Chapter 5. System of payment

Lead-in

1 How do people usually pay for their purchases?

2 Are there any differences of payment in different countries? What are they?

3 How do people usually pay when they are traveling?

4 What is the most convenient way of payment?

5 Look at the pictures of credit cards and say: which of them have you used? Do they have any differences in usage? What are they? Which one was the most comfortable for you in usage and why? What conditions did you have to follow?

 

1970s-era MasterCharge card Credit Card

 

Barclaycard, as issued in the UK The Chargex logo used in Canada

 

Text 1. Credit cards

Scan the text and find out the main conditions and terms that you’ll have to follow if you want to use a credit card. Discuss it with your partner. Do you think these terms universal for all countries?

Vocabulary

1 to grant – предоставлять

2 merchant – торговец, торговая фирма

3 to revolve – периодически возвращаться

4 consent – согласие

5 receipt – расписка, квитанция

6 transaction – сделка, торговая операция

7 to verify – проверять; сверять

8 to dispute – оспаривать

9 to deduct – вычитать

10 to waive – не требовать выполнения чего-л.

11 to vary – изменяться, меняться

12 revenue – доход

13 incentive – поощрение, стимул

14 downside – недостаток

15 legitimate – законный

 

A credit card is part of a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. The issuer of the card grants a line of credit to the consumer (or the user) from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user. A credit card is different from a charge card, where a charge card requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, credit cards allow the consumers to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are issued by local banks or credit unions, and are the same shape and size as specified by the ISO 7810 standard.

An example of the front in a typical credit card:

- Issuing bank logo

- EMV chip

- Hologram

- Credit card number

- Card brand logo

- Expiry Date

- Cardholder's name

An example of the reverse side of a typical credit card:

- Magnetic Stripe

- Signature Strip

- Card Security Code

Credit cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card.

When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates his/her consent to pay, by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number (PIN). Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a 'Card/Cardholder Not Present' (CNP) transaction.

Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase in a few seconds, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal or Point of Sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Data from the card is obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is in the United Kingdom and Ireland commonly known as Chip and PIN, but is more technically an EMV card.

Other variations of verification systems are used by eCommerce merchants to determine if the user's account is valid and able to accept the charge. These will typically involve the cardholder providing additional information, such as the security code printed on the back of the card, or the address of the cardholder.

Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. After receiving the statement, the cardholder may dispute any charges that he or she thinks are incorrect. Otherwise, the cardholder must pay a defined minimum proportion of the bill by a due date, or may choose to pay a higher amount up to the entire amount owed. The credit provider charges interest on the amount owed if the balance is not paid in full (typically at a much higher rate than most other forms of debt). Some financial institutions can arrange for automatic payments to be deducted from the user's bank accounts, thus avoiding late payment altogether as long as the cardholder has sufficient funds.

Credit card issuers usually waive interest charges if the balance is paid in full each month, but typically will charge full interest on the entire outstanding balance from the date of each purchase if the total balance is not paid. Interest rates can vary considerably from card to card, and the interest rate on a particular card may jump dramatically if the card user is late with a payment on that card or any other credit instrument, or even if the issuing bank decides to raise its revenue.

Because of intense competition in the credit card industry, credit card providers often offer incentives such as frequent flyer points, gift certificates, or cash back (typically up to 1 percent based on total purchases) to try to attract customers to their programs.

Low interest credit cards or even 0% interest credit cards are available. The only downside to consumers is that the period of low interest credit cards is limited to a fixed term, usually between 6 and 12 months after which a higher rate is charged. However, services are available which alert credit card holders when their low interest period is due to expire. Most such services charge a monthly or annual fee.

For merchants, a credit card transaction is often more secure than other forms of payment, such as checks, because the issuing bank commits to pay the merchant the moment the transaction is authorized, regardless of whether the consumer defaults on the credit card payment (except for legitimate disputes, which can result in charges back to the merchant). In most cases, cards are even more secure than cash, because they discourage theft by the merchant's employees and reduce the amount of cash on the premises. Prior to credit cards, each merchant had to evaluate each customer's credit history before extending credit. That task is now performed by the banks which assume the credit risk.

