Do you translate your listing to other languages?

1

There is an option to translate to other languages.

For those who have tried this, what has your experience been?

Does it encourage bookings?

Does it cause additional problems?

2

Where is this option? I don’t recall seeing it.

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3

AirBnB has an autotranslate function, it is alsways on.

But you can add the description in other languages, this bypasses the auto translate.
I fill the description in German, English and Dutch, to avoid any things lost in the translation.

If you know other languages, I would encourage you to make your own description for your listing.
It is a lot of work, but it ensures that the guest understands the listing.

4

I thought about doing this, but then worried that guests might think I actually speak the language I added. Because of our location, we get a lot of French speaking Canadians. Many of them are fluent in English, but some are not, and I wouldn’t want them to assume I am bilingual, based on my listing being available in French.

5

Hi KenH where you add your description, it’s to the right of this.

6

Hi Chloe,

That’s exactly what i thought :slight_smile:

I did try wimdu in the past (horrid company) and they did provide translation services - i don’t think i stayed long enough with them to see any benefits.

7

I haven’t even attempted. I know some Swedish but probably sound like an idiot if I tried. Lol

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8

That would be my thought, too, @Chloe! And while all guests are welcome, since they share my home, those that don’t speak any English are not very easy to host. My current guests are a mom and 14 year old daughter. The mom speaks only French, but the daughter speaks a little English. THey are charming guests and completely welcome - but it’s a lot more work.

9

I had a french lady who spoke no English and I was talking to her for like a minute before she said. No English. Then she had a dictionary and took like 5 minutes to find a word. Lol

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10

Had ours in CA in French and English but haven’t bothered for NY. I might write it up in French. I would not rely on a translation sw it’s usually poor. We do get some inquires from French speakers in French and I answer in French.

11

I wouldn’t translate our listing for a couple of reasons:

I believe that Airbnb uses Google Translate. Often Google Translate’s translations are completely off. We had a guest who only spoke Chinese leave a review that we thought was weird. The next guest was fluent in both Chinese and English. She confirmed our suspicion that the fault was in the translation.

I think that if you translate your listing, the people from the country where the language is spoken will think that you are specifically trying to attract them. They might believe that you offer amenities that they are used to in their culture (examples, Chinese - rice cooker, Italians - full kitchen privileges).

12

@EllenN

Thats a very good point regarding their cultures.
Can easily see myself being caught out there.

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13

My reviews have been in dutch, german, spanish and swedish. I have no idea what they wrote

14

We like it when guests review in other languages. That way their countrypeople can get a sense of our listing. We use Google Translate to see what they said although sometimes it’s way off.

15

I’m in France and I wrote my listing in the languages I speak well enough (French, English, Italian). I get A LOT of British guests and I believe it’s thanks to a grammatically correct listing :slight_smile: whereas most hosts in my area rely on the automatic translation (which is indeed very bad!).

I always ask my guests to write their reviews in their own language, I think prospective guests give more credit to a review written in their language as they know the reviewer share the same culture.

I sometimes get inquiries in Chinese, Russian or Arabic :smiley: ? Ok,I have an Asian face so I understand why they would assume I speak Chinese, but it’s weird to assume that a host in France will speak Russian or Arab !