TravelHotel facilities

Pick out key information about a holiday resort and accommodation in a German-speaking country, and learn how to write a complaint or review.

Part ofGermanWriting

Hotel facilities

If you want to choose the most suitable hotel, you need to know some additional vocabulary.

Hilfsvokabeln– Helpful vocabulary

  • die Hotelbeschreibung (f) – hotel description
  • direkt am See – right by the lake
  • der Parkplatz (m) – car park
  • der Fahrstuhl (m) – lift
  • die Klimaanlage (f) – air con
  • der Haartrockner (m) – hairdryer
  • die Dusche (f) – shower
  • das Sat-TV (nt) – satellite TV
  • der Fitnessraum (m) – gym
  • ausgestattet (adj) – equipped
  • kostenlos (adj) – free, without cost
  • das WLAN (nt) – wifi
  • der Zugang (m) – access
  • zur Verfügung stehen – to be available, to be at someone's disposal

Here is a short paragraph describing a hotel.

Hotelbeschreibung – Seehotel

Unser drei-Sterne Hotel mit privatem Parkplatz liegt direkt am See. Die 40 Zimmer sind alle mit Dusche, WC, Sat-TV, Haartrockner und Klimaanlage ausgestattet. Die Zimmer haben auch Telefon und kostenlosen WLAN-Zugang. Für unsere sportlichen Gäste stehen auch ein Fitnessraum und eine Sauna zur Verfügung, aber es gibt keinen Fahrstuhl.

Question

Look at this information about the Strandhotel and write a description based on the details given.

Use the paragraph about the Seehotel above as a guide.

Part of a hotel webpage with a list of amenities and services available.

Did you know?

When you write in German, spelling matters. In 1996, Germany introduced a spelling reform – die Rechtschreibung – to try to simplify German spelling.

For example, the letter ß, known as scharfes S or Eszett (originally a mixture of s and z), was replaced by the letters ss in some words, eg daß (that) has become dass and muß (must) has become muss.

However, the words Straße and groß have both kept the letter ß, as ß is required after a long vowel sound. The scharfes S is also maintained when it follows two vowels together, eg ich heiße (I'm called), außer (except), schließlich (eventually, in the end). In Swiss German, ß is not used at all – only ss is used.

Previously, if double letters were followed by the same letter again, one letter was dropped to avoid three of the same consecutive letters. But this is now allowed, so you will see strange looking words like Schifffahrt (from Schiff + Fahrt – journey by boat) or Teeernte (from Tee + Ernte – tea harvest).

One of the simplest reforms was to replace ph with f in borrowed words, so Photo is now Foto and Telephon is spelt Telefon.

Both spellings presented on a street sign
Image caption,
A street in Aachen showing both the old and new spelling CREDIT: © Túrelio (via Wikimedia-Commons), 2006 / License: Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5

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