Basic Multilingual Settings on Booking.com for Guests from Different Countries

Why Multilingual Settings on Booking.com Are Essential for Vacation Rental Management

Properly configuring multilingual settings on Booking.com is a critical strategy that greatly influences the number of bookings you receive from overseas guests. According to statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of inbound visitors to Japan reached approximately 31.88 million in 2019, before the pandemic, and demand from international travelers remains strong as the market continues to recover. For vacation rental properties, Booking.com is one of the world’s largest OTAs (Online Travel Agencies), supporting over 40 languages. However, if your property information isn’t adequately localized into multiple languages, you risk missing out on valuable exposure and seeing your booking rate suffer as a result.

In fact, there are reported cases of properties that prepared their listing descriptions in three languages—English, Chinese, and Korean—and saw international bookings increase by roughly 40% compared to before implementing multilingual support. Conversely, properties listed only in Japanese must rely on Booking.com’s automatic translation, which carries the risk of displaying content with unintended nuances. This article provides a detailed walkthrough of the specific steps for setting up multilingual options in the Booking.com management dashboard, along with key points for crafting descriptions that resonate with guests from different countries.

Step-by-Step Guide to Configuring Multilingual Settings on Booking.com

Booking.com’s management dashboard (the Extranet) includes a built-in feature that allows you to enter property information in multiple languages. If you don’t take advantage of this feature, Booking.com’s automatic translation will kick in by default—but machine translation has inherent limitations, and mistranslations of wasei-eigo (Japanese-coined English terms) and uniquely Japanese expressions are surprisingly common. Many hosts have experienced issues such as “futon” being translated as “sofa bed” or “large communal bath” (daiyokujo) coming out as awkward, unnatural English.

To set up multilingual support, first log into the Extranet and open the “Property” tab. Next, in the property description section, select the language dropdown menu. From there, choose your target guests’ native languages one by one—English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, French, Spanish, and so on—and enter the property name, description, and supplementary amenity information for each language. Plan on spending roughly 15 to 30 minutes per language for this task.

How to Choose Priority Languages and Their Key Characteristics

English (The Universal Language You Should Set Up First)

English is the world’s common language of communication, and it’s the language viewed by the largest number of guests on Booking.com. Looking at the breakdown of inbound visitors to Japan by nationality, not only travelers from English-speaking countries (the US, UK, Australia, etc.) but also visitors from Europe, India, and Southeast Asia tend to use English when searching for properties. Simply having a well-crafted English description is said to reach over 60% of your potential guest base.

When writing in English, aim for concise, specific phrasing. For example, instead of saying “close to the station,” write “3-minute walk from JR Shinjuku Station”—this gives foreign guests unfamiliar with the area an accurate sense of distance. It’s also helpful to add brief explanations for uniquely Japanese features or cultural elements. Phrases like “Japanese-style room with tatami flooring and futon bedding” clearly communicate what guests can expect.

Chinese (Set Up Simplified and Traditional Characters Separately)

Travelers from mainland China require Simplified Chinese, while those from Taiwan and Hong Kong require Traditional Chinese. According to JNTO data, mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong combined account for approximately 40% of all inbound visitors to Japan, meaning that whether or not you offer Chinese-language support directly impacts your booking numbers. Since Booking.com allows Simplified and Traditional Chinese to be set up as separate languages, we recommend entering content for each individually.

Guests from Chinese-speaking regions place particular importance on Wi-Fi availability, kitchen facilities, and information about nearby shopping spots such as drugstores and convenience stores. Including practical details like “距离最近的药妆店步行2分钟” (2-minute walk to the nearest drugstore) can help boost your booking rate. Chinese-speaking guests also tend to place strong emphasis on reviews, so it’s effective to subtly highlight your highly-rated features within the description text as well.

Korean (A Key Language for Winning Repeat Guests)

Travelers from Korea have a notably high repeat visitor rate among inbound tourists to Japan, and they tend to actively seek out vacation rentals in regional cities. Preparing your property information in Korean can help set your listing apart from the competition. Since relatively few vacation rental properties currently offer Korean-language support, simply setting it up can give you a meaningful competitive edge in search results.

When writing in Korean, detailed transportation access information and nearby dining options are especially well-received. Providing specific figures, such as “지하철역에서 도보 5분” (5-minute walk from the subway station), along with travel times to popular nearby dining areas, tends to be effective. If arranging a native Korean speaker for proofreading proves difficult, professional Korean translation services (typically around 3,000 to 5,000 yen per article) can help ensure quality.

Key Details to Include in Your Property Description

Localizing Access Information

What foreign guests tend to feel most anxious about is how to get from the airport or major train stations to the property. Your description should always include, in multiple languages, the walking time from the nearest station, the name of the train line to use, and the recommended route from the airport (limousine bus, train, etc.). For example, a description such as “From Kansai International Airport, take the JR Haruka Express to Tennoji Station (approx. 30 min), then transfer to the subway Midosuji Line” gives a specific route including transfers, which helps put guests at ease.

While Booking.com’s policies restrict including Google Maps links in your description, you’re free to mention nearby landmarks (convenience stores, major intersections, distinctive buildings) as reference points. Information like “The building is next to FamilyMart” is extremely useful for overseas guests who aren’t familiar with the area.

Localizing House Rules and Facility Instructions

Rules unique to Japanese vacation rentals—such as garbage sorting procedures, the custom of removing shoes indoors, and late-night noise restrictions—are often unfamiliar to overseas guests. Clearly stating these rules in each language can significantly reduce trouble after check-in. One property reported that after preparing house rules in five languages, complaints about rule violations dropped from an average of five per month to fewer than one.

For facility instructions, providing multilingual explanations of how to operate the washing machine, use the air conditioner remote, and operate the induction cooktop can improve guest satisfaction. If it’s difficult to include everything in the Booking.com description, another effective approach is to note “A detailed house manual in English/Chinese/Korean is available in the room” and provide the supplementary details on-site.

Tips for Maintaining Quality Without Relying Solely on Automatic Translation

While Booking.com’s automatic translation feature has been improving in accuracy year after year, accurately conveying your property’s unique selling points and subtle nuances still requires human translation. This is especially true for the parts of your listing that highlight your property’s distinctive appeal (for example, phrases like “an entire renovated 100-year-old traditional Japanese house available for exclusive rental”)—automatic translation often fails to capture the charm of such descriptions. If you hire a professional translator, typical rates run about 8 to 15 yen per character for English and 10 to 18 yen per character for Chinese and Korean. For a property description of around 500 characters, you can expect to pay roughly 5,000 to 9,000 yen per language.

If you want to keep costs down, one approach is to start with an automatic translation as a base and then have a native speaker proofread it only. Using a crowdsourced translation proofreading service, you can typically get proofreading done for about 2,000 to 3,000 yen per language. It’s also important to review your translated content periodically. Whenever there are changes to the surrounding area—such as a new commercial facility opening or a change in train lines—be sure to update the information in each language along with the Japanese description. A good rule of thumb is to review and update every 3 to 6 months.

How to Measure Results After Going Multilingual

Once you’ve completed your multilingual setup, it’s important to quantitatively track its effectiveness. Booking.com’s Extranet includes an analytics feature that lets you check page views and bookings broken down by country. Compare the month you implemented multilingual support with the previous month, and check for changes in page views and booking conversion rates from your target language regions. Generally speaking, properties that implement multilingual support properly tend to see page views from the corresponding language regions increase by 20 to 50%, with booking conversion rates often improving by 1.5 to 2 times.

It’s also worth paying close attention to the content of guest reviews. If you start seeing more positive comments such as “the description was easy to understand” or “the information provided beforehand was thorough,” that’s a good sign your multilingual setup is paying off. On the other hand, negative comments like “it wasn’t what was described” indicate that your translated content needs revisiting. Aiming for an average review score of 9.0 or higher is generally considered advantageous, as it tends to help your listing rank higher in Booking.com’s search algorithm.

Need Help with Multilingual Support? Talk to Stay Buddy Inc.

When done correctly, multilingual settings on Booking.com can substantially boost bookings from overseas guests. However, maintaining translation quality across multiple languages while continuously managing each OTA’s dashboard can place a significant burden on individual property owners. When you factor in translation costs, ongoing content updates, and guest messaging, the actual workload involved in running a multilingual operation is often far greater than expected.

Stay Buddy Inc. is a professional vacation rental management company that provides comprehensive support, from multilingual settings across OTAs including Booking.com to day-to-day guest communication. We offer high-quality translation by native-speaking staff—primarily in English, Chinese, and Korean—along with round-the-clock message support.

If you’re unsure how to set up multilingual support, concerned about translation quality, or find yourself spending too much time on overseas guest communication, please feel free to reach out to Stay Buddy Inc. We’ll propose the optimal multilingual strategy tailored to your property’s current situation.