1031 Exchange
A US tax provision (IRC §1031) letting you defer capital gains tax when you sell an investment property and reinvest in another "like-kind" property. Strict timelines: identify replacement within 45 days, close within 180.
Tax
13-week Cash Forecast
Weekly receipts, disbursements and ending cash — the crisis instrument.
Hospitality
28/36 Rule
Lender guideline: housing payment shouldn't exceed 28% of gross monthly income (front-end ratio); total debt payments shouldn't exceed 36% (back-end ratio). Some lenders stretch to 35/43.
Mortgage
Adjusted Basis
What you paid for a property + capital improvements − accumulated depreciation. The number subtracted from sale price to compute gain.
Tax
ADR
Average daily rate on occupied rooms.
Hospitality
ADR Index (ARI)
Subject ADR against the comp set’s — the rate half of the index pair.
Hospitality
Allocation (Purchase Price)
The negotiated split of one price among realty, FF&E and business value — four bills hang from it.
Hospitality
Allocator Stance
Funding and governing a hotel allocation without operating it directly — one of three postures a family can take, alongside capital and operations.
Governance
Amortization
The way a mortgage payment is split between principal and interest. Early in the loan, most goes to interest; over time, more goes to principal.
Mortgage
Appreciation
Increase in property value over time. Driven by inflation, supply constraints, and local demand.
Investing
ARM (Adjustable-Rate Mortgage)
Mortgage with a fixed initial rate (e.g., 5 or 7 years) that then adjusts annually based on a benchmark rate. Lower starting rate, higher long-term risk.
Mortgage
Attrition
A group’s shortfall against its contracted block, and the clause that prices it.
Hospitality
Attrition Clause
Group-contract charge for block rooms not used.
Hospitality
Bad-Boy Carve-Outs
The acts — fraud, waste, unauthorized transfer, voluntary bankruptcy — that convert nonrecourse debt to personal liability.
Hospitality
Balloon
Principal due at maturity — the checkpoint tested a decade early.
Hospitality
Band
The written ceiling on a class or position, measured on committed equity.
Governance
Base Fee
The manager’s percentage of total revenue.
Hospitality
Basis
Your cost in a property for tax purposes — generally what you paid plus capital improvements. Used to compute capital gain on sale.
Tax
Bonus Depreciation
First-year expensing of qualifying short-life property; needs no study.
Hospitality
Booking Window
How far ahead a segment books — the calendar dimension pricing works inside.
Hospitality
Brand Standards
The manual of requirements a flag enforces through QA and the PIP cycle.
Hospitality
Breakeven Occupancy
Occupancy at current ADR where cash after debt service is zero.
Hospitality
BRRRR
Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. A strategy of buying distressed property, fixing it, renting it, then refinancing to pull equity out for the next deal.
Strategy
Burn Ceiling
The rule capping any deal’s stress-year cash need against family liquidity.
Governance
Cap Rate (Capitalization Rate)
Net Operating Income ÷ Property Price. The yield a property would produce if you paid all cash. Lower cap rate = "more expensive" property; higher = "cheaper."
Investing
Capex
Capital expenditure — the component calendar’s spending, distinct from repairs.
Hospitality
Capital Gains
Profit on sale of an asset above your basis. Long-term (held >1 yr) is taxed at preferential rates (0%/15%/20% federal); short-term is ordinary income.
Tax
Carve-outs
The bad-boy acts that convert nonrecourse debt to recourse; policy forbids widening them.
Governance
Case Goods
Furniture and millwork — the twelve-year line on the component calendar.
Hospitality
Cash Sweep
Lender control of revenues below a covenant trigger.
Hospitality
Cash-on-Cash Return
Annual cash flow ÷ cash invested. The return on the cash you actually put in (down payment + closing + reserves), not the property value.
Investing
Chain Scale
Benchmarking tiers grouping brands by rate positioning.
Hospitality
Chargeback
A card charge reversed through the processor — tracked where processing costs live.