 

Text work

1. Give English equivalents for the following Russian words and word-combinations

1 предоставляет кредит потребителю

2 превышение (баланс) должен быть оплачен полностью каждый месяц

3 логотип карты

4 защитный код карты

5 определяя сумму к оплате

6 достаточный кредит, чтобы оплатить покупку

7 терминал оплаты по кредитным картам

8 отчет, показывающий покупки, совершенные с помощью карты

9 срок платежа

10 жесткая конкуренция в индустрии кредитных карт

 

2. Find synonyms to the following words from the text

1 expiration time

2 bargainer

3 to check, examine

4 buying

5 stimulus

 

3. Find the definitions to the given notions:

1 Issuer

2 Balance

3 Verification

4 Due date

5 Legitimate dispute

6 Charge

7 Interest rate

 

4. Read and translate the following groups of words derived from a common root

1 to pay –payable – payment – payer – payee – paying

2 to verify – verification – verifier – verified – verifiable – verifiability

3 to add – addition – additional – added

4 courage – discourage – encourage – encouragement

5 to consume – consumer – consumption – consumed – consumable – consumables

 

5. Answer the questions

1 What is a credit card?

2 What organisation can give you a credit card?

3 What is the difference between a credit card and a charge card?

4 What information should be indicated on the credit card?

5 How and where can you use a credit card?

6 What does the credit card user get every month? Why does he receive it?

7 What are the interst charges? How can they change?

8 Is it save to use a credit card? Why?

9 Do you have any credit cards?

10 Is it convenient to use a credit card while traveling? Why?

Text 2. Treveler’s cheques

Scan the text and find the information about the currency in which traveler’s cheques are available and about commission. Retell it to your partner.

A traveler’s cheque (also traveller’s cheque, travellers cheque, traveler’s check, or travelers check) is a preprinted, fixed-amount cheque designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer for that privilege.

As a traveler’s cheque can usually be replaced if lost or stolen (if the owner still has the nota, issued together with the purchase of the cheque), they are often used by people on vacation in place of cash. The use of credit cards has, however, rendered them less important than they previously were; there are few places that do not accept credit cards (especially international ones such as Mastercard and American Express) but do accept traveler’s cheques – in fact, many places now do not accept the latter. As a result, Travelex now also sells “traveller’s cheque cards” which are used like credit cards. In contrast, American Express discontinued their own traveler’s cheque cards, announcing they would no longer honor the cards effective October 31, 2007.

Traveler’s cheques are available in several currencies such as U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, pounds sterling, Japanese yen, and euro; denominations usually being 20, 50, or 100 (x100 for Yen) of whatever currency, and are usually sold in pads of five or ten cheques, e.g., 5 x?20 for?100. Traveler’s cheques do not expire so unused cheques can be kept by the purchaser to spend at any time in the future. The purchaser of a supply of traveler’s cheques effectively gives an interest-free loan to the issuer, which is why it is common for banks to sell them “commission free” to their customers. The commission, where it is charged, is usually 1-2% of the total face value sold.

American Express was the first company to develop a large-scale traveller’s cheque system in 1891, and is still the largest issuer of traveler’s cheques today by volume.

However, traveler’s cheques were first issued on 1 January 1772 by the London Credit Exchange Company for use in ninety European cities, and in 1874 Thomas Cook was issuing ‘circular notes’ that operated in the manner of traveler’s cheques.

Legal terms for the parties to a traveler’s cheque are the obligor or issuer, the organization that produces it; the agent, the bank or other place that sells it; the purchaser, the natural person who buys it, and the payee, the entity to whom the purchaser writes the cheque for goods and/or services. For purposes of clearance, the obligor is both maker and drawee.

Upon obtaining custody of a purchased supply of traveler’s cheques, the purchaser should immediately write his or her signature once upon each cheque, usually on the cheque’s upper portion. The purchaser will also have received a receipt and some other documentation that should be kept in a safe place other than where he or she carries the cheques.

