The vacation rental encyclopedia.

Acronyms, concepts, and metrics — defined clearly, updated regularly.

Most Popular

Most-looked-up terms

Reporting

Average Daily Rate (ADR)

Average Daily Rate (ADR) is a key performance metric that measures the average rental revenue earned for an occupied property per day.

Read
Technology

Booking Engine

A booking engine is a software application that allows guests to book and pay for reservations directly on a property's website.

Read
Policies & Legal

Cancellation Policy

A set of rules defining the penalties a guest incurs for canceling a reservation and the conditions under which they may receive a refund.

Read
Technology

Channel Manager

A software tool that synchronizes property listings, availability, and rates across multiple online booking platforms in real time.

Read
Finance

Cleaning Fee

A one-time charge added to a guest's reservation total to cover the cost of cleaning the property after their stay.

Read
Marketing

Direct Booking

A reservation made directly with a property manager or host, bypassing third-party online travel agencies (OTAs) and their commissions.

Read
Finance

Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing is a strategy that adjusts rental rates in real time based on supply, demand, seasonality, and other market factors.

Read
Property Management

Guest Screening

Guest screening is the process of verifying a potential guest's identity and background to assess the risk of property damage, fraud, or rule violations.

Read
Industry

Lodgify

Lodgify is an all-in-one vacation rental software for property owners and managers. It provides tools to create a direct booking website, manage listings…

Read
Property Management

Minimum Length of Stay (MLOS)

A rule set by property managers requiring guests to book a specific number of consecutive nights to confirm a reservation.

Read
Technology

Multi-Calendar

A multi-calendar is a centralized dashboard that displays availability and bookings for multiple properties in a single, unified view.

Read
Policies & Legal

New York Local Law 18

New York Local Law 18, also known as the Short-Term Rental Registration Law, is a municipal regulation in New York City that requires hosts to register with…

Read
Reporting

Occupancy Rate

Occupancy Rate is the percentage of booked nights out of the total available nights for a property over a specific period.

Read
Marketing

Online Travel Agency (OTA)

An Online Travel Agency (OTA) is a website or app that sells travel-related products like flights, hotels, and vacation rentals to consumers.

Read
Technology

Property Management System (PMS)

A Property Management System (PMS) is a software application that enables vacation rental owners and managers to centralize and automate their core business…

Read
A–Z Index
Browse every entry
684 entries published.
Browse everything →
Stay in the loop

Join the Lodgify newsletter.

Once a month, get free templates, expert tips for hosts, industry news, webinar invitations, and more — straight to your inbox.

One email a month. Unsubscribe anytime.