FOC: free of charge rooms, and how to give them to groups

• An FOC room for a group: one room free for a set number of paid rooms, written into the group's contract.
• A driver's or guide's room: tour operators often ask for a room, or a bed in a staff room, for the driver and guide who travel with a group.
• A complimentary room: a room given free for a reason, such as an apology after a complaint, a travel writer's stay, or a visit from a company deciding where to send its staff.
• FOC meals and services: a free dinner for the tour leader, a welcome drink, an airport pick-up for the group.

Each one costs the hotel, even when no money changes hands: the room could have been sold, and it is cleaned and its linen washed like any other.

Travel agents, tour operators and wedding planners usually ask for FOC as one free room for every set number of paid rooms, a number agreed in each contract. Write down:

• How many paid rooms earn one FOC room, counted in rooms or in room nights.
• Which room the FOC is: usually the lowest room type, on the same nights as the group.
• What it includes: the room alone, or the room on the group's meal plan.
• That FOC is earned on rooms actually used and paid for, so a group that shrinks earns fewer.
• Whether the agent earns commission on FOC rooms. Agree it either way, so the invoice matches.
• Whether any tax applies to the free room, which is a question for your accountant before you sign.

FOC isn't something a booking site sells. On Booking.com, a hotel with three or more rooms can switch on a group policy, which tells guests booking more than a set number of rooms, from more than two to more than ten, that different policies and supplements may apply. Booking.com says the message carries no terms of its own, so you then contact the guest with yours: the prepayment, the cancellation deadline and charges, and any FOC.

1. 1Sign in to the extranet and click the “Property” menu, then “Reservation policies”.
2. 2Under “Other policies”, go to the “Group Reservations” section and click “Edit”.
3. 3Select “Yes” to offer a group policy, and set the number of rooms above which it applies.
4. 4When a group books, write to the guest with your terms, and keep their reply with the booking.

If the guest doesn't answer, Booking.com says you can keep the booking, ask its customer service to contact the guest, or ask to cancel the reservation.

So weigh an FOC like any discount: against what the group brings, and against whether the same rooms would have sold anyway on those nights. On a busy weekend, an FOC room is a room you could have sold at your full price.

• Count an FOC room as occupied with no revenue, or leave it out of rooms sold. Either way, say which and do the same every month, so your occupancy and average room rate compare.
• Counted as sold at nothing, FOC rooms pull your average room rate down; left out, they make it look higher than what the group paid on average.
• Keep a list of every complimentary room, why it was given and who agreed it.
• Register a complimentary stay at the front desk like any other, with each guest's identity documents.

• Give FOC on quiet dates, when the room would otherwise stay empty, and hold it back on your busiest nights.
• Tie it to rooms used and paid for, not rooms booked.
• Give the lowest room type, or say in the contract which room it is.
• Put the number and the conditions in the contract and the confirmation, so the front desk knows on the day.
• Compare the whole offer, not just the FOC: a lower room price or a free dinner can cost you less than a free room.
• Check the group's dates against what else is on in town before agreeing: a free room in a festival week is an expensive one.