Looking for some ideas. I operate a single space in Melbourne Australia. I offer the entire downstairs area of my home to guests. It is modern, classy and decorated to a high standard. I live in a beautiful area which is popular with visitors. Most of my guests are locals, people who live in Melbourne who visit the area for the weekend. Very straight forward. However, from time to time I get people from a NES background mostly from Asian countries ie China. I am having a great deal of trouble with them. If they speak English they only know American and not Australian vernacular, they can rarely read English. They break the house rules, not intentionally, due to language and cultural differences. I thought getting the house rules translated into mandarin might help but of course Airbnb don’t offer that service (their customer support is really woeful). Today I came out of my bathroom to discover my just arrived guests in my living area, I was in my underwear. They parked where they were told not to, they couldn’t work out how to get into their accomodation space (downstairs front door, they came in via the back door) and they don’t really understand English enough for me to be able to communicate effectively with them. How do others handle this problem?
Meet and greet and use google translate app.
The conversation on the Airbnb app does translate to their language.
Unfortunately a bot translates literally. It doesn’t help. Can actually make the problem worse. Language is filled with nuances and usage norms which a bot ignores. English to say mandarin does not work as a word for word translation. Surely you have come across instructions for an item you have purchased which are written in chinglish? Did you struggle to understand them?…
Use Google translate, it’s not the best but (in my opinion) it’s better than nothing. It works best to translate one sentence at a time instead of the entire paragraph (keep the sentences short). Also, you should lock your back door and put a sign on it indicating that it’s a private entrance.
Is there a local business that is owned by a person that speaks Mandarin? If so, drop by one day with your house rules translated by Google and ask him/her to give it a quick read. Offer to pay for their time.
If not, contact a university that might have foreign students studying abroad and place an ad on their bulletin board. Something like “Need a Mandarin proof reader to read and correct house rules for rental property.” Offer to pay a one time fee for their help.
There’s some great advice in the posts above.
Do remember that as a host, the onus is on you to ensure that your guests understand what staying in your place entails.
I’m English and don’t know the Australian vernacular so I can understand why people from China wouldn’t either.
Most of my guests don’t have English as their first language and although I can just about get by in French and Italian, I use an app called Speak and Translate.
As the name suggests, I say something in English and the app speaks what I have said in, for example, Swedish Then the guest can answer in Swedish and the app speaks that in English (Many guests think it’s fun).
@Ritz3 's idea about getting a student to translate is a great idea for the house manual and written material.
But for the house tour and face-to-face encounters, I recommend the app remembering that it’s the host’s job to make sure that they are using simple standard English.
I now live and host in the US but if I didn’t adapt my language Americans, Canadians, Australians, Indians anyone non-UK wouldn’t be able to understand me.
I still slip into proper English (JOKE, Americans 
) after living in the US for thirty years but in business, we all have to adapt as much as we can.
My ex was born in Canada, to Canadian parents, but they moved to London when he was a young child and he grew up there, returning to Canada when he was 18. He pronounces a lot of words like a Brit, and was always insisting how Americans and Canadians don’t speak “proper” English when I would make fun of “strawbry” or something spelled “Worshestershire” being pronounced “Wooster”.
@Blackie67 I will second what Jaquo pointed out- no one in other English-speaking countries understands Aussie unless they’ve lived there. I was born and raised in the US and spent 40 years in Canada and I need English subtitles for Aussie movies, no joke. Took me forever to realize what Aussie hosts were talking about on forums when they said the guests left food all over the bench, or cut directly on the bench without a cutting board. To me, a bench is something you sit on. Not a kitchen counter.
There must be someone in Melbourne who is fluent in both Mandarin and Aussie English you can find to translate your house rules and instructions and some online marketplace where you could advertise for that.
As for in person- those speak and translate apps are supposed to be good and otherwise, when trying to communicate with those who speak another language, many people can seem to get their point across just with sign language, and physical demonstration, and have been throughout history.
You could also practice speaking in a “fake” American accent. 
A couple of worthwhile ideas. Some feedback for the feedback. When offering suggestions, only do so from your own experience, in the process consider how it would read to you if you asked the question and got the response you have written. Lecturing someone on your definition of their role and responsibilities is condescending and completely inappropriate. I’ve been reminded of why I stopped using the forum.
