Travel & hotel technology glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up when wholesale travel agencies, consolidators, tour operators and hotels evaluate booking, distribution and property-management technology. Each definition is self-contained — link to any term directly.
Travel distribution & business models
- GDS (Global Distribution System)
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A global reservation network — the largest are Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport — that aggregates real-time availability and fares from airlines, hotels and car-hire suppliers and distributes them to travel agencies. A GDS is a content source a platform connects to, not a booking platform itself.
- Bed-bank (hotel wholesaler)
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A wholesaler that contracts hotel rooms in bulk and resells that inventory to travel agencies and platforms through an API. Examples include Hotelbeds, TBO and RateHawk. Like a GDS, a bed-bank is a supplier you connect to, not a competitor.
Also written "bedbank"; sometimes "hotel aggregator".
- OTA (Online Travel Agency)
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A website or app that sells travel directly to consumers — flights, hotels, packages — such as Booking.com or Expedia. OTAs sit on the retail (B2C) side of distribution and are a common customer for white-label booking technology.
- B2B, B2C and B2B2C travel
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B2C sells travel to the end traveller. B2B sells to other businesses — for example a consolidator supplying sub-agents. B2B2C is a hybrid where a business equips its partner agencies with a branded booking tool that those agencies use with their own customers.
- Travel consolidator
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A wholesaler that negotiates fares and inventory at volume (often with airlines or bed-banks) and redistributes them to a network of smaller agencies, who could not access those rates alone. Consolidators are a core audience for wholesale travel technology.
- DMC (Destination Management Company)
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A locally based operator that provides ground services — transfers, tours, activities, accommodation — in a specific destination, sold to inbound tour operators and agencies. DMCs often use booking platforms to package and distribute their local product.
Air ticketing: GDS & NDC
- NDC (New Distribution Capability)
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An IATA XML-based data standard that lets airlines distribute richer content — ancillaries, branded fares, seat maps and personalised offers — directly to sellers, beyond what a traditional GDS feed carries. NDC connections often sit alongside GDS content in a modern booking platform.
- PNR (Passenger Name Record)
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The record in a reservation system that holds an itinerary and passenger details for one or more travellers, identified by a unique booking reference. PNRs are created and managed when bookings are made through a GDS or airline.
- BSP (Billing and Settlement Plan)
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An IATA system that consolidates the billing and payment between airlines and accredited travel agencies, so an agency settles one statement rather than paying each airline separately. BSP participation is tied to IATA accreditation.
- ARC (Airlines Reporting Corporation)
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The US equivalent of BSP: ARC handles ticketing settlement and accreditation between airlines and travel agencies in the United States. Agencies typically reconcile ARC/BSP reporting inside their back-office accounting.
- IATA accreditation
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Recognition by the International Air Transport Association that allows a travel agency to issue airline tickets and participate in settlement schemes such as BSP. It is a common trust and capability signal for agencies in the air-travel supply chain.
- LCC (Low-Cost Carrier)
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A budget airline (such as Ryanair, easyJet or AirAsia) that often distributes outside the traditional GDS, through its own API or aggregators. Connecting LCC content usually requires dedicated integrations in a booking platform.
- Fare basis code
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An alphanumeric code that identifies a specific airline fare and the rules attached to it. The first letter is usually the booking class; the characters that follow often encode season, day of week, advance-purchase or minimum-stay conditions and the fare type. Two passengers in the same cabin can hold different fare basis codes and therefore different prices and change conditions.
Also called: fare basis, FBC.
- RBD (Reservation Booking Designator) / booking class
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A single-letter code an airline uses to manage seat inventory within a cabin. One cabin is split into many booking classes — for example several economy classes at different price levels — and each class is opened or closed as the flight sells. Availability is shown per class, not just per cabin.
Also called: booking class, booking code, sub-class.
- Fare rules
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The conditions attached to an airline fare: when it must be booked and ticketed, minimum and maximum stay, permitted routings and stopovers, and what happens on a change, cancellation or no-show. In a GDS they are returned as long, abbreviated text organised into numbered categories maintained through ATPCO.