Hospitality
City Ledger
Direct-bill receivables after checkout — aged monthly.
Hospitality
Closing Costs
Fees paid at the close of a real estate transaction — title insurance, escrow, attorney, transfer taxes, lender fees. Typically 2–5% of the sale price for buyers, 1–3% for sellers (excluding commission).
Transaction
Closing Statement
The settlement sheet of prorations and credits beside the price.
Hospitality
CMA (Comparative Market Analysis)
A pricing study that estimates a home's value by comparing recent sales of similar nearby properties. Real estate agents prepare CMAs to suggest list prices.
Transaction
Co-investment
Family capital beside a partner’s in one deal, at negotiated governance rights.
Governance
Comfort Letter
Lender–brand agreement preserving the flag through foreclosure.
Hospitality
Committee Memo
The fixed-format case for a deal — nine rows of engine-derived evidence, filled and voted the same way every time.
Governance
Comp Set
The competitors performance is indexed against — chosen, and gameable.
Hospitality
Compression Night
A night the market sells out — where displacement and overbooking earn.
Hospitality
Conforming Loan
A mortgage that meets Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac size and underwriting limits — the most common type. Above the limit is a "jumbo" loan.
Mortgage
Consent Calendar
Routine within-policy items approved en bloc unless any member pulls one; nothing conflicted rides it.
Governance
Contract Labor
Agency staffing priced as the option it is — premium per hour for shedding the fixed schedule.
Hospitality
Cost Segregation
A study that reclassifies property components into shorter depreciation categories (5-, 7-, 15-year instead of 27.5- or 39-year). Accelerates tax deductions.
Tax
Covenant
The loan’s standing tests — DSCR, escrows, reporting.
Hospitality
CPOR
Rooms cost per occupied room, built from minutes and wages.
Hospitality
Cross-Default
One loan’s breach triggering another’s — the portfolio’s hidden coupling.
Hospitality
Cure Rights
The manager’s option to fix or pay before termination.
Hospitality
Cut-Off Date
When a group’s unsold rooms return to general inventory.
Hospitality
DCF
Valuation from projected flows and an exit — the coherence check.
Hospitality
De-Flagging
Removing the brand at exit or repositioning — priced by the §14.3 algebra.
Hospitality
Debt Service
The year’s principal and interest — the constant the §9.4 spine is measured against.
Hospitality
Debt Yield
Earnings after reserve over loan balance — the sizing floor.
Hospitality
Debt-to-Income Ratio (DTI)
Total monthly debt payments divided by gross monthly income. Lenders cap conforming loans around 43–50% DTI.
Mortgage
Delegation of Authority
The written map of who decides what, at which thresholds.
Governance
Demand Generator
The named institutions that fill the market’s rooms — listed with expiry dates.
Hospitality
Depreciation
A tax deduction allowing rental property owners to write off the building (not land) cost over 27.5 years (residential) or 39 years (commercial), even though the building isn't actually losing value.
Tax
Depreciation Recapture
When you sell a depreciated property, the depreciation taken comes back as taxable income. The rate depends on what was depreciated: real property (§1250) is capped at 25% federal; personal property like FF&E (§1245) recaptures as ordinary income at your marginal rate, which is usually higher — the split that matters most on FF&E-heavy assets like hotels.
Tax
Displacement
Profit lost from guests a group block turns away.
Hospitality
Dissent File
A no-voter’s named concern with its observable and date, attached to the memo permanently.
Governance
Drag (Computed)
Advertised deal return minus the family’s net on dated cash flows — the alignment test no adjective survives.
Governance
DSCR
Earnings after reserve over annual debt service.
Hospitality
DSCR Loan
Debt Service Coverage Ratio loan. Underwritten on the property's rental income vs. mortgage payment, not on borrower income. Used by serious investors.
Mortgage
Earnest Money
A deposit (typically 1–3% of price) the buyer puts up to show good faith. Held in escrow; applied to closing or forfeited if buyer backs out without cause.
Transaction
EBITDA
GOP less fees and fixed charges, before the reserve.
