Real English for staying at a HOTEL

Hi.

Welcome to engVid. I'm Adam.

In today's video I'm going to walk you through your stay at a hotel in an English-speaking country.

You need to know some vocabulary, you need to know some of the staff you're going to

be dealing with, some of the services and amenities, and all of that stuff.

So it's a lot of vocabulary, but a lot of things that you probably need to know before

you get to the hotel.

So, the first thing we're going to look at is the staff.

Who works at a hotel?

So, first of all, in some of the more fancy hotels, the more up...

High-scale hotels, you're going to have a "doorman".

He or she, mostly he, will open and close the door for you, that's why: doorman.

Very...

Now, I know you're not supposed to say "man", you're supposed to say "doorperson", but in

hotels I don't think anybody really cares; we still say "doorman" because mostly it's

a man working there.

Now, if you drove there, there might be a "valet".

A "valet" is a person who will take your car and park it for you.

You give him or her the keys, they drive away, park your car.

When you're ready to leave, they bring your car to the front of the hotel, you get in,

drive off.

There's also the "housekeeping" or the "maid".

You can call it either one.

"Housekeeping" is the same thing as "maid".

These days "housekeeping" is a little bit more common than "maid", but they clean your

room, bring you fresh towels, etc.

The "porter".

The porter will probably be standing outside in front of the hotel.

When you pull up in your taxi or your car, he will come, take your bags inside to the

front desk.

And this person is also like a little bit of a man Friday we call it.

He will run around and get things done for you if you need.

If you need tickets, he'll go pick them up.

If you need some chores run, he'll take your coat to the laundry, all these things.

So basically he's a person who runs around doing tasks for the guests.

Okay?

A "bellhop" will take your luggage from the reception to your room.

So you don't have to carry your own bags; that's what the bellhop does.

Takes your bags, when you're ready to leave he will come to your room, take your bags

downstairs for you.

The "concierge".

So, the concierge is the person who works in a hotel, and this is the person you go

to if you need to arrange outings outside the hotel.

If you want a restaurant reservation, if you want tickets to the theatre, sports games,

anything you want to do outside the hotel, this person will probably help you organize

these things, like tours, he or she or the area will have brochures and information about

all the sites in the area, all the tourist attractions, etc.

So, "concierge".

The "g" sounds like the "s" in "measure".

Okay? It's a bit of a French sound.

Basically it's customer service.

And again, in high-scale hotels, they do a bit more services for you, but most hotels

have a concierge.

Now, when you walk into the hotel you will go to the "front desk" or you will go to the

"reception" or you will go to the "check-in desk", all the same thing.

All of them are located in the lobby of the hotel.

So the entrance, the main area of the front of the hotel, you just go to the front desk, you check in.

You go to the check-in desk, you go to the reception, all the same thing.

Now, if you're in your room and you don't want the maid to come and clean up, don't

forget to put that "Do Not Disturb" tag on your door.

Okay? We call this a tag.

It's a piece of paper, you put it outside your door, housekeeping will not disturb you.

They will not knock on your door.

Now, basically hotel has "rooms" and "suites".

What is the difference?

Name only.

Most hotels like to call their rooms suites, but if you want to get a little bit more technical,

a suite should be bigger.

Many suites have a kitchenette.

A kitchenette is like a half kitchen.

It's not a full-size kitchen, it's not fully equipped.

Probably no big stove or dishwasher, things like that, but enough that you can make small

meals, snacks, etc.

You have very expensive suites for VIPs, you have like a president's...

Presidential suite, very huge, very expensive, depends on the hotel you go to.

Otherwise, room/suite, mostly the same thing.

You can get "adjoining rooms", so if you're with your family but you want to be separate,

you have teenage kids, you get a room for them and a room for yourself - you and your

husband, you and your wife, but you have a door between the two rooms that joins them.

So you can go into their room, they can come into your room without going in the hallway.

"Adjoining" means next to each other and joining, you can go through them.

Now, all of these things, most of these things are generally available at hotels.

These places are not hotels and they don't necessarily have all of these things.

So, a "hostel".

A "hostel" is basically a bed, a place to sleep at night.

It's where backpackers go.

It's very cheap, very no frills we call it.

