Airbnb listing in Chinese and other languages

Hi, I’m a host in central London. I’m considering the advantages of having my airbnb listings in both English and Chinese and adding “Chinese” as an additional host language so that it can appear in more filtered searches. I think airbnb uses google translate for the site in China, but that’s generally an inadequate translation.
Does anyone have experience in having their Airbnb listing in multiple languages…Chinese or others? Did it bring you more business?

We have our listings (Lima, Peru) in English and Spanish. The reason for this being that the vast majority of latino’s (at least the ones who have never lived in the USA) don’t speak any english, and the other reason being that there is still a surprising number of tourists that travel to Latino-America without any knowledge of Spanish. In the end I decided to not put our listing in the other languages I speak, because I don’t want to create expectations, in case I myself am not around.

If it brought us more business? Hard to say, there’s no way of knowing for sure, but considering what I just wrote, I would say without a doubt.

Well there isn’t such a language as ‘Chinese’ but you could consider translating your listing into the main languages spoken in China; Mandarin and Cantonese.

Hard to tell if it will bring you more business.

I have my house rules translated into Mandarin and Cantonese as I get many guests from China, and other countries where the main language is Mandarin or Cantonese.

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My listing and house rules (separate document) are in Mandarin and Spanish as well. I get bookings from Chinese visitors in July during the summer school break very consistently and I think it’s because there’s comfort in seeing a listing in a major US city in their language.

I believe it does make a difference. My Airbnb is in English, Chinese and French and we have had a few French/Chinese guests asking about our listing. The problem is less having to translate the listing but communication with the guest before and during their stay.

I have all my listings translated in Chinese. I speak Chinese, the google translate to Chinese is not good. I inputted everything myself. I got lots of guests from China and Chinese live in the US. But I think not only because I have listing in Chinese, I also communicate with them in Chinese. Most Chinese travel from China don’t really speak good English. So I am able to talk to them and give them some local info that helps a lot. I have mixed feeling about Chinese guests. Most of them are very needy, high maintenance, have tons of questions before and during stay. They don’t read any of the instructions I sent to them. They will ask any details that you can or can’t image. They believe you are at their service at anytime. The good part is they are not partiers, don’t make any trouble. That’s also very important for us.

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Thanks all for sharing your experiences. For those of you who have listings in english and chinese. Do you also translate the title of your listing to make it more obvious in searches?
If I don’t speak a particular language, but instead pre-translate some common instructions and responses, and use that in conjunction with Google translate for unforeseen questions, would I be able to get by? Particularly with Chinese visitors?

I believe it mainly depends on the location. Since you are located in central London, I believe having other languages will definitely help. It is even better if you can communicate in these languages.

I have English and Chinese on my listing, but I got very few Chinese guests (approximately 3 out of 60, though I’m sure they booked because my listing can be seen in well written Chinese). Reason being most tourists from China will choose to stay in CBD of Melbourne, and my listing is 30 mins drive away from there. The rest will stay close to their families and friends but my area has a very low percentage of population from Chinese background.

One thing worths noting, there were a few more enquiries from Chinese guests other than the three bookings. Most of these guests had no idea where my listing is actually located, they just knew it was in Melbourne region, but in reality it is far from where they supposed to seek accommodation, I ended up referring them to the right suburbs. Hence I doubt they were attracted to my listing only because it can be viewed in Chinese.

My experiences are the same as @Ping. Chinese guests are not the best guests, they don’t follow rules and are very high maintenance.

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I think that’s rather a wide generalisation. Mine have all been polite, friendly, clean, tidy and low maintenance. And have followed all my house rules.

Yes, it is a generalization. There are 1.3 billion Chinese people out there. It definitely isn’t the case all of them are like that. Just my own experience.

I think that’s why it’s better to say “In my experience”. Its a shame that there is so much ‘bashing’ of people from Chinese communities in this and other forums.

from my experience It wont help if you dont speak this languages yourself. as guests will start asking you for other info in their language

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