Hospitality
Equity
Property value minus what you owe on it. A $500K home with a $300K mortgage = $200K equity.
General
Escrow
A neutral third party that holds money or documents during a transaction. Also a monthly account where the lender holds property tax and insurance funds for you.
Transaction
Estoppel
A counterparty’s signed statement of a contract’s status — collected in diligence.
Hospitality
EWW
The USALI utilities schedule — energy, water and waste, shown with consumption metrics alongside cost.
Hospitality
Exchange (§1031)
Deferral by trading into replacement realty — the tax kept working.
Hospitality
Extended Period of Indemnity
BI coverage past reopening, funding the ramp back to stabilized occupancy.
Hospitality
Fair Workweek
Predictive-scheduling law: posted schedules, predictability pay, rest between shifts.
Hospitality
Fences
Restrictions that discount a condition, never the public price.
Hospitality
FF&E / OS&E
Furniture, fixtures and equipment; operating supplies.
Hospitality
FHA Loan
Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage. Allows 3.5% down with FICO 580+. Requires mortgage insurance for the life of the loan in most cases.
Mortgage
FICO Score
Your credit score, 300–850. Above 740 typically gets you the best mortgage rates; below 620 limits you to FHA/VA loans at higher rates.
Credit
Flag
The brand licensed onto the building.
Hospitality
Flow-Through / Flex
Share of a revenue change reaching GOP, up / down.
Hospitality
Folio
The guest’s account of charges and taxes — where the trust-fund layers are born.
Hospitality
Force Majeure
The contract clause excusing performance on defined catastrophes — read in group contracts and the HMA before the storm.
Hospitality
Franchise Stack
Royalty plus program, distribution and loyalty, as one percentage of rooms revenue.
Hospitality
FSBO (For Sale By Owner)
Selling without a listing agent. Saves the ~3% listing commission; typically nets 5–10% less on price for most sellers due to weaker negotiating leverage and limited buyer reach.
Transaction
GDS
The agency networks behind corporate and travel-agent bookings.
Hospitality
General Manager
The hire that moves every line — chosen for numeracy, labor craft and retention evidence.
Hospitality
Ghost Assets
Disposed equipment still on the fixed-asset schedule, quietly taxed.
Hospitality
GMP Contract
Construction pricing with a ceiling — the development discipline’s first protection.
Hospitality
Going Concern
Realty, FF&E and operating business sold as one.
Hospitality
GOP / GOPPAR
Departmental profit less undistributed expenses; per available room.
Hospitality
Group Block
Rooms held under one contract at one rate — tested by displacement.
Hospitality
Guest Ledger
Open in-house folios — purchased or prorated at closing.
Hospitality
HELOC
Home Equity Line of Credit. Variable-rate revolving credit secured by your home equity. Useful for short-term flexible funding.
Mortgage
HMA
Hotel management agreement — base plus incentive over a priority.
Hospitality
House Bank
The operating cash on property — counted and transferred at closing.
Hospitality
House Hack
Buying a 2–4 unit property with owner-occupied financing (low down payment), living in one unit, renting the others.
Strategy
Impact Study
The brand’s analysis of a new same-brand entrant near yours — demand it in writing.
Hospitality
In-Service Date
When an asset’s tax life begins — recorded per item on the fixed-asset schedule.
Hospitality
Incentive Fee
The manager’s share of profit above the owner’s priority.
Hospitality
Independent Member
The non-family committee seat that chairs conflicted matters.
Governance
Interest-Only
Debt without amortization — the quiet hero deleted, priced as risk transfer.
Hospitality
Intervention Ladder
Questions → thresholds → cure → removal, each rung on paper.
Governance
IPS
The committee’s memory written down calm — the written case, bands and standards a hotel allocation is held to.
Governance
Jumbo Loan
A mortgage above the conforming loan limit (~$806K in most US counties as of 2026, higher in expensive markets). Requires stronger credit and larger down payment.
Mortgage
Key
The industry’s unit of count — as in per-key price.
