I wouldn’t know how to use one either @HostAirbnbVRBO if you have international guests never assume they know how to use appliances which may be commonplace to you but not to them.
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Of course, you are right. We have the instructions in the House Manual, but they are in English.
I have them on my computer and so I can use GoogleTranslate to send them in their language.
I guess I need to figure out how a guest could take my English House manual and translate in any language. That must mean that I provide also electronically – but would pdf work? Anyone have ideas on this?
People who have a good translator on their phones can point their phone camera at text and see it instantly translated to their language. A Chinese guest showed us this with his phone, using a magazine and a cookie package that were both in English.
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Yes! Of course, I forgot about that – though I used it say five years ago in Poland and the translations were terrible. Maybe better now?
Any other ideas? Should or do I need to offer the manual in electronic form? And will pdf enable translation? I’ve been translating by copying text from a Word document,
I wouldn’t bother with anything else to do with translations. People can get by with phone translations. All our non-English-speaking guests have done well enough that way.
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Tell the guest that they have misrepresented their reservation and they need to withdraw it, and that the sooner they do this the more likely I can refund a portion of the cancellation fee from a “replacement guest.”
Generally business law (and common law) in every “rule of law” country in the world says that if one party misrepresents a material fact in a business arrangement, that arrangement is no longer in effect, and that the liability rests with the person who misrrepresents.
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@HostAirbnbVRBO, three days before check-in, I use a scheduled message to send our electronic version of the house manual. They could cut and paste it into a translator. If I discovered a language barrier at the outset, I’d pre-translate everything we send using Google Translate.
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“I guess I need to figure out how a guest could take my English House manual and translate in any language.”
I assumed the Airbnb app already translates it for them?
I have found my property directions page left behind by guests, in another language.
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Thank you, everyone for your comments and suggestions.
I did reach out to Airbnb Support, told the prospective guest that I was doing so, after which she said she was doing the same.
The guest then cancelled and I received the appropriate cancellation fee.
So, a happy ending, and the cancelation fee was not that much to either of us I would think.
I think my biggest takeaway is that even though I have an IB message that confirms no animals and children under age 12, that I should send a message right after the booking confirming that. That way they can cancel free within 48 hours (in most cases) and we can avoid this.
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They haven’t even arrived yet and are not following your rules….it won’t get better!!
I would ask them to cancel and tell them you will refund if you get another client.
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I learned this the hard way, and this is exactly what I do. I make sure they understand the specifics of my listing within 24 hours of booking. I have convinced quite a few to cancel if it won’t be a good fit without getting my calendar blocked for long periods.
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