HOW TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGY IS TRANSFORMING THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Hospitality is a global industry serving multilingual clients, but translation technology can help overcome communication barriers, says outsourcing expert Alan Ridgell

With technological advancement, interlingual translation has developed to an extraordinary level. The hospitality industry is one of the biggest and rapidly growing industries that belongs to multilingual customers speaking different languages. In the US, the airlines’ revenues went from $155 billion to $222 billion and gross bookings of hotels jumped from $116 billion to $185 billion from 2009 to 2017.

Translation technology serves twofold concerns of the hospitality industry that is to increase revenues and deliver exceptional customer services. The future of the hospitality industry seems quite optimistic after the post-Covid-19 situation, as the tourists are open to travel, or jet off on vacations now. Gone are the days of quarantine, now people are expectant for a safe hotel stay. To deliver value-added services to guests, the hospitality industry needs to outshine the competition. However, language is the biggest barrier for the hotels to prove their value-added services to their multilingual guests and translation technology is the only solution to this barrier.

Translation technology builds clients’ trusts and increases overall business effectiveness

Would not it be disappointing for a business to lose prospective clients due to translation issues? Because if they cannot read it, they will not buy it. Foreign customers will rely on a hospitality business and feel fully confident about it only when they will understand its offerings in their native languages. 80% of tourists take a lot of time in planning their trips, TripAdvisor reported. Thus, people who will be traveling and staying in another country will prefer to get information in their mother language and will count on business websites with translation options. Approximately, 76% of tourists are more likely to prefer their first language while buying, CSA Research reported. Translation Technology helps hospitality websites to increase conversion rates by building customer trust.

Customers are more satisfied when translations are accurate

Inaccurate translations may prevent customers from buying additional services after checking in the hotels. The guests may not book dinner reservations or buy laundry services if they are unable to translate their options. This is the point where hotels can capture by implementing detailed translations to make the options of additional services accessible for guests. Translation Technology transforms the hotel business by enabling them to deliver an overall exceptional guest experience. It shows that hoteliers care about their guests and make utmost efforts to encourage them to enjoy a relaxing vacation thus leading to satisfied clients. Translation Technology can be implemented in hotel brochures, door cards, menus, food labels, and signs to avoid confusion that may lead to an unhappy and disappointing customer experience.

Machine translation services save time, sift large data and drive down translation cost

Machine translation is the ultimate solution to sift and translate large data at minimal cost in no time. Machine Translation Services covers different types of content data such as website content, emails, and MS word documents. Human translation is much more expensive than machine translation also; it requires a lengthy procedure of interpretation whereas machine translation delivers excellent results at a reduced cost because it is paired up with technology. It enables you to translate an enormous amount of foreign language documents or legal cases, explore applicable terms and store them for later use that will be impossible for human translators.

Final thoughts

Undoubtedly, hospitality is an international industry as it covers a broad range of categories and serves multilingual clients thus overcoming communication barriers is a matter of careful consideration to maximize clients’ comfort. Translation technology will make this possible. If the hospitality industry uses the appropriate translation technologies then they can rest assured that their guests will feel valued and taken care of. Hotels can tap new markets, thrive in their businesses, and can accommodate their guests more if they translate their websites into different languages. It is an open secret that communication is the linchpin to deliver exceptional customer service thus translation technology is a bridge for a thriving and bright future.

Alan Ridgell