Commotion from ducks in hotels beginning to alarm (3-2)
I believe the answer is:
hoo-ha
'commotion' is the definition.
(I know that commotion can be written as hoo-ha)
'ducks in hotels beginning to alarm' is the wordplay.
'ducks' becomes 'OO' (OO resembles two zeroes or 'ducks' in cricket).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'hotels' becomes 'HH' (two H's - hotel is H in the NATO phonetic alphabet).
'beginning to' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'alarm' is 'a'.
'oo' going within 'hh' is 'hooh'.
'hooh'+'a'='HOO-HA'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for hoo-ha that I've seen before include "Big fuss" , "Commotion (informal)" , "Noisy confusion" , "Noisy fuss" , "Kerfuffle" .)