When wanting to cash a traveler’s cheque while making a purchase, the purchaser should, in the presence of the payee, date and countersign the cheque in the indicated space, usually on the cheque’s lower portion (if at a restaurant, it may be helpful to ask the waiter to watch and wait for this to be done). Applicable change for a purchase transaction should be given in local currency as if the cheques were banknotes.

Several travellers cheques have been created, yet the most accepted travellers cheques are:

- Thomas Cook

- American Express

It is a reasonable security procedure for the payee to ask to inspect the purchaser’s picture ID; a driving licence or passport should suffice, and doing so would most usefully be towards the end of comparing the purchaser’s signature on the ID with those on the cheque. The best first step, however, that can be taken by any payee who has concerns about the validity of any traveler’s cheque, is to contact the issuer directly; a negative finding by a third-party cheque verification service based on an ID check may merely indicate that the service has no record about the purchaser (to be expected, practically by definition, of many travelers), or at worst that he has been deemed incompetent to manage a personal chequing account (which would have no bearing on the validity of a traveller’s cheque).

American Express has a world wide reputation but their travelers cheques are not readily accepted as advertised. For instance in Thailand, some banks refused to accept the cheques, while others not only charged a transaction fee, they also charged a per cheque charge; and in addition they also required you leave a copy of your passport with the cashing facility. This places your passport information in parts of the world where information security should be a high priority.

Vocabulary

1 preprinted – предварительно напечатанный

2 unconditional – безоговорочный, безусловный

3 to discontinue – прекращать (действие)

4 denomination – номинал банкноты

5 to expire – кончаться, истекать (о сроке)

6 obligor – лицо [сторона], взявшее на себя какое-л. обязательство; заемщик

7 drawee – трассат

8 custody – владение (чем-л.)

9 to suffice – быть достаточным, хватать

10 validity – действительность, законность

 

Text work

1. Answer the questions:

1 What is traveler’r cheque?

2 Can you get your money back if you have lost the traveler’s cheques?

3 Do traveler’s cheques have a due date?

4 What was the first company to develop traveller’s cheque system?

5 What famous person used traveler’s cheques in the 19^th century?

6 How do you call the organisation that produces traveler’s cheques?

7 How can a person cash a traveler’s cheque?

8 What are the most accepted traveler’s cheques?

9 How can you check the validity of the traveler’s cheque?

10 In what country some banks do not accept traveler’s cheques?

 

2. Give Russian equivalents to the following word-combinations:

1 a preprinted, fixed-amount cheque

2 to make an unconditional payment

3 can be replaced if lost or stolen

4 available in several currencies

5 sold in pads of five or ten cheques

6 an interest-free loan

7 the natural person who buys it

8 should be kept in a safe place

9 as if the cheques were banknotes

10 deemed incompetent to manage a personal chequing account

 

3. Scan the text once again and find the information about security procedure. Retell it to your partner. What other steps for security would you invent? Discuss it with your partner.

 

4. Project work

Choose any credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, etc.) and find full information about it according to the following list:

- the history

- interst charges

- customer’s benefits

- grace period

- benefits to merchants

- security

Make a presentation on the following material and be ready to answer your groupmates’ questions.

 

Chapter 6. Accommodation

Lead-in

1 What are the usual places of staying for tourists during their travel?

2 What kind of lodging do you prefer and why?

3 What other types of lodging would you like to experience? Why?

4 Look at the pictures and choose the one you would like to stay in. Explain your choice. Imagine, what facilities and services can be suggested their. Discuss with your partner.

 

The Oberoi Udaivillas in Udaipur, India Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal, Budapest, Hungary

 

Dariush Grand Hotel, Kish island, Iran A small hotel in Adams, New York

Text 1. Accommodation

Scan the text and find the answers to the following questions:

1. What is accommodation industry?

2. Where can tourist usually stay when they travel?

3. What are new trends in accommodation industry?

4. What is caravanning? Is it a means of transport or lodging?

 

Vocabulary

1 flood – изобилие, избыток; множество

2 old-fashioned – несовременный, старомодный

3 to convert into – превращать

4 genuine – истинный, подлинный

5 to assume – принимать, брать на себя

6 huge – огромный

7 to lease – сдавать внаем, в аренду; брать внаем, в аренду

8 to withdraw – забирать; отзывать

9 parking lot – место стоянки автотранспорта

10 gambling – азартная игра; игра на деньги

11 condominium – совладение

12 joint – совместный

13 obvious – очевидный, явный, ясный

14 remaining – остальной

15 quarter – место

 

