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.
