Having been on the receiving end of Japanese hospitality quite a bit in the past week, I'd like to know the best way to thank people for it in Japanese.
I've found several words for "hospitality" but don't know which is closest to English:
I also wouldn't be surprised if the best way to thank somebody in this way in Japanese might not even involve one of these words but rather be phrased very differently to the English expression for language or cultural reasons.
The more common the phrases are, either in English or Japanese, the less likely it is that direct or literal translations will sound natural in the other language. "Thank you for your hospitality" is a prime example of this.
All of the three words that you listed are "big" --- especially 「歓待」 and 「厚情」. Those two are seldom used in spoken language and when they are used in writing, they would have to be surrounded by other big Sino loanwords.
「おもてなし」 (PLEASE write this in kana (and add an 「お」)) happens to have been a trendy phrase the last several months because of this speech at the IOC meeting in Buenos Aires last year. The phrase, however, is rarely used in spoken language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hggygKWwhg
The most common phrase that we use in situations where you would say "Thank you for your hospitality" would be:
「[大変]{たいへん}お[世話]{せわ}になり、ありがとうございました。」 or
「大変お世話になりました。（どうも）ありがとうございました。」
So, some of these words have much narrower meaning than hospitality in general.
To me, 「親切{しんせつ}」 sounds like the most neutral word for hospitality. A natural sentence would be 「ご親切{しんせつ}に、ありがとうございました。」
Both 「(お)もてなし」 and 「歓待{かんたい}」are specifically the hospitality towards guests.
「お世話{せわ}になりました」 is for something longer (but, it seems most cases of hospitality fall in this category; see comments). You say this when you graduate from a school and thank a teacher there, or at least when you spend a night and thank a host. Not for somebody who picked up your fallen handkerchief.
「(ご)厚情{こうじょう}」 is extremely formal. In a letter, when you invite people to a funeral, you could thank them for their 「ご厚情{こうじょう}」 with the deceased.
「おもてなし」 is probably closest to hospitality.
You can say 「持て成し」 but it's probably more common to say 「おもてなし」.
When you thank someone, I don't think you have to mention their hospitality; instead, it's perfectly fine to say 「ありがとうございました」 or 「お世話になりました」.
「おもてなしありがとうございます。」 is literally "thank you for your hospitality", but this sounds very awkward.
How about 恐れ入ります ? I was led to believe that this may be used to thank someone when you want to acknowledge the trouble that they have gone to for you.