Before the age of railroads, travelers stayed at Inns in the country or in small hotels-most of them family-owned-in the towns and cities. The first big hotels with hundreds of rooms were built in the vicinity of railroad terminals to serve the flood of new passengers. These new hotels were more impersonal than the old-fashioned fam­ily-style inn or hotel. Indeed, they were usually organized as corporations in what we would now consider a more businesslike manner. A wide variety of accommodations is available to the modern tourist. They vary from the guest house or tourist home with one or two rooms to grand luxury hotels with hundreds of rooms.

Many people travel to Europe because of its rich historical and cultural heritage. As a result, many old homes and castles have been converted into small hotels. American travel magazines often carry advertisements for holidays in "genuine European castles." Many old inns have also been restored to serve people with similar romantic tastes.

The major trend in the hotel industry today, however, is toward the large corporate-operated hotel. Many of these hotels might well be described as "packaged." A number of large companies have assumed a dominant place in the hotel industry. The biggest is Holiday Inns has 274,000 rooms. Others that operate on a worldwide basis are Sheraton, Inter-Continental, Trust Houses Forte, Hilton International, and Ramada Inns.

Ownership of these hotel companies is an indication of their importance to the travel industry as a whole. Hilton International is owned by Trans World Airlines, and Inter-Continental by Pan American Airways; Sheraton is a subsidiary of the huge multinational corporation, ITT. Many other airlines and travel companies have also entered the hotel business, and some of the tour operators, especially in Europe, own or operate hotels.

Some of the hotel corporations operate on a franchise basis; that is, the hotel and its operation are designed by the corporation, but the right to run it is sold or leased. The operator then pays a percentage to the parent corporation. His franchise can be withdrawn, however, if he does not maintain the standards that have been established. Other hotel companies serve primarily as managers. Large, modern hotels contain not only guest rooms, but many other facilities as well. They usually contain restaurants and cocktail lounges, shops, and recreational facilities such as swimming pool or health clubs. Many hotels also have facilities for social functions, conventions, and conferences-ballrooms, auditoriums, meeting rooms of different sizes, exhibit areas, and so forth. Not so long ago, convention facilities were ordinarily found only in large cities or in intensively developed resort areas like Miami Beach. Nowadays, they are more often included in resort hotels so that the people who attend conventions there can combine business with pleasure.

Another modern development in the hotel business is the motel, a word made up from motor and hotel. The motel might best be described as a place that has accommodations both for automobiles and human beings. The typical motel is a low structure around which is built a parking lot to enable the guests to park their cars as close as possible to their rooms. In urban areas, a large garage takes the place of the parking lot.

Another trend in the hotel industry is the construction of the self-contained resort complex. This consists of a hotel and recreational facilities, all of which in effect are isolated from the nearby community. Casinos, wherever they are legal, are another feature of some hotels. In Las Vegas, Nevada, the hotels are really secondary to gambling. They feed, house, and entertain the guests, but the real profits come from the casinos.

Still another trend in resort accommodations is condominium construction. The condominium is a building or group of buildings in which individuals purchase separate units. At the same time they become joint owners of the public facilities of the structure and its grounds and recreational areas. The condominium has become popu­lar because of the desire of many people to own a second home for vacations. Indeed, many of the owners maintain their condominiums just for this purpose. Others, however, make arrangements whereby they can rent their space when they are not occupying it. It is an obvious attraction for someone who has only a month's vacation a year to be able to make an income from his property for the remaining eleven months. Many owners make enough money in rentals to pay for the purchase price and the maintenance costs of the condominium.

Caravanning and camping reflect another trend in modern tourism, thanks in large part to the automobile. Cars variously called caravans, vans, or campers come equipped with sleeping quarters and even stoves and refrigerators. They are in effect small mobile homes, or at least hotel rooms. A similar kind of arrangement exists for boat owners who wish to use their boats for accommodations while they are traveling in them. This involves the marina, a common feature of resort areas on waterways.

