Airbnb message translation: reply to guests in 24 languages
Short and mid-term stays bring guests from everywhere. On a single Tuesday your team might get a message in Swedish about the door code, one in Polish asking for a late check-in and one in Dutch about towels. The usual routine: copy the message into a translator, write the answer, translate it back, paste it into the Airbnb or Booking.com extranet, and hope a friendly "of course" did not turn stiff on the way. That is 2-4 minutes per message. Built-in Airbnb message translation removes the loop.
The Translated OTA Inbox brings guest chats from Airbnb and Booking.com into VIVIN's Inbox already in your language, and sends your reply back in the guest's language after you have seen exactly what will go out. It works on the bookings that come in through VIVIN's channel manager, for short and mid-term rental teams.
Why translating Airbnb guest messages by hand costs hours
- Copy, paste, repeat - each message crosses three windows (extranet, translator, extranet) before it gets an answer
- Two inboxes to watch - Airbnb and Booking.com each have their own, so a message can sit unread in the one nobody opened today
- Names that get mangled - translating a whole message by machine can turn a street or a person's name into a word you then have to fix
- Old conversations piling up - guests who left weeks ago still sit in the list, between today's arrivals
At 150 foreign-language messages a month and 2-4 minutes each, that is 5-10 hours a month spent moving text between windows.
How Airbnb message translation works in VIVIN's Inbox
1. Airbnb and Booking.com tabs in the Inbox
In Tools > Inbox, the Airbnb and Booking.com tabs sit next to the shared WhatsApp inbox and Email, each with its own unread count. Every conversation is one booking: the list shows the guest, the unit and property and the stay dates, and you can search by guest, unit or property. When a guest writes, the bell shows "New Airbnb message from" and the guest's name, and opens that conversation.
2. Messages arrive in your language
At the top of each chat, a Translate to English switch (it names your own language) is on by default. It is a personal setting: a colleague who works in Portuguese sees the same chat in Portuguese. Each translated message carries a line such as "Translated from Swedish · Show original", and one click shows the guest's own words. List previews are translated too, so you can triage without opening every chat. Names of people, properties and streets stay exactly as written; city and country names are translated.
How to reply to Booking.com guests in their own language
3. Write in your language, send in theirs
Type your reply in your own language. Below the box, Reply language is already set to the guest's language, marked "(guest)". Press Translate and the translation opens in an editable box headed "Will be sent in Swedish", with your own text underneath and a reminder: "Check the translation, then send." Adjust a word if you like, then press Send. Nothing reaches the guest until you do. Changed your mind? Discard the translation and you are back to your own text. If a translation ever fails, you can still send what you wrote. And when the guest writes in your language, the translate row simply stays out of the way.
4. Your own words stay in the thread
Once a translated reply is sent, the thread shows what you wrote, in your language, and "Show original" shows what the guest received. Whoever reads the conversation later knows both what was meant and what was actually said.
Keeping the guest inbox tidy: unread, archive and past stays
An Unread only chip narrows the list to what still needs reading. Each chat has Mark as unread for the ones you want to come back to, and Archive conversation to take a finished one out of the Inbox for the whole team. Most of the time you will not need it: a conversation leaves the Inbox on its own the day after check-out or cancellation, unless the guest wrote last, and the Archived view keeps it with the reason. "Move to Inbox" brings one back by hand.
The booking's Communication tab shows the same guest chat with the same translations, and "Open booking" in the Inbox header takes you the other way.
Airbnb message translation vs copy-paste: the numbers
Estimates for a team handling about 150 guest messages a month in languages it does not speak:
| Task | Translator + extranet | VIVIN Inbox |
|---|---|---|
| Read a message in another language | 1-2 min | Already translated |
| Reply in the guest's language | 2-3 min | 20-40 s to translate, check, send |
| Find who still needs an answer | Check two extranets | Unread only |
| Clear out finished stays | By hand, or never | The day after check-out |
| Monthly time on foreign-language messages | 5-10 hours | 1-2 hours |
Two short and mid-term rental situations, handled
A late check-in request in Polish
The message appears in your language: their flight lands at 23:40, can they still check in tonight? You answer in your own words, press Translate, glance at the Polish and send. Under a minute, without leaving VIVIN.
A colleague covers the weekend
Your Italian-speaking colleague opens the same conversation and reads it in Italian, replies included. Nobody has to explain what was agreed with the guest on Friday.
How to turn on chat translation for your team
- Open Tools > Inbox and pick the Airbnb or Booking.com tab.
- Check your language in Settings > Personal Settings > Language: translations follow it (English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian or French).
- Leave the Translate to switch on, or turn it off when you prefer the originals.
- Start the day with Unread only and archive what is done.
- To reply, write in your language, press Translate, check the result and send.
The tabs carry the guest messages of bookings that arrive through the channel manager connection (see how VIVIN's native Airbnb and Booking.com channel manager works).
Frequently asked questions
Does VIVIN translate Airbnb messages automatically?
Yes. With the Translate switch on, which is the default, every Airbnb and Booking.com guest message in the Inbox and in the booking's Communication tab is shown in your VIVIN language: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian or French. The guest's original text is always one click away under Show original.
Can I check a translated reply before it is sent to the guest?
Always. Translate opens the translation in an editable box marked with the language it will be sent in, with your own text underneath. Nothing reaches the guest until you press Send, and you can discard the translation at any moment to go back to what you wrote.
Which languages can I reply to guests in?
Once the guest has written, the reply language is set to theirs automatically. Otherwise you choose from a list of 24 languages, including English, German, French, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Chinese and Japanese, and a guest language that is not on the list is added as soon as it is detected.
What happens to a guest conversation after check-out?
It leaves the Inbox on its own the day after check-out or cancellation, unless the guest was the last to write, and moves to the Archived view with the reason. If the guest writes again, the conversation returns to the Inbox straight away, at the top of the list.
Every guest, in your language. Your team answers Swedish, Polish and Dutch guests as easily as local ones, in one Inbox, and always sees what is sent before it goes. Book a demo to try it on your own guest chats.