Common categories: advance reservation and ticketing (Cat 5), minimum stay (Cat 6), maximum stay (Cat 7), penalties (Cat 16), voluntary changes (Cat 31), voluntary refunds (Cat 33).
- ATPCO (Airline Tariff Publishing Company)
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An airline-owned organisation that collects and distributes fares and fare rules from airlines to GDSs and other systems. Most published airline fares, their rule categories, and the data used for automated pricing and reissue reach booking systems through ATPCO.
- ADM / ACM (Agency Debit / Credit Memo)
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An ADM is a charge an airline raises against a travel agency, usually through BSP, to recover money when a ticket was issued or handled against the airline's rules — for example a wrong fare or tax, an unapplied penalty, a fare rule violation, or booking practices the airline prohibits. An ACM is the reverse: a credit the airline owes the agency.
Also called: agency debit memo, agency credit memo.
- Ticketing time limit (TTL)
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The deadline by which a reservation must be ticketed. It can come from the fare's own rules or be set by the airline after booking; if the ticket is not issued in time, the airline may cancel the seats automatically.
Also called: ticketing deadline, TKTL.
- Electronic ticket (e-ticket)
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The electronic record that proves a passenger has paid for air travel, stored in the airline's system rather than on paper. It carries a 13-digit ticket number whose first three digits identify the issuing airline, and it is linked to the PNR it was issued against.
Also called: ET, ticket number.
- EMD (Electronic Miscellaneous Document)
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An IATA document used to collect payment for services other than the flight fare itself — such as extra baggage, seats, lounge access or change fees. An EMD-A is associated with a specific flight coupon on an e-ticket; an EMD-S stands alone.
- Void, refund and reissue
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The three ways an issued airline ticket is changed. A void cancels a ticket within a short window after issue (often the same day) so it never settles. A refund returns the unused value according to the fare rules. A reissue (or exchange) replaces the ticket with a new one for a changed itinerary, collecting any fare difference and penalty.
Also called: exchange (for reissue).
- GDS queue
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An electronic work tray inside a GDS where bookings are placed for an agency to act on — for example schedule changes, ticketing deadlines, waitlist clearances or airline messages. Agents or automated scripts work the queue and remove each PNR once handled.
- Airline schedule change
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A change an airline makes to a booked flight after the reservation is made — a new departure time, a different flight number, a changed routing or a cancellation. The airline notifies the agency through the booking, usually via a GDS queue.
Also called: involuntary change, schedule change (SC).
- Offers and Orders (NDC)
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The retailing model behind NDC. The airline responds to a shopping request with offers it builds itself, including bundles and ancillaries; when the customer buys, the airline creates an order that holds everything purchased. IATA's ONE Order programme aims to replace the separate PNR, e-ticket and EMD records with that single order.
Related: ONE Order.
- Ancillaries
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Products and services sold in addition to the base airline fare — checked baggage, seat selection, meals, priority boarding, lounge access, Wi-Fi and similar. Airlines distribute them through EMDs, branded fares and, increasingly, NDC offers.
Also called: ancillary services, add-ons.
- Branded fares (fare families)
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Named fare bundles an airline sells within a cabin — for example a basic, a standard and a flexible economy fare — each including a different set of baggage, seat selection, change and refund rights. Shoppers compare the bundles rather than individual fare rules.
Also called: fare families.
- Validating (plating) carrier
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The airline under whose ticket stock an e-ticket is issued and which settles the fare through BSP. On multi-airline itineraries the agency chooses a validating carrier that has the required interline agreements with the other airlines on the ticket.
Also called: plating carrier, ticketing carrier.
- PCC / Office ID
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The identifier for an agency location inside a GDS — called a Pseudo City Code (PCC) in Sabre and Travelport and an Office ID in Amadeus. It determines which fares, contracts, ticketing authority and settlement arrangements a booking is made under.
Also called: pseudo city code, office ID, OID.