 

Text work

1. Give English equivalents for the following Russian words and word-combinations

1. историческое и культурное наследие

2. жильё

3. реклама путешествий

4. условия для проживания

5. объединять бизнес и отдых

6. отражать современные тенденции

7. быть оборудованным

8. акционерные общества

9. курорт

10. старомодная гостиница в семейном стиле

 

2. Find synonyms to the following words from the text

1. out-of-date

2. dwelling

3. to run

4. enjoyment

5. progress

6. to give opportunity

7. to propose

 

3. Match the given words with definitions

Inn 1) printed notice about things to be sold or things that are needed

Hotel 2) a public house where travelers may eat and

drink

Heritage 3) what is or may be inherited; anything which

comes to a person by right of birth, whether a

burden or a benefit

Resort 4) a place visited frequently or by large numbers,

as a seaside (health, summer)

Casino 5) a public room or building for music, dancing,

entertainments and gambling

Convention 6) a large building where travelers may get meals and lodging

Advertisement 7) a meeting or number of meetings, arranged for

a special purpose to discuss political, religious

or educational affairs

 

4. Read and translate the following groups of words derived from a common root

1 To regulate-regulation-regulative-regulator

2 To accommodate-accommodating-accommodation

3 To personalize-personal-impersonal-personality

 

5. Answer the questions

1 What is accommodation market composed of?

2 What does the successful operation of a hotel depend on?

3 Why does accommodation play significant role in tourism?

4 What are the new trends in accommodation business?

Text 2. Hotels

Scan the text and follow the changes that took place in the development of hotels.

 

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis. Hotels often provide a number of additional guest services such as a restaurant, a swimming pool or childcare. Some hotels have conference services and meeting rooms and encourage groups to hold conventions and meetings at their location.

The word hotel derives from the French hôtel, which referred to a French version of a townhouse or any other building seeing frequent visitors, not a place offering accommodation. The French spelling was once also used in English, but is now rare.

Basic accommodation of a room with only a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with en-suite bathrooms and, more commonly in the United States than elsewhere, climate control. Other features found may be a telephone, an alarm clock, a TV, and broadband Internet connectivity. Food and drink may be supplied by a mini-bar (which often includes a small refrigerator) containing snacks and drinks (to be paid for on departure), and tea and coffee making facilities (cups, spoons, an electric kettle and sachets containing instant coffee, tea bags, sugar, and creamer or milk). Some hotels offer various combinations of meals as part of a room and board arrangement.

In the United Kingdom a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks to all comers within certain stated hours; to avoid this requirement it is not uncommon to come across "private hotels" which are not subject to this requirement.

The cost and quality of hotels are usually indicative of the range and type of services available. Due to the enormous increase in tourism worldwide during the last decades of the 20th century, standards, especially those of smaller establishments, have improved considerably. For the sake of greater comparability, rating systems have been introduced, with the one to five stars classification being most common. The star classification system is a common one for rating hotels. Higher star ratings indicate more luxury. The AAA and their affiliated bodies use diamonds instead of stars to express hotel and restaurant ratings levels.

Hotels are independently assessed in traditional systems and rest heavily on the facilities provided. Some consider this disadvantageous to smaller hotels whose quality of accommodation could fall into one class but the lack of an item such as an elevator would prevent it from reaching a higher categorization. In some countries, there is an official body with standard criteria for classifying hotels, but in many others there is none. There have been attempts at unifying the classification system so that it becomes an internationally recognized and reliable standard but large differences exist in the quality of the accommodation and the food within one category of hotel, sometimes even in the same country.