Hospitality
Key Money
Operator or brand capital that amortizes over the term.
Hospitality
Kill File
Declined deals with the exhibit that stopped each — reread when familiar deals return wearing new prices.
Governance
Legacy Exception
A beloved property held outside the bands, named as such in writing.
Governance
Length of Stay
Nights per booking — a control lever on compressed dates and a fence dimension.
Hospitality
Linkage Share
The revenue share effectively priced in dollars — a managed policy number, not a market fact.
Governance
Liquidated Damages
The franchise exit’s pre-agreed price — a multiple of recent fees.
Hospitality
Lodging Tax
The guest-folio tax the owner collects in trust.
Hospitality
Loss Carryforward
A paper loss stored against future income — how the passive wall pays late instead of never.
Hospitality
LTV (Loan-to-Value)
Loan amount divided by property value. 80% LTV means you borrowed 80% and put 20% down. Higher LTV = more leverage = more risk.
Mortgage
Mezzanine
Debt behind the mortgage, priced between debt and equity.
Hospitality
Mortgage Insurance (PMI / MIP)
Insurance protecting the lender if you default. Required when LTV exceeds 80%. Typically 0.5%–1.5% of the loan annually.
Mortgage
Mortgagee Clause
The lender’s rights inside your insurance policy — visible at claim time.
Hospitality
MPI (Occupancy Index)
Subject occupancy against the comp set’s — the volume half of the index pair.
Hospitality
MPOR
Housekeeping minutes per room cleaned — CPOR’s largest input.
Hospitality
Multifamily
Residential property with multiple units. 2–4 unit properties get residential financing; 5+ units are commercial.
Property type
Named-Storm Deductible
A percentage of insured values, due as a check, per storm.
Hospitality
Net ADR
The rate that survives the channel: ADR less commissions and acquisition costs, per door.
Hospitality
NIIT (Net Investment Income Tax)
Additional 3.8% federal tax on investment income (including capital gains and rental income) for high earners — over $200K single, $250K joint.
Tax
No-Show
A confirmed guest who never arrives — the overbook engine’s fuel.
Hospitality
NOI (Net Operating Income)
Gross rental income minus operating expenses (taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, management) but before mortgage. The cash flow available to pay debt service and provide return.
Investing
Normalization
Restating a seller’s numbers to honest USALI economics.
Hospitality
Observer Seat
Next-generation membership with voice and no vote — two years of memos against outcomes as tuition.
Governance
Occupancy
Occupied over available room-nights — the ladder’s first rung, never read alone.
Hospitality
Offering Memorandum
The seller’s curated case — ranked last in the document hierarchy, always.
Hospitality
Opco / Propco
The employer entity leasing from the realty entity.
Hospitality
Operating Partner
The specialist who runs hotels the family funds and governs.
Governance
Opportunity Zone (QOZ)
A federally designated low-income census tract where investing capital gains in a Qualified Opportunity Fund earns major tax benefits. Made permanent by the OBBB Act of July 2025; new designations take effect Jan 1, 2027.
Tax
Origination Fee
Lender fee for processing the loan — typically 0.5–1% of loan amount. Folded into closing costs.
Mortgage
OTA
Third-party booking channels, priced at net ADR.
Hospitality
Overbooking
Selling past capacity against expected no-shows — an expected-profit balance.
Hospitality
Owner’s Priority
The hurdle ownership clears before incentive fees share success.
Hospitality
Pace
Bookings on the books for future dates versus prior years.
Hospitality
Passive Activity
The §469 wall between property losses and other income — with a hotel exception.
Hospitality
Performance Test
The HMA’s two-pronged, curable termination standard.
Hospitality
Personal Guarantee
The owner’s balance sheet behind the debt — layer five of the waterfall.
Hospitality
Pickup
Bookings added for a future period since the last reading.
Hospitality
PIP
The renovation a brand requires to grant or keep the flag.
Hospitality
Pipeline
Rooms under construction in the market — public, and read before trusting any index.