- SSR and OSI
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Codes added to a booking to communicate with the airline. An SSR (Special Service Request) asks for something that needs action or confirmation — a special meal, wheelchair assistance, an unaccompanied minor, or passport details for advance passenger information. An OSI (Other Service Information) is informational only and needs no response.
Platforms, payments & operations
- Travel API
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A programming interface that exposes travel content and booking functions — search, pricing, booking, cancellation — so a developer can build them into their own website, app or back end. A unified travel API aggregates many suppliers behind a single integration.
- White-label
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Technology supplied by one company but presented under the customer's own brand. A white-label travel portal lets an agency run a booking site or app as if it were built in-house, with its own logo, domain, currency and look.
- Travel syndication
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Aggregating travel inventory — flights, hotels, transfers, activities — from many suppliers, normalising it into one model and redistributing it through other sellers such as sub-agents, OTAs, apps and partner brands, each under its own brand and pricing. B2B portals, white-label sites, travel APIs and affiliate widgets are all syndication channels.
Also called travel content distribution.
- Dynamic packaging
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Combining separate travel components — flight, hotel, transfer, activity — into a single bookable package assembled in real time from live inventory and pricing, rather than from pre-built fixed packages. It lets agencies sell tailored trips at a bundled price.
- Markup and markdown
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Rules a platform applies to supplier (net) rates to set the selling price. A markup adds margin; a markdown discounts. Wholesale platforms usually support tiered markup policies so different agents or markets see different prices automatically.
- Mid-office
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The layer between booking (front office) and accounting (back office) that enforces business rules — fare rules, markup, credit limits, quality control and approvals — as bookings flow through. Strong mid-office automation reduces manual errors and leakage.
- Back-office
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The accounting and administrative side of a travel business: invoicing, supplier reconciliation, BSP/ARC settlement, ledgers and reporting. Travel-specific back-office software automates reconciliation that generic accounting tools handle poorly.
- Multi-currency / FX
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The ability to price, sell and settle in several currencies, applying exchange-rate conversion and currency-specific rules. Essential for wholesalers and agencies that serve sub-agents and travellers across different countries.
- Payment gateway
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The service that securely authorises and processes card or alternative payments between a buyer, the seller and the acquiring bank. Travel platforms integrate gateways (and often virtual cards for supplier payment) into the booking flow.
- PCI DSS
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The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard — a set of security requirements any business that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data must follow. It governs how booking platforms and gateways must protect payment information. See our guide to PCI DSS compliance for travel agencies.
- Umrah operations software
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Software that manages the specific workflow of Umrah and Hajj pilgrimage travel — packages, pilgrim/group records, visas, transport, accommodation near the holy sites, and compliance with Saudi requirements such as Nusuk — which generic booking tools do not cover.
- Travel revenue intelligence
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Analytics that turn an agency's booking, supplier and margin data into insight — identifying where profit is won or lost, which suppliers and routes perform, and where pricing or leakage can be improved. It sits on top of the booking and accounting data.
Hotel operations
- Channel manager
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A tool that keeps inventory and rates synchronised across multiple sales channels (a hotel's own site, OTAs, GDS) so availability and pricing stay consistent and overbooking is avoided. Most relevant to suppliers distributing their own inventory — for hotels it is usually part of, or connected to, the PMS. Example: the channel manager built into bedsKey.
- PMS (Property Management System)
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The core software a hotel, resort, hostel or guest house runs on: reservations and availability, front desk check-in and check-out, the guest folio and billing, housekeeping status, night audit and reporting. Modern cloud PMSs also include or connect a channel manager and a direct booking engine. Example: bedsKey.
Also called hotel management software or hotel property management software.
- Bed-level inventory
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Inventory tracked per bed rather than per room, so a hostel can sell individual beds inside a shared dorm while still selling private rooms from the same availability calendar. Few PMSs support it natively; bedsKey carries room- and bed-level inventory together.
- ADR (Average Daily Rate)
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The average room revenue earned per occupied room for a period: room revenue ÷ rooms sold. It measures pricing, not occupancy — a hotel can raise ADR while filling fewer rooms. Reported alongside occupancy and RevPAR.
- RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room)
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Room revenue divided by all rooms available for the period, occupied or not — equivalently ADR × occupancy rate. Because it combines price and fill, RevPAR is the standard headline measure of a hotel's room performance.
- Occupancy rate
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The share of available rooms (or beds) that were sold for a night or period: rooms sold ÷ rooms available. Rooms taken out of order are usually removed from the available count; rooms out of service usually are not.
- Night audit
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The end-of-day process in a hotel that posts room and tax charges to every in-house folio, flags no-shows, reconciles the day's figures, rolls the business date forward and locks the day. A PMS can run it automatically on a schedule or on the duty manager's command.
- Folio (guest folio)
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The running statement of everything a guest owes and has paid during a stay — room nights, taxes, restaurant, laundry and other charges, deposits and payments. Folios can be split between payers or transferred to another room or a company account.
- City ledger
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The accounts-receivable ledger for balances owed to a hotel by companies, travel agents and other non-resident accounts after a guest checks out, invoiced on credit terms rather than settled at the desk.
- BAR (Best Available Rate)
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A hotel's standard publicly available rate for a room type and date, usually the reference price from which other plans are derived — for example a non-refundable rate set at BAR minus 10%.
- Derived rate
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A rate plan calculated automatically from a parent plan by a fixed amount or percentage, so changing the parent updates every derived rate at once instead of editing each plan separately.
- CTA / CTD (Closed to Arrival / Departure)
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Rate restrictions that block a stay from starting (CTA) or ending (CTD) on a given date while still allowing guests already in-house to stay through it. Used with minimum and maximum length-of-stay rules to shape demand.
- Rate parity
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Keeping the same room rate for the same conditions across every sales channel — the hotel's own website and each OTA. A channel manager helps maintain parity and can flag bookings that arrive at a price different from the one published to that channel.
- Booking engine (hotel direct booking)
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The software behind the Book Now button on a hotel's own website that shows live availability and rates, takes the reservation and collects a deposit through a payment gateway — so the booking arrives without an OTA commission.
- Overbooking
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Selling more rooms than are available for a night — either deliberately, expecting cancellations and no-shows, or by accident when channels fall out of sync. A PMS with database-enforced overlap protection prevents accidental double-booking at the desk and on the web.
Ground transport
- Transfer management software
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Software a ground-transport company runs on: taking and pricing transfer bookings, managing vehicles and drivers, dispatching trips, and invoicing agents, corporates and passengers. It differs from a taxi app (on-demand rides) and a fleet tracker (vehicle location only) by covering the pre-booked transfer from quote to invoice. TransferArc is the transfer management software in the Innovate Solution suite, with accounting and e-invoicing built in.
Also called: airport transfer software, transfer booking software, chauffeur or limousine software.
- Dispatch and auto-dispatch
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Assigning a vehicle and a driver to each booked trip. A dispatcher does it by hand on a dispatch board; auto-dispatch does it by rule — matching the vehicle class to the booking and skipping vehicles or drivers that are busy, blocked or out of compliance. Vendor fallback hands the trip to a sub-contractor when no own vehicle is free.
- Quote lock
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Holding the price a customer or agent was quoted, even if the underlying rate card changes before the booking is confirmed or travelled. It relies on versioned rate cards: the quote points at the version it was priced from, so a later price change never rewrites an existing quote.
- E-invoicing (electronic invoicing)
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Issuing invoices as structured, machine-readable documents — commonly UBL XML — that a tax authority can validate, rather than as a PDF alone. In a clearance model the authority approves the invoice before it is issued; in a reporting model it is sent shortly after. Saudi Arabia's ZATCA Phase 2 uses both: standard (B2B) invoices are cleared and simplified (B2C) invoices are reported.
- Maker-checker approval
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A control where one person makes a sensitive change and a second person must approve it before it takes effect — for example raising an agent's credit limit, publishing a rate card or posting a manual journal. Also known as the four-eyes principle.
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