 

Vocabulary

1 lodging - жилище, жилье

2 childcare - уход за ребёнком

3 convention - собрание, встреча

4 to derive from - происходить от

5 en-suite - смежный, соседний

6 broadband connectivity - широкополосная связь

7 sachet - маленький пакет

8 comparability – сопоставимость

9 affiliated body - филиал, отделение

10 to assess - оценивать

 

Text work

1. Answer the questions:

1 What is the origin of the word “hotel”?

2 What are the usual facilities presented at any hotel?

3 What things can be found in a room at a hotel?

4 How can one find out the quality and cost of the hotel?

5 Is there any common system due to which you can learn the class of the hotel?

6 The lack of what items can decrease the quality of any hotel?

7 How do the hotels serve food and drinks?

8 What class of hotels have you visited?

9 What facilities were represented there?

10 Were you satisfied with the service?

 

2. Find English equivalents in the text:

1 платное жилье

2 дополнительные услуги для клиентов

3 проводить собрания и встречи

4 умывальник

5 различные программы питания

6 в установленное время

7 избегать этого требования

8 основываться (опираться) на предлагаемых услугах

9 препятствовать переходу в более высокую категорию

10 объединение системы классификации

 

3. Scan the text once again and find the passage, describing the common facilities of the room. What items do you think are obligatory and which ones are minor? Discuss with your partner.

Text 3. Inns

Read the following text and find the main characteristics of an inn.

 

Inns are establishments where travellers can procure food, drink, and lodging. Found in Europe, they first sprang up when the Romans built their system of highways two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are centuries old. In addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places.

"Inn" in more recent times has often come to denote a business serving alcoholic beverages, especially in North America, where they are usually alcohol-serving restaurants that have never provided lodging or serviced the needs of travellers. In Europe, it is the provision of accommodation, if anything, that now differentiates inns from taverns, alehouses and pubs. These later tend only to supply alcohol (although in the UK the conditions of their licence sometimes require them to have a nominal supply of food and soft drinks). Inns tend to be grander and more long-lived establishments. Famous London examples include the George and the Tabard. There is however no longer a formal distinction between an inn and other kinds of establishment, and many pubs will use the name "inn", either simply because they are long established, or to summon up a particular kind of image; however, originally an Inn had to provide not only food and lodging, but also stabling and fodder for the traveller's horse(s).

The original functions of an inn are now usually split among separate establishments, such as hotels, lodges, and motels, all of which might provide the traditional functions of an inn but which focus more on lodging customers than on other services; pubs, which are primarily alcohol-serving establishments; and restaurants and taverns, which serve food and drink. (Hotels often contain restaurants and also often serve complimentary breakfast and meals, thus providing all of the functions of traditional inns.) In North America, the lodging aspect of the word "inn" lives on in hotel brand names like Holiday Inn, and in some state laws that refer to lodging operators as innkeepers.

The German words for "inn", "innkeeper", and "innkeeping" illustrate the historical importance of inns. An innkeeper is Wirt (a host), the inn itself is a Wirtshaus (a host's house), and innkeeping is Wirtschaft. The last word literally means hosting or hospitality, but is also used to mean economy and business in general. In the Greek language, the word for economy (oikos "house" + nomos "law") is actually identical to housekeeping.

 

Vocabulary

1 to procure - доставлять; обеспечивать

2 to spring up - возникать, появляться

3 community - общество

4 to denote - обозначать

5 alcoholic beverage - алкогольный напиток

6 alehouse - бар; пивная

7 nominal supply - минимальное наличие

8 stabling - конюшня

9 fodder - корм для скота

10 to split among - распределять между

Text work

1. Find the synonyms to the following words in the text given above:

1 to supply meals

2 first appeared

3 requirements of customers

4 supply of lodging

5 bar

6 difference

7 usual facilities (tasks)

8 trademark

9 hotelkeeper

10 similar

 

2. Decide whether the statements are true or false:

1 The first inns appeared when the Greeks constructed their system of highways.

2 Nowadays inns in Europe are considered to the provision of accommodation.

3 Inns are believed to be short-lived establishments.

4 Nowadays there are no differences between inns and taverns.

5 At present there are shops, restaurants and bars inside an inn.

 

3. Scan the text once again and fill in the following table.

 

 

Place of hotel origin	Time of origin	List of the main functions	Differences from other accommodation establishments
		Before	Now

 

Text 4. Motels

Scan the following text and find the main characteristics of a motel.

Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel (portmanteau of "motor" and "hotel" or "motorists' hotel") referred initially to a single building of connected rooms whose doors face a parking lot and/or common area or a series of small cabins with common parking. Their creation was driven by increased driving distances on the United States highway system that allowed easy cross-country travel.

