Booking and changing a hotel stay in French

Level A2

Booking and changing a hotel stay in French

You will book a hotel room and move the stay from June to July. Make a polite request, give the dates and number of nights, then repeat the important details as a question. You can use je voudrais as a useful formula without learning a whole tense.

Recover a date, a name and a request for repetition

Vous pouvez répéter, s’il vous plaît ? means ‘Can you repeat that, please?’: pouvez is ‘can’, répéter is ‘repeat’. Use vous with the receptionist; it is a polite way to address one person here, although it can also address several people. Vous avez means ‘you have’.

Oui, au nom de Silva means ‘Yes, under the name Silva’; Silva is a fictitious surname. For a date, le dix juin means ‘June tenth’: dix = 10, douze = 12, juin = June and juillet = July. French uses ordinary counting numbers for these dates; the first of a month is le premier.

Words for the hotel stay

Une chambre is a room; here it means a hotel room, not specifically a bedroom at home. Une réservation is a booking, réserver is ‘book’, changer is ‘change’, and une nuit is a night. Deux nuits means two nights; the plural -s is written but normally not heard in nuits. Listen to the cards, especially juin and juillet, which name different months.

Ask for a booking or a change

Je voudrais réserver une chambre means ‘I’d like to book a room’. Je voudrais is a polite request formula, softer than je veux (‘I want’); it can be used in many everyday service encounters. Put the infinitive directly after voudrais: réserver or changer, without a French equivalent of English ‘to’ before it. In this model, use réserver une chambre, or changer ma réservation / les dates.

Je voudrais changer ma réservation means ‘I’d like to change my booking’; ma agrees with the feminine word réservation, not with the person speaking. Je voudrais changer les dates means ‘I’d like to change the dates’. You are learning this request, not the full conditional tense.

Je voudrais réserver / changer une chambre / ma réservation / les dates

Ask what is available and give exact dates

Est-ce que vous avez une chambre pour deux nuits ? means ‘Do you have a room for two nights?’ Keep vous avez in that order after est-ce que; French does not add an equivalent of English do. Pour deux nuits gives the duration, while du dix au douze juin gives the arrival and departure dates.

In this date range du is de + le and au is à + le: ‘from the tenth to the twelfth’. The month follows the second date when both are in the same month. A hotel stay arriving on the tenth and leaving on the twelfth is two nights: the nights of the tenth and eleventh. The July question changes the month, not the number of nights.

Est-ce que vous avez une chambre pour deux nuits / du dix au douze juillet ?

Book the room and check what you heard

A is the guest and B is the receptionist. Pour quelles dates ? means ‘For which dates?’; quelles goes with feminine plural dates. B’s Oui, une chambre pour deux nuits confirms the room and duration.

Donc introduces the recap (‘so’), and c’est bien ça ? asks ‘is that right?’: repeat the details that matter, rather than merely saying you understood. Oui, c’est bien ça confirms they are correct. Listen to the exchange, then repeat the guest’s lines.

Move the same stay to July

The guest asks to change an existing booking, then checks for a room from July tenth to twelfth. En juillet means ‘in July’. B confirms the proposed dates and A checks the two-night duration; this model ends with the receptionist confirming that recap. Asking for availability by itself does not guarantee a change has been processed: obtain confirmation of the new details.

Recognize the conditions, then make your request

The long notice is for recognition only: ‘Change conditions: non-refundable booking, full payment before arrival and additional charges for any change after confirmation.’ Non remboursable means no refund; paiement intégral means full payment; avant l’arrivée means before arrival; frais supplémentaires means extra charges; après confirmation means after confirmation. These are this fictional hotel’s terms, not a rule about all hotels; you are not expected to produce this notice.

Now cover the examples: ask to change the dates, ask whether a room is available from July tenth to twelfth, and check that this is two nights in July. Use the models already shown; the last two audio examples help you check your request to change the dates and your recap. The route is je voudrais + infinitive for the request, est-ce que vous avez for availability, exact dates and quantity, then c’est bien ça ? to confirm understanding.

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