So if you think about, like, a carpet or a lamp, you know, the little strings that hang

on the outside, these are frills.

These are extras that you don't need.

A hostel, you get a bed, you get a bathroom - that's it; nothing else, but very cheap.

Even housekeeping you don't get.

A motel is basically a small hotel.

There's still going to be a front desk where you check in, there's still going to be housekeeping,

but you won't have any of these services.

The concierge will be a rack on the wall with brochures that you can just go pick up, that's

your concierge.

You make your own plans.

Mostly you see these along highways where people are driving, they need to take a rest,

they stop for the night, they sleep, they leave in the morning, they move on.

"B&B" is basically "bed and breakfast".

Usually this is a person's home or a couple's home that they let out to people to stay in.

So I have a house, a big house, I have four or five bedrooms, and I rent those bedrooms

out to people who want to spend the night.

Usually you'll find them in small towns, it's a little bit more quaint.

"Quaint" means, like, it's a little bit special, and friendly, and nice, and you get a little

bit of a different and more personal experience.

You feel like you're at home, except that you're in somebody else's home, and they're

taking care of you.

And they will offer you breakfast.

You will pay for dinner, but they do offer dinner as well.

The bed and the breakfast is what you pay for, and it's usually like a little, nice, hot meal.

On the other hand, most places, not including hostel; motel, B&B, etc., everybody offers

a complimentary breakfast.

"Complimentary" basically means free.

Okay? You don't pay for it, it's part of your cost of the room.

But a lot of places will give you a "continental breakfast".

Now, it sounds fancy, but it's really not.

It's some baked goods, some jam, some butter, tea, coffee, a few cookies maybe here and there.

It's not a hot meal.

It's very basic.

You go, you help yourself.

They have a counter with all this stuff on it, you take what you want, you eat, you leave.

There's no waiter, no waitress, no hot meal usually in a continental breakfast.

Okay?

So now you're ready to go, what do you say, what do you do?

Let's look at that.

Okay, so first you walk into the hotel, what do you say to the person at the front desk?

Okay?

You go up...

Now, if you have a reservation from before, maybe you called the hotel and you booked

a room, maybe you did it online, you made a reservation, everything is set, you walk

in and you say: "Hi, I'd like to check in, please."

When you leave, say the same thing, but "out" instead of "in".

"Hi, I'd like to check out", and talk about that in a minute.

If you're just walking in and you don't have a reservation, just say: "I'd like a room."

So if you have a reservation, they will ask: "Do you have a reservation?" on the first one.

"Yes, it's under" your name.

"Yes, it's under Smith, Michael."

Okay?

-"No, I don't have a reservation, that's why I'd like a room."

-"Okay. How long will you be staying?"

Basically: How many nights?

Or they may just say: "How many nights?"

How many nights will you be staying at the hotel?

Two, three, four, whatever.

You can give them the dates or you can give them the number of nights, both work.

Now, if everything works out okay, they'll just do some typing-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-"Can

I have your credit card?

Can I have your passport?"

You give it to them, they continue.

Okay?

Smoking or non-smoking, although a lot of hotels these days don't have smoking rooms,

but that's another story.

And then they'll say: "Okay, here you go.

Here are your keys.

There's the elevator", on your way.

The bellhop will take your bags.

But if they don't have rooms they could say three things.

"We have no vacancies."

"Vacancy" means an empty or available space.

If they have no vacancies, means they have no rooms, go to the next hotel.

Or: "I'm afraid we are at maximum capacity."

It basically means all of the rooms are being used, we have nothing to offer you.

Go to the next hotel.

"We are all booked" or "We are full."

Basically, we have no rooms.

Go to the next hotel.

Ideally, book your hotel room well in advance so that way you don't have any problems when

you get to wherever you're going.

Not always possible, but try to do.

Now, when you check out then a few other things you need to take care of.

Okay? So let's look at that.

Okay, so now you've checked in, you've put your bags in your room, everything's good,

you want some things.

You want value for your money.

You paid a lot of money, you want to get some of this value back.

So, there are services available at a hotel.

Again, remember a hostel you're not getting pretty much anything.

In fact, most hostels you're going to be sharing a room, so you're going to be locking your

things under your bed so nobody steals them anyway.

It may be a dorm, it may be bunkbeds.