Hospitality
PITI
Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance — the four components of your monthly housing payment. Add HOA and PMI if applicable.
Mortgage
PMS
The property management system — source of truth for occupancy, rate and folios.
Hospitality
Points
Upfront fee paid to lower your interest rate. One point = 1% of loan amount, typically buys 0.25% off the rate. Worth it if you'll keep the loan long enough to recoup.
Mortgage
Pre-approval
A lender's conditional commitment to lend you up to a certain amount, based on verified income, credit, and assets. Stronger than "pre-qualification."
Mortgage
Predictability Pay
The premium fair-workweek laws attach to late schedule changes.
Hospitality
Preferred Return
The LP’s accrual before the sponsor’s promote — read the compounding convention.
Hospitality
Preventive Maintenance
The engineer’s rotation that carries components to full design life.
Hospitality
Price-to-Rent Ratio
Home price ÷ annual rent. Below 15 favors buying; above 20 favors renting; 15–20 is mixed. A market-level indicator.
Investing
Principal Residence Exclusion
IRC §121: up to $250K (single) / $500K (married) of gain on sale of primary residence is tax-free, if you've owned and lived there 2 of the past 5 years.
Tax
Promote
The sponsor’s share of profit above preference and capital.
Hospitality
Property Manager
A firm or individual that handles tenant screening, rent collection, maintenance, and evictions for an owner. Standard fee: 8–12% of collected rent + leasing fee for new tenants.
Operations
Proration
The closing statement’s split of taxes, deposits and the closing night.
Hospitality
QBI (§199A)
The flow-through deduction — last in line after the shield.
Hospitality
QOF (Qualified Opportunity Fund)
An investment vehicle that invests at least 90% of assets in property within designated Opportunity Zones. Hold 10+ years to get tax-free appreciation on the QOF itself.
Tax
Quarterly Pack
The aggregated reporting stack the committee reads four times a year.
Governance
Ramp-Up
The sub-stabilized opening years, funded as capital.
Hospitality
Rate Architecture
The ladder of public, fenced and negotiated rates set in the far window.
Hospitality
Rate Integrity
Defending the public price so discounts die with their condition.
Hospitality
Rate Parity
Contractual equality of public rates across channels — fences are the lawful flex.
Hospitality
Recourse / Carve-Outs
What the guarantee covers, and the bad-boy acts that void nonrecourse.
Hospitality
Recusal
Standing aside from a vote one has an interest in, recorded in minutes.
Governance
Refinance
Replacing your current mortgage with a new one — typically to lower the rate, change the term, or pull cash out. Worth doing when the new rate is at least 0.5–1 point lower and you'll keep the loan 18+ months.
Mortgage
Reforecast
The operator’s rolling ninety-day P&L commitment — the budget measures the year, this manages it.
Hospitality
REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust)
A publicly traded company that owns real estate. By law must distribute 90% of taxable income as dividends. Buy shares like stocks; instant liquid real estate exposure.
Investing
Relief Factor
The multiplier converting post-hours to people — vacations and weekends made visible.
Hospitality
Removal Rights
The negotiated power to replace a partner or manager for cause or performance.
Governance
Replacement Reserve
The funded percentage that buys the component calendar.
Hospitality
Revenue Management
The pricing discipline: pace, displacement, channels, fences, overbooking.
Hospitality
Reverse Brief
The family’s one-page answer to a counterparty’s diligence — capital character, governance interface, references offered.
Governance
RevPAR
Occupancy times ADR — the industry’s pulse.
Hospitality
RevPAR Index (RGI/MPI/ARI)
Property performance over comp-set performance, times 100.
Hospitality
RRM
Price over rooms revenue — the screening multiple.
Hospitality
Rule of One
The family occupies each chair — capital, governance, operations — deliberately or not at all.
Governance
Segmentation
Occupancy’s composition by demand family — the mix behind the number.
