The Ultimate Guide to HOTEL ENGLISH

Hey guys and welcome back to another lesson
with me Tom. Today I’ve got something super exciting because I’m going to teach you all
the English you need to stay in a hotel. A hotel like this one! That’s right guys, I’m staying in the super
stylish East Hong Kong hotel. It’s an amazing hotel and guys I’m super excited, let’s do
a quick room tour. Now a really important thing to know when
using your English in any hotel is that hotel English is very formal and polite. So the
staff that are working in the hotel will be using very formal and polite phrases. So for
example instead of saying ‘can I help you?’ or ‘how can I help you?’ they might say ‘how
can I be of assistance?’ It just means ‘how can I help you?’ but it’s a more formal polite
structure. So be aware that you are going to, you might well hear structures like that.
And of course, in turn, perhaps you should also use politer structures. So for example
instead of saying I want a room you want to use a more formal structure like ‘Would it
be possible to book a room?’ or ‘Could I please book a room?’ So you’ve got more formal structures
there that you are going to want to use when interacting with the staff. Your stay at the
hotel will begin with check in. Now this is when you go to the reception and you register
that you have arrived and you’ll get your keys and find out where your room is etc.
Now this can be a noun ‘check in’ so ‘check in is at twelve o’clock’ or ‘check in is at
three o’clock’. It can also be a phrasal verb ‘to check in’. “I checked into my hotel this
morning.’ The opposite of to check in, to check out. So that is to register that you
are going to leave the hotel and that you are going to make your payment. Again this
is a noun ‘check out’ and a verb ‘to check out’. Alright, let’s look at ten really useful
nouns in hotels. The person staying in the hotel is a guest. The space by the entrance,
where people maybe stand or they could sit, they could wait is called the hotel lobby.
Floor is the level that your hotel room is on. For example I’m on the twenty eighth floor.
Housekeeping are the staff members that look after the cleaning of the rooms. So they change
the linen, they change the rubbish bin, they make the beds, they keep the rooms tidy. So
housekeeping. The place where you check in and check out is called the reception desk
or the front desk as well. It’s often called the front desk. And the person who works in
the reception desk is a receptionist. That could be male or female. A view. The view
is what you can see from your hotel window. Now we often have collocations so you might
have pool view, that’s a view of the swimming pool. Or a sea view, that’s a view of the
sea. A garden view, it’s a view of the garden, you get the idea. I have a harbour view because
I can see Hong Kong harbour. It’s an amazing view to wake up to, honestly. Room rate is
the price of the room. So the room rates might change depending on if it’s a weekend day,
if it’s a week day, if it’s summer or if it’s high season or low season. So room rates are
the amount of money that you pay for one night’s stay in the hotel. Let’s talk about beds because
beds come in all shapes and sizes. So you could have a double bed, that’s for two people.
Now we have different sizes then. So you can have a queen size bed or a king size bed which
I think is bigger or you could have a twin (room) which is two separate beds. So when
you are making your booking you’ll need to request, do you want a double bed, a queen
size, a king size. A wake up call is a request for the reception desk to call you and wake
up up in the morning. A wake up call. Room service is the delivery of food to your hotel
room by the hotel. So they’ll be a kitchen somewhere in the hotel and then you can order
your food and they will bring it to your room. So that’s room service. I do like a bit of
room service, there’s something kind of very special about sitting in your bed and having
your food. Ok, here are five questions that you might hear when talking to a receptionist.
‘What name is the booking under?’ or ‘What name is the reservation under?’ Now this means
who booked it? What’s the name that is on the bookings? So for example for me it’ll
be Tom Rees. So what name is the booking under? For me Tom Rees would be the answer. So it’s
essentially just saying who made the booking and which name is being used? Which is the
main name? So you can see there right, a formal structure to ask a question. The next one
‘How may I be of assistance?’ That just means how can I help you? So of course they might
well say ‘how can I help?’ or ‘How can I help you today?’ All are likely structures. So
they are just asking you know, how can I help you. Another question you might hear is ‘Is
there anything else I can help you with?’ Now let’s say that I’ve asked the receptionist
to book me a taxi and they’ve been able to do that. Then they’ll ask me ‘Is there anything
else I can help you with?’ to see if there are more requests that I have. So is there
anything else I can help you with? And I might say ‘oh, no thank you.’ or ‘actually yes could
you…?’ and then that would be the next request. So is there anything else I can help you with?
When you are checking out you will probably hear them say ‘How was your stay?’ And that’s
your chance to say ‘oh it was fantastic thank you’ or ‘ I had a great time’ whatever it
might be. Or they might say ‘Was everything satisfactory?’ Has the same meaning. So how
was your stay? Did you enjoy it? Was the quality good? Was the hotel good? etc. So how was
your stay with us? or How was your stay? And was everything satisfactory? Here are five questions that you might use
during your stay. ‘What time is check out?’ The time that you have to leave your room.
‘What time is check out?’ Related to that might be ‘Can we get a late check out please?’
So let’s say check out is normally twelve o’clock, you want to go a bit later, maybe
one o’clock, that’s a late check out. So can we get a late check out please? Maybe in the
morning you need to wake up early o you might ask for a wake up call. So ‘Can I get a wake
up call tomorrow please?’ So that’s when the receptionist will call you at whatever time
you want them to wake you up. Another phrase ‘What time is breakfast served?’ So you can
see there what time is really useful, you can use it for the swimming pool so ‘what
time does the swimming pool open?’ So what time, super useful. Or ‘What time does the
gym close?’ Another question is you might want to find out what’s around the hotel so
for example ‘Is there an ATM near here?’ Or ‘Is there a supermarket near here?’ Or ‘Is
there a good restaurant near here?’ So is there, then the thing and then near here.
So close to this hotel. Ok guys, I hope you enjoyed that lesson teaching you all the essential
words and phrases you need to stay in a hotel. As I’ve said before English is fantastic for
communicating when you are travelling and there is no better place than in a hotel to
use your English. So if you need to watch this video again, take notes, practise some
of the phrases so that the next time you go and stay in a hotel you’ll be ready. Thank
you so much again to East Hong Kong for making this video happen, I’ve had an amazing time
in their hotel. Honestly guys, if you ever come to Hong Kong stay in East. The views
are spectacular. I have never had a room with such amazing views. The facilities are fantastic.
Hats off guys! It’s been an amazing experience, it’s an incredible hotel fantastically located
right next to an MTR station so you can get everywhere. There’s a shopping mall with all
the facilities that I could ever want. And have I mentioned the view yet? Remember guys
I’ve got new videos every Tuesday and every Friday helping you take your English to the
next level. Remember to check me out on Instagram and on Facebook but until next time guys this
is Tom, the Chief Dreamer in Hong Kong, saying goodbye.