Auto Translate vs. Manually Translating Hotel Compendiums

← Blog Main Menu

Imagine a world, where guests can view your digital hotel compendium details in their preferred language, wherever they are during their stay.

Properties have always had the choice to provide their guest directory details in multiple languages to cover the diverse range of guests staying at their property, but these translated details are limited to your guest rooms and require significant time and cost to support.

Most properties only offer a guest directory (both traditional and digital) in English.

With significant time and costs limiting the ability to support multiple languages, we saw the need to integrate a translation service into Hinfo, that significantly reduces both.

Our Auto Translate service, integrated into the Hinfo Content Management System (CMS), does exactly this!

Benefits of Multi-Language Compendiums

Before comparing our auto translate service to the traditional methods of translating details, we need to recognize the benefits of offering your compendium information in multiple languages.

When given a choice, people would rather use their preferred language to a) consume any form of content and b) communicate with other people.

This is clear when we:

• Watch TV and movies,
• Send instant messages and emails,
• Make phone calls,
• Post on social media.

Australia continues to see an increase in tourism from Asia, not just with tour groups, but individuals, friends and couples, looking to explore the country by themselves. Although they may speak a little English, to have all your details in their preferred language, at their fingertips, would help them to better understand your property services and compendium details.

Supporting multiple languages potentially increases the number of guests that could purchase services you offer, such as room service and movie hire. This can improve your hotel branding image for inbound tourism and provide an edge over your competitors.

Significant Time Savings

Here is how our Auto Translate service compares to manually translating your compendium details.

Manual translation requires the following steps:

1. Create a document of the details you want to translate.
2. Source a translator for each language you want to provide.
3. Send the details to each translator and often wait for a week or more for them to be returned.
4. Manually distribute the translated details via your current compendium method. This stage requires significant labour to deliver the translated details through either paper compendiums, TVs or hotel tablets.

This process can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of weeks to complete, depending on the number of rooms/apartments at your property, the compendium solution you are using and how many details you want to list in your digital hotel compendium.

Our Auto Translate service built into Hinfo only requires these 3 easy steps to support as many languages as your property needs, in less than 10 minutes each.

1. In the Hinfo CMS, navigate to Languages then check the boxes for each language you would like to support.
2. Await a quick approval from App IT Byte, and
3. Publish all the details in English for guests to see. The other languages you choose will translate in the background immediately and are saved for guest use.

Eliminating the most time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks to make supporting multiple languages a reality, is now here.

Significant Cost Savings

Translating your compendiums details manually, is typically charged on a word count basis rather than an hourly rate.

Factors to consider when manually translating details are - costs, the number of details to translate, who is translating for you and which languages you are translating.

As a guide, one of our Hinfo demo properties, has a word count of 6600 for details that are translatable. This does not include phone numbers, street addresses and web addresses.

This table compares the costs to translate your compendium details either automatically or manually.

Details	Hinfo Auto Translate	Manually Translate
Translating Cost	$48 per year	Average of $300 per language
Labour for your property at $25 per hour.	10mins of your staff time/salary to set up all languages.	$300 for 12hrs of additional work at the property's end to implement a paper compendium in multiple languages in each room for a 50 room property.
Grand Total	$48.00 per year	$600.00 initial cost only

All costs are in Australian Dollars and are excluding GST.

The Hinfo Auto Translate service would allow you to support 6 additional languages for less than the cost of manually translating a single language (without distribution to each guest room).

Our Auto Translate service supports the following languages:

Upgrading to our Hinfo 'bring your own device' solution, also eliminates the additional costs to provide compendiums in multiple languages in each room. This also eliminates the labour to apply these translated details in each guest room.

Benefits of the Hinfo Auto Translate Service

The Hinfo Auto Translate service is an optional extra but offers several benefits, compared to manually translating details.

Unlimited Updates

You can provide information updates for your compendium details and it will automatically translate when published. This benefit is subject to our Fair Use Policy.

Auto Updates

When you provide information updates, they are translated to the languages your property supports and your guests will receive these instantly.

Auto Detect Languages

When guests bring their own smartphones and tablets to your property, they already have to their preferred language pre-set. Hinfo automatically detects this and if it is a language you support, the matching details will be downloaded. Hinfo defaults to English if your guest's phone is set to a non-supported language.

Guest Messaging

Guests can send your property a text-based message via our 'Ask Reception' Guest Messaging Service built into Hinfo, in their preferred language. It is then translated to English for your reception to respond, then displays for your guest in their language.

Even with these added benefits, compared to manually translating your compendium details, Auto Translate is far more cost effective.

Supporting multiple languages will take your communications with guests to a whole new level and will give you an edge over your competitors.

Our Hinfo Auto Translate service allows you to offer your digital guest compendium details in multiple languages, with minimal effort and costs, while being as accurate as manual translation options.

You May Also Like