Key points
- Guests choose the language they write in. When a guest writes in Japanese and gets English back, they have to work harder to understand the reply, and they learn that the conversation will be effortful for the whole stay.
- What does not change is the facts. Check-in is at 3 PM for everyone.
- Here is the method that makes multilingual replies manageable for one host with no staff.
On this page
A host in Bangkok with three apartments can receive messages in six languages in one week. Chinese on Monday, Russian on Tuesday, Japanese, Korean and Thai by the weekend, with German and French in between. The old answer was to reply in English and hope. It works less well than hosts think: guests who write in their own language tend to book with the host who replies in it, and they tend to leave better communication ratings. This page is about doing that well without learning six languages.
Why the language of the reply matters
Guests choose the language they write in. When a guest writes in Japanese and gets English back, they have to work harder to understand the reply, and they learn that the conversation will be effortful for the whole stay. Many will still book. Some will go to the listing that answered in Japanese. The second reason is accuracy: answering in the guest's language means no translation step on their side where a time or a floor number can go wrong.
What changes by language, and what does not
What does not change is the facts. Check-in is at 3 PM for everyone. The pool closes at 9 PM for everyone. The lift needs a key card whatever language you say it in. This is the most important idea on this page: the knowledge base is language-free.
What changes is the form of the reply. A rough guide, with the usual caveat that these are tendencies, not rules:
| Guests writing in | Tend to write | Tend to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | Short, mixed with English keywords, in bursts | Fast replies, one greeting, direct facts |
| Russian | Direct, medium length, several questions at once | Formal register, clear rules, no vagueness |
| Japanese | Polite, complete, indirect requests | Formal register, numbered steps, exact answers |
| Korean | Short, quick, in bursts | Fast replies, polite verb forms |
| Thai | Soft, polite, in bursts, with stickers | Warm tone, reasons with any no, consistent sender |
| German | Long, thorough, several questions | Complete answers to every point |
| Spanish, French | Friendly, conversational | Warm tone, a bit of conversation |
Each language has its own page on this site with examples: Chinese, Russian, Japanese and Korean, Thai.
The five mistakes that cross every language
Machine-translating a long English template. Every language page on this site says this, because it is the mistake hosts make most. A 300-word welcome message through a free translator comes out stiff, and the errors land on the things that matter: times, numbers, the word for key card. Short sentences translate well. Long ones do not.
Mixing languages in one reply. Half English, half Thai looks like nobody finished the job. One language per reply, the language the guest used.
Wrong register. Casual where the guest was formal (Japanese, Korean, Russian), or blunt where the guest was soft (Thai). The content can be perfect and the reply still lands badly.
Repeating the greeting. "Hi Mei" on the first message is right. "Hi Mei" on every message that afternoon is the clearest sign a bot is writing. Greet once, then just answer. This applies in every language.
Answering in a language the guest did not use. A guest who writes in English gets English, even if their name suggests another language.
Set up one knowledge base for every language
Here is the method that makes multilingual replies manageable for one host with no staff.
1. Write every fact once, in your own language. Check-in, wifi, the aircon, parking, luggage: the questions you answer every week.
2. Put each fact at the right level. General facts (house rules, headcount policy) apply to all your listings. Building facts (pool hours, key card, parking) apply to every unit in a building. Apartment facts (wifi password, hot water switch) apply to one unit. This stops you writing the pool hours four times for four units in the same tower.
3. Write the rules as rules, not as moods. "Early check-in if the apartment was empty the night before, otherwise bags at the lobby from 10 AM" is a rule that can be applied in any language. "Be flexible when you can" is not.
4. Let the language be applied at reply time. The system reads the guest's message, detects the language and the register, finds the fact, and writes the reply in that language. The fact never lives in two places.
5. Spot check in the first weeks. Take a sample of replies in each language and run them through a translator back to English. You are not checking grammar; you are checking that the time, the number and the yes or no survived.
What to do when the guest asks for another app
Chinese guests ask for WeChat, Russian guests for Telegram, Thai and Japanese guests for LINE, Korean guests for KakaoTalk, Indonesians and Malaysians for WhatsApp. Keeping the conversation on Airbnb or Booking.com keeps one record that the platform can see if there is ever a dispute. A polite line that you keep everything in the booking app is accepted by most guests in most languages.
How Tokay handles it
Tokay's front desk agent, Pam, answers guests in more than ten languages, including Thai, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Russian, German, French and Spanish, from one set of facts you wrote once in English. You tell Pam your rules in plain sentences on one short call; Pam applies the same rules to a message in any of those languages, matches the register of the guest, greets once and not again, and keeps the exact floor and door code back until the booking is confirmed.
For the first two weeks every reply comes to you first, in whatever language it will be sent, with approve, edit and deny buttons. After that you switch on auto-send one kind of question at a time. Anything unusual, upset, sensitive or uncertain still comes to you. If a fact is missing, Pam asks you instead of guessing. On our own apartments the Airbnb communication rating went from 4.81 to 4.97. WhatsApp and LINE messaging for guests are coming soon; for now guests are answered where they booked.
Questions hosts ask
Do I need to translate my listing into every language? No. Airbnb and Booking.com translate listings automatically. The first reply is what guests notice. Spend your effort on fast, correct replies in the guest's language rather than on translated listings.
What if the guest writes in a language the system does not handle well? A good system translates the message to understand it, matches it to the right fact, and if it is not confident in the reply, sends the draft to you instead of to the guest. Fail toward the host, not toward a shaky reply.
Will guests know an AI wrote the reply? If the facts are right, the register matches and the greeting is not repeated, most guests cannot tell and most do not mind. What they mind is a slow reply, a wrong reply, or a reply that reads like a form letter. Those are the things to fix, in every language.