Persian Conversation 9: Checking In at a Hotel

Check in at a hotel in Persian: welcome, reservation and room number phrases, past perfect rezerv karde budam, spoken vs written forms and a quiz.

Checking in at a hotel in Persian

Puya arrives at a hotel. The receptionist welcomes him, asks if he has a reservation, takes his name and gives him his room number. The receptionist speaks politely with شما forms, as hotel staff in Iran normally do with guests.

Useful phrases here are خوش آمدید (khosh âmadid), "welcome", and رزرو کردن (rezerv kardan), "to book", a verb built from the French loanword رزرو plus کردن.

The dialogue

Key words and phrases

Spoken vs written Persian

The receptionist mixes formal and spoken forms, which is typical of polite speech. Here are the everyday and written versions side by side.

Grammar note: the past perfect

رزرو کرده بودم (rezerv karde budam) is the past perfect, "I had booked": the past participle کرده (karde) plus the past of "to be", بودم (budam). Puya uses it because the booking happened before his arrival. A simple past رزرو کردم (rezerv kardam), "I booked", would also be fine here.

هتل ما means "our hotel", not "my hotel": ما (mâ) is "we, our". Staff usually speak of their workplace this way.

Try it yourself

• Tell the receptionist you have a booking: رزرو دارم (rezerv dâram), "I have a reservation".
• Ask for a room if you have none: اتاق خالی دارید؟ (otâgh-e khâli dârid?), "do you have a free room?"
• Give your full name when asked اسمتون چیه؟.
• Say your room number with اتاق شماره … (otâgh-e shomâre …).

Other phrases at the front desk

Numbers above twenty are joined with و, pronounced -o: صد و یک is sad-o yek, "one hundred and one", and بیست و پنج is bist-o panj, "twenty-five". Hotel staff will often read a room number this way, though you may also hear the digits one by one.

• Previous: Lesson 8 (at a restaurant)
• Next: Lesson 10 (the weather)

Practice

1. How does the receptionist say "welcome to our hotel"?

   Show answer

   be hotel-e mâ khosh âmadid به هتل ما خوش آمدید

2. What tense is {{رزرو کرده بودم}} and what does it mean?

   Show answer

   Past perfect: "I had booked".

3. Say "I have a reservation."

   Show answer

   rezerv dâram رزرو دارم

4. How do you say "room number 205"?

   Show answer

   otâgh-e shomâre-ye devist-o panj اتاق شماره‌ی ۲۰۵

5. Give the spoken form of {{خوش آمدید}}.

   Show answer

   khosh omadin خوش اومدین

Find more dialogues in the Farsi conversation lessons series, and review the sounds behind the transliteration on the Persian pronunciation page.