Try not to take it personally. While your post came across to me as just soliciting suggestions, not putting the onus on guests, some hosts do need a bit of explanation as to what is on them and what is on the guests. Like having a lock or latch that guests often have problems with. Instead of replacing or repairing it, or removing the lock “they’re not supposed to use”, the host blames the guests for not being able to follow what the host assumes are “simple instructions”, but that guests obviously find confusing.
Or a host complaining about guests ignoring the check-in message they sent, which just said, “Hope you checked in okay and are comfortable. Let me know if you have any questions”. While a lot of guests might politely reply, “Everything’s great, thanks”, many might assume it doesn’t require a response, as no direct question was asked. It’s not that they ignored it.
One thing you might also try with your Asian guests is using graphics wherever possible, rather than the written or spoken word. Like a photo of the door they are supposed to use with an arrow drawn on, and another photo of your door with an X drawn over it. Visuals really help when dealing with language barriers. Even with no language barrier, visuals capture people’s attention better than text.
Think of all the universal symbols these days- for men’s and women’s restrooms, no smoking, handicapped parking- everyone understands those. You could even make a sign for the guest entrance with people symbols holding suitcases. Like this:
We live in Phuket, Thailand, and all of our guests are international tourists. Nobody ever speaks my language; I have to speak English. We get lots of Chinese visitors if we have to use Google Translate. What we do use for Chinese is Wechat. Don’t forget that throughout mainland China, many app’s are banned, including Facebook, Google, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Twitter, unless they are using a VPN.
Also, we don’t do self-check-in; we always meet the guest and show them around.
I don’t have that app (because I don’t have a mobile phone), but many of our guests from Korea and China have it on their phones, and it is very, very useful
It’s hard to discuss Chinese travelers without sounding stereotypical or racist but having spent a lot of time in China and had lots of experience with Chinese travelers in other countries all I can tell you is there are no easy answers, even within China these same problems are facing Chinese hosting Chinese.
One of the issues is the huge disparity between poor and rich Chinese and the short amount of time that Chinese have experienced a new found wealth, mostly through real estate, so you find lots of Chinese travelers with very little travel experience and even less understanding of travel norms. But I will say as you’ve probably already found the Chinese are super friendly and accommodating and apologetic to their faux pas, but for many they really just don’t “get it” when it comes to being outside of China.
Even within China if you travel there you will see the strange situations where China is dealing with the transition from the rural peasant to the urban apartment dweller. (Remember in the last 2 decades the Chinese government willfully transformed a few hundred million Chinese farmers into city dwellers, not by asking, but just by announcing it to them. Here is your new life.)
The first time I traveled to China I really saw some interesting things, like being on a Chinese River boat being only one of about 10 foreigners on an all Chinese cruise. I remember the signs that said “No spitting on the floor” and looking at all the dark stains on the luxurious carpet from betel nut chewers who the sign was for, the embroidered message on the bag holding the hairdryer in the cabin that said “This is not free”. How a Chinese guest during the buffet dinners would simply pick up the entire tray of crab legs off the buffet and take the whole thing back to their table and share the bounty with their family at their table, unit the dining room attendant would find them with it and put it back on the buffet.
As much as we might think China is an advanced country if you travel there and go anywhere outside the 1st and 2nd tier cities you may be a great curiosity to those you meet, watch carefully, and you may notice them trying to take pictures of you or do sneaky selfies or have someone take a picture of them standing near you, as a westerner even in 2023 often times you are still a rarity and curiosity to them.
These things were interesting and sometimes humorous but they are all what you witness with the Chinese, it’s simply a society transforming at the speed of light compared to how most societies evolved slowly from poor to wealthy, to now an explosion of Chinese exploring the world, so all I can say is there really is no magic bullet to deal with the Chinese as a host other than patience and never think you’ve seen it all because just when you do you are going to see something even more surprising to raise the bar. LOL. But they are great folks. You just have to get in a mindset of trying to stay a few steps ahead of them and to guess what they might do next, because they will surprise you over and over again, but they aren’t doing these things maliciously as I’m sure you known.
If you need some translations, just ask your next Chinese guest, they will likely be honored to do it for you and likely proudly tell everyone they know when they return home about it.
