Essential Portuguese Phrases for Your Hotel Stay in Brazil

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When arriving in a new country, your hotel is likely the first place you’ll head to so you can drop off your luggage and start exploring the new destination. It is also a place where you will spend a considerable portion of your time while you are abroad, where you’ll sleep, eat, and enjoy yourself in its dependencies. This is why it’s so important to learn hotel vocabulary when visiting a new country. Another factor that makes it so important to learn this vocabulary is the fact that only about 5% of Brazilians speak some degree of English. Evidently, if you stay at a larger establishment, there’ll likely be some English-speaking staff, however, if you choose to stay at a boarding house or a smaller inn, chances are you’ll have to speak the local language to make yourself understood.

With this in mind, today we’ll learn a few very useful phrases when at a Brazilian hotel, or, in fact, any establishment that provides accommodations for travelers, such as a hostel or an Airbnb. Whether you’ll be staying at the Copacabana Palace, Brazil’s most famous and luxurious 5-star hotel, or a simple guest house in Ouro Preto, this new vocabulary will help you greatly in your Brazilian adventure!

So let’s start with the basics, the word hotel. It is written the same way in Portuguese and English, however, there’s a difference in the pronunciation. This is because the letter h in Portuguese is not pronounced when placed at the beginning of a word. So in Portuguese, words such as horror, horizontal, horto (=garden) and hostil (=hostile) are pronounced as if the letter h wasn’t even there, just like in other romance languages such as Spanish and French.

A confused English speaker might question why an unpronounced and seemingly useless letter would even be placed at the beginning of a word if it doesn’t change its sound. The reason behind this is to respect the word’s etymology since those h were originally pronounced in earlier forms of Latin. Even after losing their sounds throughout millennia, they were maintained in those words due to linguistic tradition.

This explanation might understandably not have convinced some of you, but I remind you of the King’s English, just like any other language, also has its fair share of inexplicable spellings with its throughs, thoughs, and thoughts, so it might be better just to accept these inconvenient details and move on to avoid getting angry at whoever came up with these pesky rules. One notable exception to this ‘h’ rule is the word ‘hostel’; in this case, the letter ‘h’ is indeed pronounced, and the word is spoken very similarly to English, given it was adopted in Brazil as an Anglicism.

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When visiting a Brazilian city, you don’t necessarily have to stay at a hotel. If you’re looking for a cheaper option or simply trying to have a more authentic experience and perhaps socialize more easily with other travelers, you might want to stay at a pousada (=guest house), albergue/hostel (both words are used) or estalagem (=inn), all of which are quite numerous in Brazilian touristic cities, with varying rates and perks.

With that in mind, let’s dive into some useful phrases and expressions that may come in handy once you arrive at your preferred establishment. If you’re not the methodical type and you’re adherent to the deixa a vida me levar (=let life pull me) way of life proposed by Brazilian singer Zeca Pagodinho, perhaps you didn’t bother to make an online reservation, in which case you’ll have to do it on the spot. Here’s how to do it:

Do you have any vacancies? → Vocês tem um quarto vago?

I would like to make a reservation. → Eu gostaria de fazer uma reserva.

What’s the room rate? → Quanto custa a diária?

If you have already made a reservation you may say: Olá, eu tenho uma reserva! (Hello, I have a reservation!). If you haven’t, you may want to ask questions about the place’s infrastructure, features, and perks before choosing an establishment or specific room. Here are a few ways you can do it:

Does the room have air conditioning? → O quarto tem ar-condicionado?

Does the room have Wi-Fi? → O quarto tem Wi-Fi?

Does the room have an ocean view? → O quarto tem vista para o mar?

Is breakfast included? → O café da manhã está incluído?

What time is the breakfast served? → Que horas o café da manhã é servido?

What time is check-out? → A que horas é o check-out?

Do you have a pool? → Vocês tem uma piscina?

You might want to pay special attention to the first and last questions of the list above since, as you may know, Brazil can get very hot during the summer, especially the Northeast’s coastal cities and Rio de Janeiro, affectionately called Rio 40º by the cariocas, in reference to the 40º Celsius (104ºF) hallmark temperature that is habitually reached during the summer in the Wonderful City. While this warmth is very much welcome when it comes to going to the beach and seeing breathtaking views, the heat can be quite difficult to bear for some, and no AC may result in a sleepless night, soaking wet and being devoured alive by a swarm of merciless mosquitos.

Now that we’ve learned the most common phrases you’ll use when you arrive at your accommodations in Brazil, let’s take a look at some important hotel-related vocabulary, words that you will definitely hear and that may make themselves useful during your stay:

Bathroom → Banheiro

Key → Chave

Room service → Serviço de quarto

Suite → Suíte

Conta → Bill

Double bed → Cama de casal

Single bed → Cama de Solteiro

Gym → Academia

Receptionist → Recepcionista

Reception → Recepção

Safe → Cofre

Minibar → Frigobar

Awesome! After this crash course on the most important words and phrases when at a hotel, you’re well-equipped to start practicing! Hotels and such accommodations are the perfect environment to improve your language abilities; there’s no pressure or expectations from the staff regarding your level of the local language and it is a great opportunity to warm up before going out and speaking with the locals, so toss your fears and anxieties aside and get to speaking! Brazil welcomes you with open arms!

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Written by Vinícius Lutterbach

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