Hotels

Everyone has hotel stories, good experiences, terrible ones, or quirky details they remember. These questions work well for practicing past experiences and discussing preferences about travel accommodations.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. Do you feel comfortable when you stay at a hotel? Why or why not?
2. What do you usually do first when you arrive at a hotel? What about after you check in?
3. What is the most important thing in a hotel room for you? (A big bed, a nice bathroom, a good view, etc.)
4. When you stay at a hotel, do you eat at the hotel restaurant or go out? What do you usually eat?
5. Do you use all the things in a hotel room like the iron, the hair dryer, or the coffee maker? Which ones?
6. Do you take things from the hotel room, like soap, shampoo, or slippers? What do you take?
7. What do you eat for breakfast at a hotel? Do you like hotel breakfast?
8. How many times a year do you stay at a hotel? Where do you usually go?
9. When you stay at a hotel, what floor do you like? Do you prefer a high floor or a low floor?
10. What is the first thing you check when you walk into a hotel room? Why?

Elementary (A2)

1. Have you ever been to a really disgusting hotel? Did you stay or leave?
2. Have you ever ordered room service at a hotel? What did you order, and was it worth the price?
3. Do you have any interesting stories about staying somewhere other than your house, like a hotel or hostel?
4. Are hotels common in your country? If not, where do people stay when they travel?
5. What is the nicest hotel you have stayed at? What made it so special?
6. Have you ever eaten anything from a hotel minibar? What did you think of the prices, and was it worth it?
7. What kind of hotels do you like? Why?
8. What is the strangest thing you have ever seen in a hotel room? What made it so strange?
9. Have you ever had a problem with your hotel room? What happened?
10. Have you ever stayed at a hotel for a special occasion like a wedding or anniversary? What was it like?
11. What is important to you when you book a hotel? What do you look for?
12. Have you ever stayed at a hotel in another country? What was different from hotels in your country?
13. What is the longest you have ever stayed at a hotel? What were you doing there?
14. Have you ever shared a hotel room with someone you didn’t know well? How did it go?

Intermediate (B1)

1. Which do you prefer to stay in when you travel: hotels, hostels, or another type of place? Why?
2. What are the best and worst things about staying in hotels?
3. Couch surfing is staying for free at people’s homes in different countries. Is this a good idea or bad idea? Why?
4. What would it be like to work in a hotel as a cleaning person or front desk staff?
5. Do you prefer big hotels or small hotels? What’s good about each?
6. What do you think about hotels that don’t clean your room every day? Do you like that or not?
7. Do you prefer to pay more for a nice hotel or save money and stay somewhere cheap? Why?
8. Do you think hotel prices are too high? Why or why not?
9. Should hotels charge extra for things like Wi-Fi, parking, or breakfast? How would that affect your choice?
10. What do you think makes a hotel stay memorable? Give me some examples from your experience.
11. Do you think online reviews of hotels are trustworthy? How do you decide which reviews to believe?
12. Should hotels have the right to cancel your reservation if they get a better offer? Why or why not?
13. What do you think makes a hotel feel like a home instead of just a place to sleep?
14. If you could design your perfect hotel room, what would it look like? What would make it special?
15. Do you think tipping hotel staff is important? Why or why not?
16. If you could work at any job in a hotel, which one would you choose and why?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. Is it better to stay at a hotel or rent an apartment when you travel? What are the good and bad sides of each?
2. How has the rise of home-sharing services like Airbnb changed the hotel industry? What are the positive and negative effects?
3. How does staying at a hotel change the way people experience a city compared to staying with locals?
4. Compare how hotels market themselves to domestic travelers versus international tourists. What differences do you notice, and why do they exist?
5. What are the challenges hotels face in trying to be environmentally sustainable while still providing luxury and comfort?
6. How has technology changed the hotel experience for guests? What do you think about those changes?
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of booking through third-party websites compared to booking directly with the hotel?
8. How do hotel star ratings and classifications influence what guests expect? Are they still useful, or are online reviews more important now?
9. Compare staying at a large international hotel chain with staying at a locally owned boutique hotel. How is the experience different, and what does each one offer that the other doesn’t?
10. How do cultural differences affect what people expect from hotels? Give me some examples from different countries or regions.
11. Hotels collect a lot of personal data about their guests, from passport information to spending habits. What are the risks of this, and how should hotels handle that responsibility?

Advanced (C1)

1. What tensions exist between hotels being a business that needs to make money and providing genuine hospitality?
2. In what ways do hotels create a kind of ‘placelessness’ where every city feels the same, and how do some hotels resist this trend?
3. What does the evolution of hotel design from purely functional to Instagram-worthy spaces reveal about changing values in travel and consumption?
4. How might the rise of remote work and ‘digital nomadism’ fundamentally reshape what hotels are and what purpose they serve in society?
5. Hotels often try to create a sense of local culture for guests while also keeping everything standardized and predictable. How do these two goals work against each other, and can a hotel really do both?
6. Some people say that mass tourism is destroying the very places tourists come to see. How do hotels play a role in this, and is it possible for the hotel industry to be part of the solution?
7. Hotel workers often have to perform constant friendliness and politeness regardless of how they actually feel. How does this kind of emotional labor affect people over time, and is it different from other customer-facing jobs?
8. Hotels are starting to use AI and automation for things like check-in, room service, and even concierge recommendations. What gets lost when the human element disappears from hospitality?
9. The most memorable hotel experiences often happen because of unexpected moments, not planned amenities. Why is that, and what does it say about what people really value when they travel?
10. In many tourist areas, hotels and vacation rentals are pushing housing prices so high that local workers can no longer afford to live where they work. How should communities balance the benefits of tourism with the needs of their own residents?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions