Does AirBNB "Automatic Translation" automatically translate my messages, or must guests push a translate button?

[Thom2504]

I am a new English Speaking host in Costa Rica, hosting Latin American Spanish-speaking guests 60% and English speaking 40%.   I have recently had Spanish-speaking guests be completely non-responsive as they came, checked in, and left, leaving me to think they may have missed a translate button.  

Does AIRBNB:

- Automatically translate my listing information to their native language or, must guests see and push a translate button? 

- Automatically translate my messages to their native language or, must guests see and push a translate button? 

What is the best way to manage saved and scheduled messages?  Do I make them in both Spanish and English (using Google Translate) and manually adjust which one to send according to the language of my guest?  Or is it better to assume automatic translation will work and let AIRBNB do it?  I think am willing to trust automatic translation.   

Gracias!

[Anonymous]

@Thom2504  Guests have to click the button in order to auto-translate the text. It's a nifty feature in some ways, but I wouldn't recommend relying on auto-translate for communicating important information such as directions and rules - those translations often come out saying something very different from what you meant.

You can have your listing description in multiple languages and default to the one that the user is browsing in. Here's how:

To add a language to your listing description:

1. Go to Your Listings on airbnb.com
2. Click Manage listing on the listing you want to edit
3. Click Listing details at the top of the page
4. Scroll to the Description section and click Edit
5. Click Add language
6. Choose a language, then click OK
7. Click Save

As for the messages, guests are likelier to respond to a personalized message than to a boilerplate message. 

[Helen3]

I agree if you are hosting in another country/continent that speaks different languages in yours you should translate your listing into Spanish.

I would also make sure you have translate all your key messages such as check in information, guide book etc into Spanish.

Of course it might not be a language thing some guests don't use the app unless booking.