Key Concepts

Every module in Veridien uses a shared vocabulary. When someone says "post a charge to the folio" or "the room is inspected," these terms have specific, precise meanings inside the system. Misunderstanding them leads to operational errors — a charge posted to the wrong folio, a dirty room assigned to a guest, a rate plan applied incorrectly.

This page defines the core concepts you will encounter across every module. Treat it as a reference you can return to whenever a term is unclear.

Properties

A Property is the top-level organizational unit in Veridien. It represents a single hotel, resort, hostel, or serviced apartment building. Everything else — rooms, reservations, staff, settings, outlets — exists within the context of a property.

If your organization manages multiple sites, each one is a separate property in Veridien. You switch between them using the property selector in the sidebar. Settings, room types, rate plans, and staff accounts are configured per property, so a rate plan at one property does not automatically exist at another.

Why this matters: when you log in, you are always working within one property at a time. Every action you take applies to that property only.

Rooms & Room Types

A Room is a physical, sellable unit — room 101, room 202, the Penthouse Suite. Each room belongs to a Room Type, which defines shared characteristics: the number of beds, maximum occupancy, base amenities, and default rate.

Room types are what guests book. Rooms are what they stay in. A guest reserves a "Deluxe King" (room type), and at check-in the front desk assigns them to room 405 (room).

Room Status

Every room has a status that reflects its current condition. This status drives what the front desk can do with the room and what housekeeping needs to act on.

The typical flow is: Occupied (guest checks out) Dirty (housekeeper cleans) Clean (supervisor inspects) Inspected (front desk assigns to next guest) Occupied.

Rooms marked Out of Order skip this cycle entirely until they are returned to service.

Reservations

A Reservation is a booking for a specific room type, date range, rate plan, and guest. It is the central object that connects the guest to the property.

Reservation Lifecycle

Every reservation moves through a defined set of statuses:

Confirmed — The reservation has been created and is holding inventory. The guest has not yet arrived. This is the starting state for all new bookings, whether they come from direct entry, a website, or an OTA through the Channel Manager.

Checked In — The guest has arrived and been checked into a specific room. A folio is active and charges are accumulating. The room status changes to Occupied.

Checked Out — The guest has departed, the folio has been settled, and the room has been released back to housekeeping. This is the normal end state for a completed stay.

Cancelled — The reservation was cancelled before the guest arrived. Depending on the cancellation policy, a fee may have been charged. The room inventory is released back to availability.

No Show — The guest did not arrive and did not cancel. The property may charge a no-show fee. Like cancellation, the inventory is released, but the cause is recorded differently for analytics.

Understanding this lifecycle is important because each status transition triggers actions in other modules. Check-in creates a folio. Check-out triggers housekeeping. Cancellation releases channel manager inventory. The reservation status is the system's way of coordinating departments.

Folios

A Folio is a running financial account attached to a reservation or a guest. Think of it as an itemized bill that accumulates charges and payments over the course of a stay.

When a guest checks in, the system creates a folio. Room charges (posted during night audit), restaurant charges, minibar postings, and any other fees appear as debit line items. Payments — whether by credit card, cash, or city ledger — appear as credit line items. At checkout, the folio balance should be zero.

A single reservation can have multiple folios. This is common when charges need to be split — for example, room and tax on one folio billed to the company, and incidentals on a second folio billed to the guest's personal card. Veridien supports this through folio splitting and transfer.

Rate Plans

A Rate Plan defines the pricing rules for a room type on a given date or date range. It is not just a price — it includes conditions like meal inclusion, cancellation policy, minimum stay requirements, and which channels the rate is available on.

Common rate plan types:

BAR (Best Available Rate) — The standard, publicly available rate. It fluctuates based on demand and is typically the reference point for other rate plans. OTAs usually sell this rate.

Corporate — A negotiated rate for business travellers from a specific company. Usually lower than BAR with flexible cancellation. Requires a corporate code or agreement on file.

Package — A rate that bundles the room with extras: breakfast, spa credit, airport transfer, or dining vouchers. The total price covers everything, but internally the revenue is split across departments.

Promotional — A temporary rate for marketing campaigns: early bird discounts, last-minute deals, seasonal offers. Usually has restrictions like advance purchase requirements or non-refundable conditions.

Rate plans connect to the Channel Manager (which rates to send to which OTA), to Reservations (which rate a booking uses), and to Billing (what price to charge). Getting rate plans right is foundational to revenue management.

Outlets

An Outlet is any revenue-generating point of sale within the property besides room sales. Restaurants, bars, spas, gift shops, and business centres are all outlets.

In Veridien, each outlet can have its own menu, pricing, and workflow. The Restaurant module, for example, manages table plans and kitchen display systems for food and beverage outlets. Charges from outlets can be posted to a guest's room folio (if they have an active stay) or settled independently (for walk-in diners or external guests).

Outlets matter because they represent non-room revenue, which for many properties is a significant share of total income. Analytics tracks outlet revenue separately, helping management understand which outlets are profitable and which need attention.

Booking Sources

A Booking Source records where a reservation originated: the property's own website, a phone call, a walk-in, Booking.com, Expedia, a travel agent, or a corporate booking tool. This field is set when the reservation is created and does not change.

Booking sources drive analytics (which channels bring the most revenue?) and commissions (OTA bookings carry commission costs that direct bookings do not). They also affect operational workflows — a booking from an OTA has different modification rules than a direct booking.

Permissions & Roles

Permissions are granular access controls: "can check in a guest," "can void a charge," "can run the night audit." Each permission governs a single action or a single piece of visibility.

Roles are bundles of permissions assigned a name: Front Desk Agent, Housekeeping Supervisor, Revenue Manager, General Manager. When an administrator assigns a role to a user, that user inherits all the permissions in the bundle.

The role system serves two purposes. First, security: a housekeeping attendant should not be able to void financial charges. Second, usability: by hiding modules and actions that a user does not need, the interface stays clean and focused.

Roles are configured per property in Administration. A user can have different roles at different properties if they work across multiple sites.

How These Concepts Connect

Here is a complete guest journey showing how these concepts interact:

1. A guest searches for a hotel on an OTA. The Channel Manager has published availability and a BAR rate plan for the guest's dates.
2. The guest books a Deluxe King (room type) for three nights. The booking source is recorded as the OTA. A Reservation is created with status Confirmed.
3. On arrival day, the Front Desk agent sees the reservation on the arrivals board. They assign room 312 and perform check-in. The reservation moves to Checked In, the room status becomes Occupied, and a Folio is created.
4. During the stay, the guest dines at the hotel restaurant (outlet). The server posts the charge to the guest's folio.
5. Night audit runs each evening, posting the room charge from the rate plan to the folio and advancing the business date.
6. On departure, the front desk settles the folio (balance reaches zero), checks the guest out (reservation becomes Checked Out), and the room status flips to Dirty.
7. A Housekeeping attendant cleans the room (status: Clean), a supervisor inspects it (status: Inspected), and the room is ready for the next guest.
8. Analytics captures the entire stay: revenue by room type, revenue by outlet, booking source performance, and occupancy contribution.

Every concept on this page played a part. That interconnection is why understanding the vocabulary matters before you start working in any individual module.

Related Pages

• System Overview — how the modules connect at a technical level.
• First Login — getting into the system and setting up your workspace.
• Front Desk — operational workflows for check-in, check-out, and room management.
• Billing & Finance — working with folios, payments, and night audit.