Hotel, a little bit more elegant, you get more things.

So, if you want the front desk to call you in the morning and wake you up, say:

"Can I get a wakeup call for Tuesday at 7am?"

Okay?

Don't forget to say please to everything.

Be polite, but I'll talk about that in a second.

"Can I get a wakeup call for 7am on Friday, please?",

"Can I get extra towels, extra linens, an extra cot?"

An extra towel, very clear.

Linens, sheet, pillowcase, things for the bed basically.

A cot, if you have too many people...

Let's say your room has two beds but you're five people, so two, two and you need an extra

cot which is basically like a small bed that they fold up, it's on wheels.

They can bring it to you, one person can sleep there on the side.

"Can I reserve the airport shuttle?" or "a seat on the airport shuttle?" if it's a bus.

If you need to get to the airport, you don't want to get a taxi, the...

If the hotel offers it...

So first ask: "Do you have an airport shuttle?"

If they do, you reserve a seat, they take you to the airport.

Very easy for you, you don't have to pay for a taxi.

Now, speaking of paying, when you come to check out, you don't have to say much.

"I'd like to check out, please."

Type, type, type, type, type: "Here's your bill, please.

Should we put it on your credit card?"

-"Yes", "No" or "Cash".

So, what are the charges that you might find on your bill that might surprise you?

Okay? Charges, fees basically.

"Pay-per-view".

Be very careful with your TV in your room.

Sometimes you'll see a sporting event and you think: "Oh yeah, I want to watch", but

it's not free.

Maybe you press the button, you accepted the pay-per-view.

So every time you view this channel you're paying for it.

Or you have "on-demand", so there are some movie channels and if you press "Okay", they

will show you the movie, but you're paying for it.

And you won't even know that you're paying for it until you go down to check out and

your bill puts all these movies on there.

Right?

There's a mini bar in the hotel.

Just because they give you a mini bar and they put alcohol in it doesn't mean it's complimentary,

doesn't mean it's free.

If you drink the alcohol you're going to pay for the alcohol, if you eat the snacks you're

going to pay for the snacks, so be careful about that as well.

If you ordered room service...

So in a lot of hotels you can pick up the phone, there's a menu on the desk where the

phone is and you can order food or drinks, or whatever you need and they will bring it

to your room, and then you will pay for it later.

Now, you can pay for it then or you can just tell them: "Please bill my room."

It means put the charge on the room and when I check out I will pay everything together.

Okay?

Now, in some hotels...

Most hotels have amenities, but in some hotels you have to pay extra for the amenities.

"Amenities" are facilities, things that you can use; a gym, a sauna, a spa.

All of these things are called amenities.

They're extras, and you may have to pay for them so find out before then:

Do I have to pay for this?

Very straightforward. Okay?

And then you check out, pay your bill, and you go to the airport or you go wherever you

go next.

Now, it's very important...

And again, this comes down to culture.

Different cultures have different customs.

If you're coming to a place like Canada or the States, or in Europe, etc., all these

places, Australia, be polite and be courteous.

Just because these people are working in hospitality...

So, "hospitality"...

The hospitality industry has nothing to do with hospitals.

It's basically the industry of taking care of people.

So, hotels, restaurants, waiters, waitresses, etc.

Don't forget to tip.

Okay?

If you're staying in the room for a few days, leave a little bit of money for the maid.

Okay?

If you're going to the restaurants, leave a tip for the waitresses and waiters.

They also tip their cooks after or the chefs, whatever.

Be polite, be courteous, follow the cultural rules of the place you're at.

Sometimes if you don't do that you might find out that later that something not nice happened

to you.

If you go to a restaurant and you're rude to the waiter or waitress or you don't tip,

but then you go back another time, and they'll remember you - they might do something not

so nice to your food, so you don't want that to happen.

Be nice, follow the cultural norms of the place.

I hope that's very helpful.

I hope you have a great time on your travels, wherever it is that you end up going.

If you need these words, you know them, go practice them on www.engvid.com.

There's a quiz there, you can find out if you understand these words.

If you have any questions, there's a forum, ask me there and I'll be happy to answer.

And, of course, subscribe to my YouTube channel and come back again soon for more great lessons.

Bye-bye.