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Jackie: There are ice hotels in Sweden, castle hotels in Scotland and underground hotels in Tunisia but for this week's podcastsinenglish.com we're talking about three very different hotels. Richard, I'm going to describe three hotels. I want you to choose one. Which one would you like to stay in, okay?
Richard: All right, yes.
Jackie: The first one is in Oxford, in England, and it used to be a prison.
Richard: [laughs] Right. Not sure about that then.
Jackie: So, there are 94 rooms.
Richard: Cells [both laugh]
Jackie: Well, they were all cells, yes. 94 of them. Do you think there'll be bars on the windows?
Richard: I don't know, [they'd] probably keep them actually. How much are these rooms, stroke, cells [rooms/cells]?
Jackie: A double room is £140.
Richard: Ooo, a bit expensive.
Jackie: And you can have a very posh, executive suite for £350.
Richard: Wow
Jackie: Yeah
Richard: Not sure about that one to be honest.
Jackie: Okay hotel number two. This is in Florida, USA. And this is an underwater hotel.
Richard: Ooo, interesting.
Jackie: It was a research station and it's 30 feet under the water.
Richard: It's in... it's in the ocean, is it?
Jackie: It's under the sea
Richard: Under the sea, wow. So how do you get there?
Jackie: [laughs] You have to be a scuba diver. [both laugh] They take you by boat and then you put your diving gear on, you go under the water and that's how you enter... enter the... enter the lodge. It was this research station so it's only got two double rooms.
Richard: Right, okay.
Jackie: And what's really nice, it has these big round windows and when you're sitting in your room you can see the fish outside.
Richard: And is that expensive?
Jackie: Quite expensive. It's US$400 per person, per night.
Richard: Wow, that is expensive.
Jackie: Mmm
Richard: Yes, [I'm] not sure about that one either, to be honest.
Jackie: Right, my third... well hotel, my third place to stay is in Austria on the banks of the river Danube. And these are old drainpipes.
Richard: [both laugh] Right, staying in a drainpipe.
Jackie: Obviously the drainpipes are very big. They're two metres in diameter and two and a half metres long.
Richard: And are there any views?
Jackie: There's a tiny, little er... porthole so you can look out. But... but most of the day, the... the door that they've put is open so you have the wonderful views of the countryside and the river.
Richard: Oh, that's okay, that's good, then. And how much is that?
Jackie: Well this is very interesting, Richard. There are no set rates.
Richard: Ooo
Jackie: So you can pay as little or as much as you want.
Richard: Ooo, that sounds interesting.
Jackie: So which one do you choose?
Richard: I don't fancy staying in a prison, to be honest, because I'm afraid once they close the door, they might not open them again! Under the water, I think that would be a bit claustrophobic, actually.
Jackie: Well, the... the drainpipe is very small.
Richard: I think you can get out of the drainpipe quite quickly and I've never been to Austria so I would go for the pipe hotel in Austria.
Jackie: Oh my goodness.
Richard: And very cheap. [both laugh]
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