Communicative function: booking, schedules & availability

Booking Portuguese is built around phrases

1. Availability with "tem"

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, tem is the normal word for availability:

• Tem quarto?

At a hotel or pousada

• Tenho reserva para duas noites no nome de Júlia Costa. (I have a reservation for two nights under the name Júlia Costa.)

• Tem quarto com banheiro para hoje? (Do you have a room with a bathroom for tonight?)

• Que horas é o check-in da pousada? (What time is check-in at the guesthouse?)

• Preciso da chave do quarto 204.

At a station or airport

• Que horas sai o ônibus para Paraty? (What time does the bus to Paraty leave?)

• A saída do voo é às seis e vinte. (The flight departs at six twenty.)

• Onde fica a entrada para o embarque? (Where is the entrance to boarding?)

• Minha bagagem ainda não chegou. (My luggage hasn't arrived yet.)

Tem vs. há

In travel Portuguese, tem is much more useful than formal há:

• Tem quarto? = natural

• Há quarto disponível? = grammatical, but formal

Quarto

Quarto means both "bedroom" and "hotel room" — in a hotel context the travel meaning is clear. (It's also the ordinal "fourth"; context sorts it out.)

Floors in Brazil

For lower floors you'll hear ordinals like quinto andar. For higher ones, Brazilians usually switch to cardinals (andar doze).

24-hour time

A heads-up about reservas in Brazil: around Carnaval and Réveillon (New Year's), the big destinations don't just fill up — many hotels stop selling single nights and only offer fixed packages of three to five nights, often booked months ahead at holiday prices. So if you're hoping to ask Tem vaga? in Rio that week, ask very early — otherwise the answer is a cheerful Não tem, não!

Sources: CheckHotels, Dicas de Viagem