I suggest getting a friend with a knowledge of Plain English, or someone who has lived overseas, to write your instructions. Or maybe show them to friends and ask if they can be misinterpreted. Airbnb can then translate for you. I think the onus is on you to make it easy for your guests to undestand.
Interesting take on it. I’ve never had a guest from China, but the three things I have read hosts being frustrated about when hosting Chinese guests is that they flood the bathroom and don’t understand how to use a shower curtain, that they tend to be showering, blow drying their hair, etc.in the wee hours of the morning, which can disturb the host or other guests in a homeshare situation, and that a lot of them are smokers and don’t consider that any big deal, or understand why they can’t smoke on your property.
The bathroom behavior was explained on another forum by a host who lived in the US, but was Chinese by birth. Their bathrooms are “wet rooms” with concrete and tile construction- it doesn’t matter if you flood the floor and they don’t use shower curtains- there’s no wooden subfloor under the tiles to ruin.
The late night bathroom usage was explained by that host as being a product of the long hours people work in China- they are accustomed to having to attend to personal hygiene quite late at night. So even though they may be on vacation, people, no matter where they are from, tend to have personal schedules they are used to. If they are used to going to bed at 10pm, they aren’t likely to stay up til 1am, or vice-versa, just because they’re on vacation.
And I don’t think discussing things like this is stereotyping or discriminatory- to the contrary. The more understanding we have about why people from another country and culture do things, or behave in a certain way, the more likely to realize they aren’t being rude or clueless or difficult- that’s just how people do things where they are from.
And of course people from any culture who are used to travelling to other countries unlike their own are going to be more aware of there being behaviors which aren’t acceptable or expected elsewhere, while there will be things they don’t get at all if travelling outside their own culture for the first time.
Some feedback on the feedback for the feedback. This forum is free to use, or not. Ads are extremely minimal and the interface is uncluttered and easy to read. There’s no charge to participate and everyone here is volunteering their time. To be clear, you are asking for help, offering nothing in return and then complaining about the answers you get. I could say it’s inappropriate, but it seems entirely consistent with what I see on the internet everywhere.
I had to learn to be less sensitive to responses and to simply ignore some responses when I first started on this forum, too. But it’s been worth it. Lots of good advice and some very interesting conversations, too.
You rebel!
2020202020
One effective solution could be to use Google Translate or another translation app to provide important instructions. Additionally, incorporating visual aids or pictures along with the translated text can enhance understanding, especially the exterior of the unit they are booking for. This way, your guests can refer to the translated instructions and images to navigate the space and adhere to house rules more easily. It might also be helpful to communicate key details in advance through Airbnb messages or email, ensuring guests have access to important information before their arrival.
Hello All. I know Google Translate is a popular app. I’d like to suggest an alternative, REVERSO CONTEXT, that I found much more helpful and accurate. Meaning not “word for word”. That (GT) can cause confusion but better than not at all. Another option is to type out, in their language, and let THEM work on translating in their own way at their own pace. Ideally, you would greet them and give them a walk-through. I know that is not always possible. In that case, I do believe the pictures would help. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Italy (you might not think so foreign) but they have loads of customs VERY different than ours. It is easy to mispronounce a word and insult or send folks into gales of laughter. On the other hand, they are very generous if you TRY. I suspect these foreign guests would feel the same. Honestly, I cannot imagine going to a foreign country and having no tools to get around. I mean, not everything will have a Mandarin translation below it. I get the heebie jeebies just thinking about that. Brave folks. I guess. Let us know what you work out!!
As an American who was married to a man from New Zealand and has a bunch of British, Aussie, Kiwi, and international friends, I find using local vernacular is the perfect way to misunderstandings resulting in either arguments or hilarity.
For example: “Why doesn’t Sears have trollies,” asked my Welsh friend, wildly annoyed by the lack thereof when he’s buying big items. “Oh, trollies are down the street two blocks, they’ll take you to downtown,” said the Sears clerk. Me, laughing so hard I can barely speak “He wants a shopping cart!”).
Use very formal language in your listing (“proper” English, per @jaquo !). Don’t use slang or local vernacular. Yes, you cater to locals, but yours is an international listing.
I’m tall and blonde. I end up leading a parade in China and they always want to touch my hair or me to make sure I’m not really a white ghost. 
One poor guy biking on the outskirts of Schenzhen almost collided with a bus when he saw me walking down a rural street.