Glossary

OTA, booking and website terms. In plain English.

The words OTAs, software companies and web people use, explained the way I'd explain them at the front desk. Each one links to the Field Note where it comes up.

Bookings and OTAs

Commission: The percentage an OTA keeps from each booking. It's charged on what the guest actually pays, after any discount.; Read more: What a $200 night actually pays you after OTA commission
Direct booking: A reservation made on your own website, with no OTA in the middle and no commission.; Read more: What a $200 night actually pays you after OTA commission
Genius: Booking.com's loyalty program. Properties that join give members 10% off, and can offer up to 15% or 20% to higher levels. The property pays for the discount.; Read more: What a $200 night actually pays you after OTA commission
Member-only deal: A discount shown only to an OTA's logged-in members. Expedia's is usually 10%.; Read more: What a $200 night actually pays you after OTA commission
OTA: Online travel agency, like Booking.com, Expedia or Airbnb. They list your property and charge a commission on each booking.; Read more: What a $200 night actually pays you after OTA commission
Rate parity: Keeping the same public rate across your website and every booking channel. Some OTA agreements require it.; Read more: What a $200 night actually pays you after OTA commission

Booking software

Booking engine: The part of your reservation software where guests pick dates, see rates and pay.; Read more: Our tech stack at Comal Inn, and why we skipped the all-in-one
Channel manager: The tool that keeps your rates and availability in sync across every OTA and your website.; Read more: Our tech stack at Comal Inn, and why we skipped the all-in-one
Dynamic pricing: Software that adjusts your nightly rates automatically based on demand, season, local events and how far out the dates are.; Read more: Our tech stack at Comal Inn, and why we skipped the all-in-one
PMS: Property management system. The software that holds your reservations, guests and calendar.; Read more: Our tech stack at Comal Inn, and why we skipped the all-in-one

Search and AI visibility

AI agent: An AI tool that visits websites and takes steps for a person, like checking a policy, comparing places to stay or looking up availability.; Read more: What llms.txt actually does, walked through with Comal Inn's file
AI Assistant channel: A traffic source in Google Analytics 4 that groups visits from AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, instead of lumping them in with Referral.; Read more: ChatGPT sent us 350 visits in 90 days. Here's how to see yours.
AI crawler: A program an AI company uses to read websites, like OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot. If your site blocks it, that tool can't read your pages.; Read more: How ChatGPT and Google's AI find places to recommend
Alt text: A short written description of an image. Screen readers read it aloud, and search engines and AI tools use it to understand the photo.; Read more: Title tags, alt text and the small stuff: on-page SEO for direct booking websites
GEO (generative engine optimization): Making your property easy for AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI answers to find, understand and recommend. Think of it as SEO for AI answers.; Read more: How ChatGPT and Google's AI find places to recommend
llms.txt: A plain-text summary at the root of your site, written for AI tools and agents. It says what your property is and which pages matter.; Read more: What llms.txt actually does, walked through with Comal Inn's file
Meta description: The one or two sentences under the link in search results. It does not change your ranking, but it helps people decide to click.; Read more: Title tags, alt text and the small stuff: on-page SEO for direct booking websites
robots.txt: A small file at the root of your site that tells search engines and AI crawlers which pages they may read.; Read more: How ChatGPT and Google's AI find places to recommend
Schema markup: Structured details in your page code that help search engines read your property: what it is, where it is, what it costs.; Read more: Schema markup for small properties: what it does, and what it won't
Structured data: Another name for schema markup: facts about your property written in a format search engines and AI tools can read directly.; Read more: Schema markup for small properties: what it does, and what it won't
Title tag: The page name that shows as the blue link in Google results and on the browser tab. Each page should have its own.; Read more: Title tags, alt text and the small stuff: on-page SEO for direct booking websites

Your website and domain

Core Web Vitals: Google's three measures of how a page feels to use: how fast the main content shows up, how quickly it responds to a tap, and whether things jump around while loading.; Read more: Website speed is part of the guest experience
Domain registrar: The company where your domain name is registered and renewed, like GoDaddy, Cloudflare or Squarespace.; Read more: Who owns your domain? How Comal Inn almost had to rename
Open Graph image: The preview picture that shows when someone shares your link in a text, Facebook post or Slack message.; Read more: Title tags, alt text and the small stuff: on-page SEO for direct booking websites
Registrant: The person or business legally listed as the holder of a domain name. This should be you or your business, not your web person.; Read more: Who owns your domain? How Comal Inn almost had to rename
Third-party script: Code your site loads from another company, like a chat widget, booking widget, review feed or tracking tag. A common cause of slow pages.; Read more: Website speed is part of the guest experience
Transfer code: A code from your current registrar that lets you move your domain to another registrar. Also called an auth code or EPP code.; Read more: Who owns your domain? How Comal Inn almost had to rename

Pricing and revenue

Orphan nights: Single empty nights stuck between booked stays, often hard to sell without a minimum-stay change or a discount.; Read more: Our tech stack at Comal Inn, and why we skipped the all-in-one
Room tiering: Pricing similar rooms at different levels, like entry, upgrade and premium, based on the real differences between them.; Read more: Three similar rooms, three clear choices: room tiering without a renovation
Upsell: A paid extra offered to a guest who has already booked, like early check-in, late checkout or a local experience.; Read more: 48 guests paid to check in early. Here's how to offer it.

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