Optional Reading and Writing Activity

Some classes ago, we dealt with hotel problems, remember?

Here is an optional reading activity connected to this topic. If you decide to do it, you can either:

a) send me the answers by email (on a Word Document)

b) bring the answers to class on Saturday and hand them in for correction

1) Read the following newspaper article about hotel problems. What title would you give to it?

An international travel site conducted a survey on hotel complaints around the world and found some unusual things. The travel website Skyscanner.net surveyed 400 international hotel staff in 39 different countries. It asked them about the strangest things guests had asked for or complained about. The site said that most of the unusual complaints were about food. Other weird requests were related to the room. Not every hotel room or the services on offer are to everybody's taste, but the complaints in the Skyscanner survey were so strange it makes you wonder how the hotel staff responded. It would be impossible for any hotel in the world to make some of the complaining guests happy.
The food-related complaints were very weird. One guest asked for 16 cucumbers a day, while another requested only the right legs of a chicken. The staff had no idea why just the right leg, or whether the left leg of a chicken didn't taste as nice as the right leg. One guest asked for something not normally found on the room service menu – crocodile soup. Other complaints were crazy enough to make staff wonder about the mental age of the guests. A man at a luxury hotel in London complained that his room did not have a sea view. The nearest beach to London is about 75 km away. Other guests wanted the toilet filled with mineral water, a bath full of honey and a discount because his girlfriend snored.


2) Read the article again and decide if these sentences are TRUE or FALSE.

a.	A nationwide website did a survey on hotel guests' complaints.	T / F
b.	The site asked 400 staff from international hotels in 39 countries.	T / F
c.	Most of the unusual requests were about the shower and bathroom.	T / F
d.	The article said it's impossible to keep all hotel guests happy.	T / F
e.	One guest wanted the hotel to give him/her 16 cucumbers a day.	T / F
f.	Another guest wanted only the right leg of chickens.	T / F
g.	A man at a London hotel complained he could see the sea.	T / F
h.	A woman wanted a discount because her boyfriend snored.	T / F

3) SYNONYM MATCH: What do these words mean? Read the article again and match the words (1 to 10) to a synonymous expression (a-j).

1.	conducted	a.	questioned
2	unusual	b.	think
3.	surveyed	c.	were about
4.	related to	d.	requested
5.	taste	e.	closest
6.	asked for	f.	carried out
7.	normally	g.	price reduction
8.	wonder	h.	liking
9.	nearest	i.	strange
10.	discount	j.	usually

4) LETTER:Write a letter to an expert on hotels. Ask him/her three questions about hotels. Give him/her three of your ideas on how to make hotel stays better.