Hospitality
Short-Term Rental (STR)
Vacation rental — Airbnb, VRBO. 1.5–3× the gross income of long-term rental but higher operating costs, vacancy, and regulatory risk.
Strategy
SNDA
Subordination and non-disturbance for the HMA at foreclosure.
Hospitality
Soft Brand
Distribution-and-loyalty affiliation under your own name — a smaller stack needing a smaller lift.
Hospitality
Soft Goods
Carpet, drapery, bedding — the six-year line that shows first.
Hospitality
Sponsor
The syndication’s organizer, paid in fees and promote.
Hospitality
STAR Report
The subscription benchmark against the comp set.
Hospitality
Step-Up in Basis
When you die holding appreciated property, your heirs' basis becomes the fair market value at your death — the embedded capital gains disappear. Foundation of multigenerational real estate strategies.
Tax
STR Loophole
If you materially participate in your short-term rental (avg. stay ≤7 days, you do meaningful work), losses can offset W-2/active income — bypassing passive activity rules. Subject to specific tests.
Tax
Stress Test
Re-running the affordability math at a higher rate (e.g., +1–2% above current) to see if you could still cover the payment if rates rose.
Mortgage
Stress Test (Family Balance-Sheet Level)
The recorded worst year read against family liquidity, not just the property.
Governance
Syndication
A group investment in real estate where a "sponsor" finds, finances, and manages a property; "limited partners" provide capital. Typically restricted to accredited investors.
Strategy
Term Sheet
The lender’s outline of rate, covenants and guarantees — negotiated hardest at its quietest clause.
Hospitality
Tip Credit
The statutory offset of tips against minimum wage, with mandatory conditions.
Hospitality
Title Insurance
Insurance protecting against defects in the property's title (liens, prior claims, fraud). One-time premium at closing. Two policies: lender's and owner's.
Transaction
TIV
Insured values — property plus time element — that percentage deductibles ride.
Hospitality
Trailing Twelve
The last twelve months of operations — a story until normalized.
Hospitality
Transfer Tax
The jurisdiction’s levy on conveyance — a seller-side closing line.
Hospitality
Trapped Cash
Profits a route-home friction cannot yet move — tracked as its own asset class in the pack.
Governance
TRevPAR
Total revenue per available room-night.
Hospitality
TRS
The taxable subsidiary through which a REIT’s hotels are operated.
Hospitality
Turnkey Rental
An already-renovated, already-tenanted rental property sold ready to operate. Typically out-of-state; managed by a partner property management company.
Strategy
Turnover
Departures over headcount — the labor line’s hidden surcharge, priced per ten points.
Hospitality
USALI
The industry’s uniform accounting system, 12th Revised Edition.
Hospitality
VA Loan
Mortgage backed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. 0% down for eligible veterans, no PMI, competitive rates.
Mortgage
Vacancy Allowance
A line in your rental underwriting that assumes the property will be empty some of the time. Standard: 5–10% of gross rent for long-term; 30–50% for short-term.
Investing
Walk
Relocating a confirmed guest on an oversold night — costed, and scripted in advance.
Hospitality
Walk-Away Price
The number past which a buyer leaves — written before negotiation, honored during it.
Hospitality
War Chest
Twelve-plus months of stress burn held outside the deal; funded before distributions.
Hospitality
WARN Act
Federal notice rules for mass employment loss — planned into every closing.
Hospitality
Waterfall
The ordered rules splitting deal cash among preference, capital and promote.
Hospitality
Working Capital
Opening bank, inventories and ledgers — bought, counted and prorated at closing.
Hospitality
XIRR
Return computed from dated cash flows rather than calendar-year periods — the more accurate IRR for real estate.
Hospitality
Yield Maintenance
Prepayment pricing that makes the lender whole on the remaining coupon — the exit door’s toll on fixed debt.
Hospitality
Yield on Cost
Stabilized earnings over total development cost.
Hospitality
Zestimate
Zillow's automated home value estimate. Useful as a starting point but documented to be off by 5–20% in many markets — never the only data point you should rely on for pricing.
Tools