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Article published In:
Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 13:2 (2022) ► pp.224–249

Politeness in hotel service encounter interactions in Spain

The receptionist’s point of view

| Pablo de Olavide University, Seville

Customer satisfaction in hotels has been measured by considering different aspects of the client’s experience, one of these being interaction with hotel staff. The receptionist is probably the most important member of staff in this context, since this person is the first that the customer meets upon arrival and the one consulted when having a problem or doubt. In this paper, receptionists’ views regarding what they consider to be appropriate verbal and non-verbal behaviour in reception desk service encounters in Spain are analysed. The results show that (a) the participants have very specific expectations regarding what constitutes appropriate receptionist behaviour and (b) there appears to be a general preference for deference politeness strategies and a focus on the transactional part of the interaction.

Keywords: service encounters, reception desk interactions, politeness, solidarity, deference
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Politeness and reception desk interaction
  • 3.Methodology
    • a.Language used
    • b.Attitude and behaviour
    • c.Cultural values
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Expected language in reception desk interaction
    • 4.2Expected attitude in reception desk interaction
    • 4.3Expected cultural values in reception desk interaction
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion and further research
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 23 June 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.19010.fer
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