Huānyíng guānglín

Lesson 3.6 presents this sentence Huānyíng guānglín. 欢迎光临。 Welcome. I know that 欢迎 (huānyíng) translates to "welcome" and 光临 (guānglín) translates to presence. What meaning does guānglín add to the sentence? Is it a more polite way of saying welcome? The context is that hotel staff is welcoming a guest to the hotel.

Hi Robert, This is the standard greeting to all customers and clients of restaurants, shops, hotels etc. and you will here it everywhere. Yeah, the second half of the phrase simply adds a polite tone to it in order to invite you in a browse around or buy something. Unfortunately, you will have the phrase shouted at you so often that it may lose its inviting nature. I hope this helps and keep up the good work! - Lin Ping

Thank you for the explanation. It helps add meat to the bones (to use an American metaphor).