all requests of the travel industry to discuss and implement areas of mutual interest. Its headquarters are in New York.

§  HAI— Hotel Association of India.

§  HRAWI— Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India.

§  H & RA— Hotel and Restaurant Association.

§  HRACC - Hotel Restaurants Approval and Classification Committee.

§  I.A.A.I.— International Airports Authority of India.

§  I.A.C.— Indian Airlines Corporation.

§  I.A.T.A.— International Air Transport Association./International Association of Travel Agents.

§  I.A.T.O— Indian Association of Tour Operation.

§  IR— Instant Reservation.

§  I.C.A.O.— International Civil Aviation Organization.

§  I.D.D.— International Direct Dialing.

§  I.H.A.— International Hotel Association.

§  IH & RA— International Hotel and Restaurant Associates.

§  LL.O.— International Labour Organization.

§  I.M.F.— International Monetary Fund.

§  I.S.D.— International Subscriber Dialing.

§  I.U.O.T.O.— International Union of Official Travel Organization.

§  I.Y.H.F— International Youth Hostel Federation.

§  IDP— Integrated Data Processing.

§  Jr.— Junior.

§  J.T.P.— Joint Tourism Promotion.

§  LPM— Lines per minute.

§  MAP— Modified American Plan. Also called as Demi Pension.

§  M.C.O— Miscellaneous charge order. 

§  MIS— Management Information System.

§  M.O.D.— Manager on Duty.

§  MOCI— Ministry of Commerce and Industries.

§  N.A.A.— National Airport Authorities.

§  N.C.R.— National Cash Register.

§  N.T.A.— Note to be allotted.

§  (O.O.O)- Out of Order — A room which is not ready for sale due to planned or unexpected shut down.

§  P.P.P.N.— Per Person Per Night.

§  P.A.T.A— Pacific Asia Travel Association.

§  P.R.P.N.— Per room Per Night.

§  PIA- Paid in Advance.

§  P.S.O.— Passengers Service Order.

§  PAX— Number of Persons.

§  POS - Point of Sale.

§  P.B.X.— Private Branch/Box Exchange.

§  PMBX— Private Manual Branch/Box Exchange.

§  PABX— Private Automatic Branch/Box Exchange.

§  R.S.V.P.— Respondez Sil Vous plait (Reply if you please).

§  R.A.M.— Random Access Memory.

§  R.O.M.— Read only memory

§  RNA— Room not assigned.

§  S.A.T.C.— South Asia Travel Commission.

§  S.I.T.S.— Special Interest Tours. (People who normally visit a place once only).

§  S.T.D.— Subscriber Trunk Dialing. By obtaining the correct code from the   S.T.D. booklet, subscriber may dial to almost all places without having to ask the operator to connect call.

§  S.O.P.— Standard Operating Procedures.

§  S.T.B.— State Tourism Board.

§  SPATT— A special attention.

§  T.Q.M— Total Quality Management.

§  T.A.A.I.— Travel Agents Association of India.

§  T.W.A.— Trans World Airlines.

§  UNESCO— United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

§  UNICEF—United Nations International Childrens' Emergency Fund.

§  UFTAA— Universal Federation of Travel Agent Association.

§  U.S.P.— The special features or benefits and features that differentiate our product from the competitors and becomes the basis of promotion of sales (Unique Sales Proposition). A special point of competitive differential in a product. Hotel features that are unique to the property are also called "signature attractions".

§  V.I.P.— Very Important Person.

§  V.P.O.— Visitors paid out. If petty payments such as taxi fare, cinema tickets, postage, etc. are made by front desk on behalf of the guest, then a V.P.O. voucher is prepared which is signed by the guest and debited to his account where the amount is entered into guest folio. These slips are also called as 'Paid out slips'.

§  V.P.P.— Value Payable Post.

§  V.T.L.— Also called the 'Tab', is ledger in tabular form used for recording all transactions with guests staying in the hotel.

§  V.D.U— Visual Display Unit.

§  W.A.T.S— Wide Area Telephone Services.

§  W.H.O.— World Health Organization.

§  W.T.O.— World Tourism Organization. 

§  WATA — World Association of Travel Agents. It publishes Master Key. 

§  WTTC— World Travel and Tourism Council.

§  Y.H.A.I.— Youth Hostel Association of India.

§  Y.M.C.A.— Young Men's Christian Association.

§  YWCA— Young Women Christians Association.           

§  Meal Plans in Hospitality

§  European Plan  (EP):  Room Rate

§  Continental Plan (CP):  Room Rate + Continental Breakfast.

§  American Plan (AP): also called en-pension/full board. Room Rate + Breakfast + Lunch & Dinner.

§  Modified American Plan (MAP): also called demi-pension / half board.Room Rate + Breakfast + Lunch / Dinner.

§  Bed and Breakfast (B&B) or Bermuda Plan: Room Rate + American Breakfast.