What the song is about

The song is a conversation between a hotel receptionist and a guest. The guest has a reservation, gives a name, passport and card, and gets a golden key. Then the guest asks practical questions: when breakfast is, where the restaurant is and when check-out is. In the bridge, the tired traveler describes the long journey and looks forward to a quiet night's sleep.

Useful words and expressions

  • reservation: a booking you made before you arrived
  • reception desk: the place where you check in
  • luggage: your bags and suitcases (an uncountable noun: my luggage, not my luggages)
  • second floor, hall: parts of the building
  • room service: food brought to your room
  • towel, curtains, pastry: everyday hotel words
  • Here is my passport / Here is your key: a natural way to hand something to someone
  • Can I have your name, please?: a polite request
  • Just a minute more: it will be ready very soon
  • Give us a call: phone us
  • Enjoy your stay / Enjoy your holiday: a typical farewell from hotel staff
  • to sleep like a log: an idiom meaning to sleep very deeply

Grammar

  • Questions with what time and where: What time is the breakfast? Where is the restaurant? The answers give times (from seven to ten, by eleven) and places (right across the hall).
  • Polite requests with can: How can I help you? Can I have your name, please?
  • Rules with must: You must leave by eleven. By means "no later than".
  • Imperatives for instructions: Take the golden key, walk down the hall, open up the door.
  • First conditional: If you need a towel, we can bring you more. If you need some room service, just give us a call. (if + present, then can/will)
  • Future with will: We will send your luggage. Your stay will be so sweet.
  • Noun or verb? Check-in and check-out with a hyphen are nouns (the check-out is at eleven). As verbs they are two words: I check in, you must check out. Checking in is really not so hard uses the -ing form as the subject.

Careful: lyrics bent for rhyme or rhythm

  • "this hotel is like a heaven": in normal English we say like heaven without a. The a is only there for the rhythm and the rhyme with eleven.
  • "the best you have ever seen": a joke to rhyme with screen. You would not say this when giving your name.
  • "If you need a towel, we can bring you more": normally you would say If you need more towels, we can bring you some. The line is shaped to rhyme with door.
  • "What time is the breakfast?": usually we say What time is breakfast? without the.
  • "with a pastry and a sweet": sweet is a rhyme word for eat. A real receptionist would say something like with pastries and fruit.
  • "your stay will be so sweet": understandable but unusual. A receptionist would say We hope you enjoy your stay.
  • "desk" / "rest" is only a near rhyme, so do not worry if they don't sound the same.