Unlike their predecessors, auto camps and tourist courts, motels quickly adopted a homogenized appearance. Typically one would find an 'I'- or 'L'- or 'U'-shaped structure that included rooms, an attached manager's office, a reception which usually takes up the space of one guest room and perhaps a small diner. Postwar motels sought more visual distinction, often featuring eye-catching neon signs which employed pop culture themes that ranged from Western imagery of cowboys and Indians to contemporary images of spaceships and atomic symbols.

The motel began in the 1920s as mom-and-pop motor courts on the outskirts of a town. They attracted the first road warriors as they crossed the United States in their new automobiles. They usually had a grouping of small cabins and their anonymity made them ideal trysting places. Even the famous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde were frequent guests, using motels as hideouts. The motels perceived lust and larceny alarmed then FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who attacked motels and auto camps in an article he penned called "Camps of Crime", which ran in the February 1940 issue of American Magazine.

Motels differed from hotels in their emphasis on largely anonymous interactions between owners and occupants, their location along highways (as opposed to urban cores), and their orientation to the outside (in contrast to hotels whose doors typically face an interior hallway). Motels almost by definition included a parking lot, while older hotels were not built with automobile parking in mind.

With the 1952 introduction of Kemmons Wilson's Holiday Inn, the 'mom and pop' motels of that era went into decline. Eventually, the emergence of the interstate highway system, along with other factors, led to a blurring of the motel and the hotel. Today, family-owned motels with as few as five rooms may still be found along older highways. The quality and standards of every independent motel differ.

 

 

Vocabulary

1 portmanteau - слово-гибрид (искусственное слово, составленное из двух слов, напр.: motel = motor + hotel)

2 to face - выходить, быть обращенным (в определенную сторону)

3 to be driven by - обусловлен, вызван (чем-либо)

4 predecessor - предшественник

5 reception - приемная (в гостинице)

6 distinction - отличие, различие

7 imagery - образы, мысли, представления

8 contemporary - новый, современный

9 mom-and-pop - семейный (имеется в виду небольшой магазин или какое-либо мелкое предприятие, обычно управляемое семейной парой)

10 outskirt - край, окраина

 

Text work

1. Find English equivalents in the text:

1 смежные комнаты

2 двери выходят на место стоянки автотранспорта

3 путешествие через всю страну

4 однородный (усредненный) внешний вид

5 привлекающие (бросающиеся в глаза, броские) неоновые огни

6 окраины города

7 идеальное место встречи

8 воровство, кража

9 расположение вдоль дорог

10 приходить в упадок

 

2. Agree or disagree:

1 The construction of motels was due to little number of people traveling about the country.

2 Each motel differs from all the others in shape structure.

3 Motels appeared in 1990s in the centre of different cities.

4 Such criminals as Bonnie and Clyde visited such courts frequently.

5 Motels had no differences from hotels.

 

3. Look through the text once again and find the meaning of the following dates:

1 the 1920s

2 1940

3 1952

 

4. Match the names on the left with the meaning on the right:

1 motel a) family-owned motels

2 'I'- or 'L'- or 'U'-shaped b) famous outlaws

3 mom-and-pop motor courts c) motor + hotel

4 "Camps of Crime" d) shape of building structure

5 Bonnie and Clyde e) name for motels in the article of American

Magazine

 

5. Look at the photos of different motels. What picture attracts you most? Why? Use active vocabulary from the text to explain your choice.

 

Holiday Inn 'Great Sign' Exterior of a Howard Johnson's motor lodge

 

 

 

Bates Motel set at Universal Studios

 

6. Project work.

Some hotels offer various combinations of meals as part of a room and board arrangement. These are often advertised as:

European Plan	no meals are included, or only a minimal breakfast
American Plan	all meals included (full board)
Modified American Plan	option of breakfasts and dinners

Find information about 3 different hotels in various countries (e.g. in Turkey, Japan and Italy) and make a similar table about facilities they suggest. Mention not only meals but also other services. Let your group mates discuss and compare the information; and then choose the one they would like to visit.