The Greeting

OK so let’s get started with the dialogue.

One person the guest I’ve written here.

Gee that stands for.

Guest is calling the vault the anvil hotel.

I don’t think that’s a real hotel.

I’ve I’ve used this word.

It means something completely different.

But it’s a funny word I enjoy I enjoy the sound of it.

So I’ve decided to make up a hotel called the envelop.

If there’s really a hotel called the anvil effect it’s very cool.

And then this one are will be our receptionist.

Now the receptionist is the person who works at the often the front desk of the hotel.

This person is sometimes called the front desk person so they could be called a receptionist.

They could be called a front desk person.

Sometimes this person is called up a clerk but usually front desk person and receptionist.

We have our receptionist.

We have our guest and this is the very beginning.

This is how the receptionist may answer the phone.

Hello.

Thank you for calling the vault boom vault hotel.

My name is Luke.

How may I help you.

This is a very common beginning to any sort of service phone call anytime you call a company and a customer service person answers.

They’ll probably say how may I help you.

How can I help you.

OK yeah hello I’m calling to book a room.

OK.

Can we say reserve a room.

Can we say make a reservation.

Yeah I suppose you can.

You could say reserve a room.

Book a room make a reservation however book a room is generally the most common way to express the idea of doing it in advance.

Now the most important information is usually not your personal information.

At the beginning that’s actually not so important right from the start.

So you don’t always have to say your name at the beginning because they’re probably the receptionist is probably not writing it down but you should give them the details of the reservation the details of the booking.

OK.

Most important is generally the dates you want to book.

OK.

So they’ll probably ask which dates would you like to book.

Now this person could say the guests could say yeah hello.

They don’t have to say yeah you could say hello or you could say hi hi I’m calling to book a room when we want to say our purpose in calling.

I’m calling to I’m calling to is very very common.

Any type of situation where you want to get something done.

You could say I’m calling to book a room from the.

And you could say this one and then they’re not asking but generally they will ask so that you know that they’re ready to hear what you’re going to say the dates you’re going to say they might not be ready.

So it’s a good idea to just say one step at a time.

One thing you should not do in this sort of situation is say all of the details together.

Yes I’d like to book a room between the 18th and the 22nd and I’d like it to be on the 22nd floor and I want blah blah blah and my name is blah blah blah my phone number is blah.

Don’t do that.

Do you think they’re writing down everything very quickly.

No.

One step at a time.

Follow their pace.

Wait for them the receptionist or the person on the other end who is going to be putting your information in the system.

Wait for them to ask the question because they need to be ready.

You know what you want.

OK.

Which dates.

Which dates would you like to book.

Now.

Sometimes they’ll say how many nights how many nights.

So sometimes when we’re booking a hotel instead of dates we use nights because you’re staying overnight.

We don’t say days because actually the most important thing that they need to know is the number of nights because you’re checking out on the last one but you’re not staying for that night.

So for example if you want to stay three nights the twenty third the 24th and the 25th that’s the night of the 25th.

OK.

So you’re going to check out on the twenty sixth.

So you’re staying.

Twenty third 24th 25th checking out on the twenty sixth.

You’re leaving on the 26.

You’re not staying the night of the twenty sixth.

If that makes sense you’re always checking out on the following day.

That’s why it’s more clear to use nights when you’re talking about a hotel.

OK.

Now could we do what we learned before in our technical descriptions class where we say between the 20 or between the 18th and the 22nd.

Yeah yeah.

You can do that.

You could say between the 18th and the 22nd.

OK.

So generally that’s how we’ll do the beginning of the call.

They might start with the room type but we’ll go to the room type next.

So it could could be a different order.

It doesn’t have to be this order but generally they want to know when you’re going to stay.

And sometimes they want some clarification.

So we’ll talk about that too.