Hotel Services and Facilities

1. Read the text and retell (5-10 sentences)

SPECIAL SERVICES AND HOTEL FACILITIES
Nowadays large, modern hotels contain not only guest rooms, but many other facilities as well.
They usually contain restaurants and cocktail lounges, shops and recreational facilities for social
functions, conventions and conferences — ballrooms, auditoriums, meeting rooms of different
sizes, exhibit areas and so forth.
Not so long ago, convention facilities were ordinarily found only in large cities or in intensively
developed resort areas like Miami Beach. Nowadays they are more often included in resort hotels so
that the people who attend conventions there can combine business with pleasure.
Another trend in the hotel industry is the construction of the self-contained resort complex.
Recreational facilities are another feature of many hotels and motels. A swimming pool is the most
common of these, particularly in warmer climates and in resort areas. A swimming pool in front of
the building is a form of advertisement for motel in places such as Florida, California, Egypt,
Turkey and other resorts. Other recreational facilities include tennis courts and golf courses at resort
hotels. Many resorts are designed for winter sports such as skiing and ice skating; others provide
horseback riding and other outdoor activities.
Casinos, wherever they are legal, are another feature of some hotels. In Las Vegas, Nevada, the
hotels feed, house and entertain guests, but the real profits come from the casinos. In Puerto Rico
and other places, gambling usually acts as an additional, rather than principal, attraction for hotels.
A few hotels, most of them in resort areas or large cities, include nightclubs as a part of their
operation. Sometimes the nightclub is rented out to a concessionaire, but in other hotels it is the
responsibility of the food and beverage department or of a special staff. A nightclub offers
entertainment, such as dancing, a singer, a band, or a floor show, in addition to food and drink. The
engagement of a well-known entertainer obviously gives the hotel an excellent promotional
opportunity. The hotels in the gambling resort of Las Vegas, Nevada, for example, publicize not
only the entertainers in their nightclubs, but also the huge salaries that they receive, perhaps on the
theory that the higher the fee, the better the entertainer.
All of these recreational facilities require the employment of additional personnel. Necessary
swimming-pool maintenance is often contracted out. Golf courses must be carefully tended by a
special staff of groundskeepers. Horses require stables and grooming. Many resort hotels hire
professional athletes to give lessons to the guests in tennis, golf and skiing. Other employees
include riding instructors and guides for hikers and campers. Lifeguards are often necessary at
swimming pools and beaches.
Catering, providing food and drink for transients, has always gone together with accommodations.
Food services are- a feature of hotels. The typical modem “packaged hotel” includes a restaurant, a
coffee shop for quicker and less expensive meals, and a bar or cocktail lounge. Many larger hotels
have several restaurants, often featuring different kinds of foods, as well as different prices. Hotels
also normally provide “room service” — food and drink that are brought to the guest’s room. In
addition, catering service provided in the hotel’s recreational areas. The poolside bar and snack bar,
for quick food, are normal parts of the service at a resort hotel. So, restaurants, bars and nightclubs
outside the hotels are a standard feature of the resort scene. They provide not only catering, but also
some kind of entertainment for the tourist who is bored with the limits of hotel life.
Large urban hotels also provide special services for businessmen. A commercial hotel, for example,
can provide a stenographer to take dictation and do typing for the travelling businessman. Some
luxury hotels also give the guests access to copying, internet, modem points, facsimile machines,
computers with printer, scanner, word processor and other machines. Many large hotels also have a
notary public on the staff to verify the signatures on documents.
The list of special services offered by hotels is long. These services differ according to the location
and the clientele of the hotel; luxury hotels offer the greatest range of services. This is, in fact, what
makes them luxury hotels.
2. Write down in your exercise books the answers
1. What are some of the different varieties of accommodations that are available to travellers
nowadays?
2. What facilities are usually available in large, modern hotels?
3. What is a “self-contained resort complex”? Give examples.
4. What is the relationship between hotels and gambling in some places?
5. Give examples of a resort development that includes many different kinds of
accommodations.
6. What catering services are available in different kinds of hotels?
7. What business facilities can big hotel provide?
8. How and why are hotel nightclubs operated? What do nightclubs offer?
9. What promotional opportunities does a nightclub give to the hotel?
10. What are some of the personal services offered by hotels?
11. What are some of the services hotels offer for travelling businessmen?
3. Read all the services and translate
General services:
 24-hour hall-porters
 24-hour room service
 a staff to guest room of 2:1
 baby cots
 bar
 car hire
 chauffeur driven car service
 complimentary shoe cleaning
 currency exchange
 doctor on call
 guest laundry service
 interconnecting rooms
 luggage unpacking and packing
 minimum twice daily maid service
 multi-lingual staff
 non-smoking rooms
 restaurant
 three lifts
 valet parking
 valet service
Beauty and fitness:
 fitness centre
 gentlemen’s barber
 ladies’hair salon
Business and technology:
 Business trolley with printer, scanner, word processor, facsimile machine and manual
typewriter available
 facsimile point in every room
 ISDN, direct dial and voicemail
 USA and UK modem points
In-room facilities and services
 bulgari toiletries, bathrobes, slippers and hair dryers in every room
 in-room safe
 newspaper twice daily
 safety deposit boxes available
 security staff on duty 24-hour
Special terms:
Full board or enpension — it is a room and all meals included.
Half-board or demi-pension — includes the room plus breakfast and one other meal (lunch or
dinner).
Bed and breakfast (B&B) or continental plan — it is the rate that includes the room and breakfast
(the breakfast itself may be “English” or “continental”).
European plan — it is the rate for a room alone, with no meals included at all.
4. Learn all the abbreviation by heart
CREDIT CARD codes:
AE — American Express
AC — Access
CB — Carte Blanche
DC — Diners Club
DS — Discover
EC — Eurocard
ER — En Route
MC — Mastercard
VS-Visa
MEAL PLAN codes
EP — European plan: no meals
CP — Continental Plan: continental breakfast only or as indicated
MAP — Modified American plan: American breakfast and dinner
DP — Demi-Pension: Continental breakfast and either table d’hote lunch or dinner
AP — American Plan: American breakfast, lunch and dinner
FP — Full Pension: Continental breakfast, table d’hote, lunch and dinner
Read the words, translate and learn by heart