Set up
Start the class by having a discussion about the most irritating celebrity in Spain/your country. Try and a reach a group consensus. Put the name of the celebrity at the top of the board and leave it there for the duration of the lesson.
1. Lead in to the activity by asking the students which they prefer; being at school or being on holiday and why.
2. Elicit hotel by asking them 'Where do you stay when you are on holiday?'
3. In pairs or small groups have them talk about the most important facilities and services that a hotel should have/offer. Feedback as a class and record some of the ideas on the board.
4. Tell them that in pairs they are now going to design a hotel but with a twist, they must try and make their hotel as horrible as they can, in fact it must be 'The Worst Hotel in the World'.
They must describe/choose/write:
The name of the hotel
The facilities
The services
A description of the hotel
The location
The rules
The staff
The cost
Make sure that both students in each pair are making notes as they go along.
6. Go through a description of a swimming pool as a class so they have an example to work from. 'The swimming pool has nuclear waste in it as well as dead animals. It is also where the hotel's drinking water comes from' is good but 'The swimming pool is dirty' is too unimaginative.
Writing
7. Allow them enough time to get a decent description of their hotel down. I’d say depending on the class level/level of interest anything from 10 to 20 minutes. Make sure that both students in each pair are making notes as they go along.
Listening
8. Then tell them that the celebrity whose name is on the board is going on holiday and they are in charge of choosing the hotel. Each pair comes up and reads the description of their hotel. Each person reads once so the other students get to listen twice. The other students take notes. So by the end each student will have notes about all the different hotels.
Speaking
9. After everyone has spoken they go back into their original pairs and talk to their partner about which hotel they want to send the celebrity to and why. This functions like part 3 of the speaking. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each hotel and make a choice.
10. Feedback, each pair tells the class which hotel they want to send the celebrity to and why. Tally the votes and announce the winning hotel which the celebrity will be sent to!
Notes
Students are always talking about their favourites or designing dream holidays or saying where they would go if they could go anywhere but I find the twist with this activity to be engaging and it activates different descriptive vocabulary. The students become very creative. 'Other people are allowed to smoke in your room' is my personal favourite.
Depending on your relationship with the class you could always use yourself as the 'celebrity' that is going on holiday.
The lesson plan above takes about 75 minutes and I did it with classes of 8 or 10 students so they had 4 or 5 hotels to discuss.