Learn how to book a hotel room
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to DutchPod101.com. This is Lower Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 18 - Which Dutch Hotel Do You Prefer? Eric here. |
| Jacob: Hallo. I'm Jacob. |
| Eric: In this lesson you'll learn how to book a hotel room. The conversation takes place at the travel agency. |
| Jacob: It's between Marie from the travel agency and Mark. |
| Eric: The speakers don't know each other and will be using formal Dutch. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Mark: Goedemiddag, u spreekt met Mark van Es. Ik wil graag een tweepersoonskamer boeken. In Hotel Gaudi. In Barcelona. Voor de volgende week. |
| Marie: Hoe duur mag het zijn meneer? |
| Mark: Liefst niet meer dan vijftig (50) euro. |
| Marie: Dat wordt moeilijk, maar ik ga mijn best doen. |
| Mark: Dank u. |
| Marie: Ja, het is gelukt, wel iets buiten het centrum, maar er is een goede metroverbinding. Wilt u roken of niet-roken? |
| Mark: Niet-roken graag. Fantastisch. Hoe kan ik betalen? |
| Marie: U kunt daar ter plekke betalen. De reservering is gemaakt op uw naam. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Mark: Good afternoon. My name is Mark van Es. I'd like to book a double room in Barcelona for the next week. |
| Marie: How much are you looking to spend, sir? |
| Mark: Well, preferably not more than 50 euros. |
| Marie: That may be difficult, but I'll try. |
| Mark: Thank you. |
| Marie: Yes, I found something. It's a bit far from the city center, but there's a good subway connection. Would you like smoking or non-smoking? |
| Mark: Non-smoking please. That's great. How do I pay? |
| Marie: You can pay on arrival. The reservation is in your name. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Jacob, if someone needs to stay in Amsterdam for a trip, where would you recommend? |
| Jacob: There are many options in Amsterdam because it’s quite popular among young travelers and backpackers. If you’re young, you can find a lot of low-budget hotels, often with dormitories. |
| Eric: They're easy to find, especially if you want to stay around Central Station. |
| Jacob: And in the center or the south of the city, you can find a number of very chic and expensive hotels. |
| Eric: I see. In which season would you expect the hotels to be fully booked? |
| Jacob: I'd say spring, because it’s the most popular time to visit Holland. |
| Eric: If you visit the Netherlands in spring you can see the famous Dutch tulips and other flowers bloom, but you might need to book your hotel early. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Jacob: spreken [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to speak, to talk |
| Jacob: spre-ken [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: spreken [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: tweepersoonskamer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: double room |
| Jacob: twee-per-soons-ka-mer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: tweepersoonskamer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: volgend [natural native speed] |
| Eric: next, following |
| Jacob: vol-gend [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: volgend [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: duur [natural native speed] |
| Eric: expensive |
| Jacob: duur [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: duur [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: mogen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to be allowed |
| Jacob: mo-gen [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: mogen [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Jacob: reservering [natural native speed] |
| Eric: reservation |
| Jacob: re-ser-ve-ring [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: reservering [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have |
| Jacob: maken [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to make |
| Jacob: ma-ken [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: maken [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have |
| Jacob: liefst [natural native speed] |
| Eric: preferably |
| Jacob: liefst [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: liefst [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Jacob: fantastisch [natural native speed] |
| Eric: fantastic, great |
| Jacob: fan-tas-ti-sch [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jacob: fantastisch [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Let’s start with an expression that means “prefer” Jacob, how can we use this in a sentence? |
| Jacob: Het liefst ga ik op de fiets. |
| Eric: meaning "I'd prefer to go by bicycle." |
| Jacob: Let’s look at Het liefst. You can use it to express a preference. |
| Eric: It can be translated in many ways – "preferably" or "rather," or, as in the dialogue, “I’d prefer to.” For example, if you want to say "I prefer to have a salad first and the main dish after that" in Dutch, you can say... |
| Jacob: Het liefst heb ik eerst de salade en daarna het hoofdgerecht. |
| Eric: And here, we have “by bike” at the end. |
| Jacob: Right, we have op de fiets, which means “by bike.” But note that you need to use different prepositons for different modes of transport. Although "By bicycle" is op de fiets, using the preposition op, "by car" in Dutch is met de auto using met, and "by horse" is te paard, using te. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson you'll learn how to book a hotel room. When you make a phone call, you'll first say a greeting and then give your name. That’s the only polite way to start a telephone conversation in Dutch. Then, you can say something like.. |
| Jacob: Ik wil graag een tweepersoonskamer boeken. In Hotel Gaudi. In Barcelona. Voor de volgende week.’ |
| Eric: “I'd like to book a double room at Hotel Gaudi in Barcelona for the next week.” |
| Jacob: To keep it simple, you can make short sentences with a period, not connected with conjunctions. |
| Eric: For example- |
| Jacob: Ik wil graag een tweepersoonskamer boeken. |
| Eric: “I'd like to book a double room.” |
| Jacob: In Hotel Gaudi. |
| Eric: “at Hotel Gaudi” |
| Jacob: in Barcelona |
| Eric: “In Barcelona.” |
| Jacob: Voor de volgende week. |
| Eric: “for the next week.” |
| Jacob: It’s actually easier to understand if you talk on the phone. |
| Eric: And then you can keep up with the conversation. Since it’s with the travel agency, you will hear something like.. |
| Jacob: Hoe duur mag het zijn meneer? |
| Eric: which means "How much are you looking to spend, sir?” or.. |
| Jacob: Wilt u roken of niet-roken? |
| Eric: “Would you like smoking or non-smoking?” There’s nothing difficult grammar-wise to understand here. Just make sure you know the right word to answer. |
| Jacob: That’s right. As for the cost of the hotel, you can say something like... Liefst niet meer dan vijftig (50) euro. |
| Eric: “Well, preferably not more than 50 euros.” |
| Jacob: Or you can say.. Liefst tussen de 50 tot 100 euro. |
| Eric: “Probably between 50 to 100 euros.” And about smoking rooms, if you need a smoking room you can say.. |
| Jacob: Roken graag. |
| Eric: If you want a non-smoking room, say.. |
| Jacob: Niet-roken graag. |
| Eric: What other expressions do we need to know? |
| Jacob: Well, if you like something, instead of saying just ja meaning “yes” I recommend that you use Dat klinkt fantastisch. |
| Eric: It means something like "That sounds great," or literally “That sounds fantastic.” |
| Jacob: Dat is a repetitive subject like “that” in English. Then we have Klinkt, the verb meaning "sounds,” as in “sounds good.” And finally we have fantastisch which sounds like “fantastic” and means “great” in this context. Dat klinkt fantastisch. |
| Eric: "That sounds great." |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Jacob: Tot Ziens! |
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