Grammatical Errors in Receptionists’ Guest Check-In Expressions at The Oberoi Beach Resort Bali

Abstract

Communication plays an important role in the hospitality industry, particularly in front office services where receptionists directly interact with guests during the check-in process. The study focus on the importance of improving grammatical competence and professional English communication skills in hospitality settings. This study aimed to analyze the language expressions used by receptionists and identify the grammatical errors produced during guest check-in interactions at The Oberoi Beach Resort Bali. The study employed a qualitative descriptive design. The data were collected through direct observation, audio recordings, and semi-structured interviews involving four receptionists working in the front office department. The collected data were analyzed using the theory of hospitality communication procedures proposed by Sambodo and Bagyono (2006) and the Surface Strategy Taxonomy introduced by Heidi Dulay, Marina Burt, and Stephen Krashen (1982). The findings revealed that receptionists commonly used greeting, requesting, confirming, explanatory, and guiding expressions during the check-in process, with explanatory expressions appearing most frequently. The study also found four types of grammatical errors, namely misformation, omission, misordering, and addition, with misformation identified as the dominant error type. Despite these inaccuracies, communication generally remained effective and understandable. Thus, hospitality institutions and hotel management are encouraged to provide continuous English training programs focusing not only on hospitality expressions but also on grammar accuracy, sentence structure organization, pronunciation, and spontaneous spoken interaction.